Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates doesn’t exactly need a job these days, but he has an old resume handy just in case. doors shared a vintage resume on LinkedIn at the end of last week, sadly writing, “Whether you’re a recent grad or a dropout, I’m sure your resume is much better than mine was 48 years ago” — in other words, 1974.
Uh, don’t be so sure, Bill. Not that many of us are Harvard students, like Gates was back then, with experience with many computers and programming languages of the day. We did not co-direct a project at our high school to manage private high school schedules, earning over $10,000. And we certainly weren’t partnering with Paul Allen, Gates’ late co-founder of Microsoft, who was designing a system for traffic engineers to study traffic flow.
Bill Gates’ 1974 resume in all its typewritten glory.
Bill Gates on LinkedInBut what might be most striking to ordinary people is the small personal data section that Gates added to the CV. He says he is 5 feet 10 inches (about 1.78 meters) tall and weighs just 130 pounds (about 59 kilograms). He is only a freshman at Harvard but advertises a salary of $12,000 (£9,915, AU$17,477) and says his desired salary is “open”.
It also has no restrictions on a place of work. But we do know that Gates and Allen started Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975 before moving the company to its current location of Redmond, Washington.
“A $12,000 salary 48 years ago would have been incredible for a fresh graduate. You’ve always done well, Bill Gates,” wrote a LinkedIn commenter.
Gates’ resume looks like it was typed on a typewriter, as would have been the norm in 1974, before Gates and others helped spread the use of personal computers.
It also lists the address of his home where he lived with his parents when he was not at Harvard. The breathtaking mid century modern home in Seattle’s lakeside neighborhood of Laurelhurst sold just a year ago for $2.6 million.
