Steve Jobs’ Job Application from 1973 Sells for Nearly $200K

By Tanuja Thombre - Last Updated on September 16, 2020

A job application filled out by tech tycoon Steve Jobs back in 1973 has been sold for $174,757 (approximately £125,416, AU$226,376) according to RR Auction. This application was originally estimated for a value of $50,000 and received more than 30 bids and got sold for over three times the estimated price.

The company name and the position for which the application was written are unspecified in this application. The application is filled with grammatical and spelling errors. In the address column, Jobs wrote “reed college” in lowercase. Back in 1973, Jobs had already dropped out of Reed College in Oregon, however he remained on campus auditing classes. In the access to transportation column he wrote, “possible, but not probable.” Under “Special Abilities,” he wrote “electronics tech or design engineer. digital.-from Bay near Hewitt-Packard”. “Hewlett” was misspelt.

The application seemed to be filled out by Jobs after he dropped out of Reed College, which was shortly after his enrollment for the 1972 fall semester. He stayed around the Portland, Oregon campus for a year and half after that to audit courses on calligraphy, dance, and Shakespeare.

RR Auction didn’t reveal the name of the winning bidder of the prized document. Earlier, the job application was up for auction at another auction house, Bonhams, in December where it was sold for only $18,750.

RR Auction sold two more documents which were signed by Job including a 2008 newspaper clipping which reported Apple introducing the iPhone 3G. This item was sold for $26,950. The second document was a Mac OS X Manual which was published in 2001 and was signed by Jobs with the words “All the best, Steve Jobs.” This document was sold for $41,806 during the auction.

RR Auction said that Jobs often refused to give autographs; however, he signed the newspaper clipping and the Mac OS manual because the autograph seekers were very persistent and coaxed Jobs to write his name on these documents.

According to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, the bidders were entrepreneurs and successful internet company owners who were great admirers of Steve Jobs and Apple.

“The document to them resonates emotionally about who Steve Jobs was,” Livingston said. “Here he was with nothing, and now he’s one of the most important people in the 20th century.”

Tanuja Thombre | A Soft Skills and Behavior Trainer by passion and profession, with 8 years of experience into Mortgage Banking sector. Currently I am working as a Training Consultant and I cater to the training needs across various industries. This also allows me to interact with, train and learn various aspects of human modes. Adorned with certifications from various institutes like Dale Carnegie & Steven Covey. I have a natural instinct for writing; every once a while, a Blog, a short article and in the future I plan to author a Book. When it comes to writing, I believe there is seldom anything as appealing as Simplicity.

Tanuja Thombre | A Soft Skills and Behavior Trainer by passion and profession, with 8 years of experience into Mortgage Banking sector. Currently I am working as a...

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