This Steve Jobs job application is expected to fetch R600,000 at auction

A pre-Apple job application filled out by Steve Jobs is set to go on auction in Boston on 8 March, with auctioneer RR Auction saying it could fetch up to $50,000 (R600,000).

The form dates from 1973, after Jobs had dropped out of university, and is written three years before he joined Apple,

It comes after a rare Apple Lisa 1 computer, first released in 1983, sold for $56,100 (R665,000), on auction website eBay last month. The Apple Lisa 1 was the first commercial computer with a graphical user interface and mouse, but flopped commercially, selling only 100,000 units.

The page-long form is handwritten, and has numerous grammatical errors. The co-founder of Apple, who went on to pioneer the iPod and iPhone before passing away in 2011 from Pancreatic Cancer, described his ‘Special Abilities’ as “electronics tech or design engineer. digital.—from Bay near Hewitt-Packard [sic].”

Jobs filled out the document with his name, “Steven jobs”; address, “reed college”; phone, “none”; and major, “english lit.” In the middle section, he wrote “yes” in response to ‘Driver’s License?’ and “possible, but not probable,” in reply to ‘Access to transportation?’

With regard to his skills, next to ‘Computer’ and ‘Calculator,’ he wrote, “yes (design, tech).”

The auction house described the auction piece as being “in very good condition, with intersecting folds, overall creasing, light staining, and some old clear tape to the top edge”.

It noted that Jobs enrolled at Reed College for the fall semester in 1972, but dropped out after just six months to preserve his parents’ meagre funds.

“However, he hung around campus for a year and a half to audit creative courses, including classes on Shakespeare, dance, and calligraphy—these would help to shape his artistic worldview that influenced the innovation of the Macintosh computer.”

In his 2005 Stanford commencement speech, Jobs recalled: “If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”

In 1974, Jobs put his technical skills to work and secured a job as a technician at Atari, heavily relying on the help of Steve Wozniak. In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak set out on their own and founded Apple, introducing the personal computer to the masses.

“This remarkable employment questionnaire reveals Jobs’ early aspiration to work in the fledgling tech industry, which he would soon revolutionise forever,” RR Auction said.

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