Microsoft founder Bill Gates has apparently always had a nose for a steep career. On “Linkedin” he shared a résumé from 1974 with quite strange information.
The career of Microsoft founder Bill Gates after founding his world-famous company in 1975 is a chapter in itself. He was CEO there for 25 years before stepping down to fellow Harvard student Steve Ballmer and moving on as board chairman and chief developer. In 2008 he worked full-time at Microsoft for the last time in more than 30 years.
Bill Gates started when he was 16
But even before Microsoft, Gates had ambitions and success, as a CV from 1974 – shortly before Microsoft’s founding – shows. The billionaire shared this on the LinkedIn career network. He writes modestly, “Whether you’ve just graduated or dropped out of college, I’m sure your resume looks a lot better than mine did 48 years ago.” However, if you read the information in this CV, you will have a hard time showing similar successes.
According to his CV, Gates began his professional career in January 1971 – at the age of 16. At that time he was working as a project manager for a company called “Information Sciences Ltd.” and wrote a payroll program. You can also find information about the collaboration with his school friend and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his work as a systems programmer at “TRW Systems Group”.
The most recent station in the CV includes his first year at the elite Harvard University. There he attended courses such as “Operating System Structures”, “Database Management” or “Computer Graphics”. He added nonchalantly: “Student with excellent results, received A’s in all named courses.”
He weighs 59 kilograms, but his pockets are full of money
Gates’ personal information, right at the beginning of the letter, is particularly curious – and completely out of date. Directly from his address in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he stated that he was about 1.78 meters tall and weighed 59 kilos. The picture above shows him seven years later – apparently Gates was a very early representative of the “Leek Generation”. To read under his body measurements: “No dependents” – i.e. neither children nor other people who are financially dependent on him.
Then it gets exciting again: Gates gave a salary of 12,000 US dollars at the time. It is not clear from the letter whether the then 19-year-old meant a monthly or annual salary. Since $12,000 in 1974 is equivalent to $71,000 today, it can be assumed that the information referred to his annual income. From today’s perspective, that’s peanuts for someone like Gates, but 19-year-olds with such an income are still a rarity 48 years later.
Gates apparently already knew what to do with the money back then. If you search for the address that he listed under “from June 1974” at the time, you will find a beautiful single-family home on Lake Washington in Seattle on Google Street View. Of course, this is not comparable to Gates’ current residence “Xanadu 2.0” on the opposite bank.
