Apple founder’s 1973 job application sold for £200,000 in recruitment firm liquidation

Kris Wigfield of Begbies Traynor in Sheffield and Steven Wiseglass of Inquesta, the joint liquidators of London-based recruitment business Sourcechain Technologies, have sold an unusual asset as part of their work to liquidate the company.

An original hand-written job application form filled out by Apple founder Steve Jobs in 1973, when he was an 18-year-old college student, has been sold at auction with the assistance of Charterfields for £204,000. It was bought by London-based tech entrepreneur Olly Joshi, as part of a consortium of friends and fellow tech fans.

The document, which had been bought by Sourcechain Technologies in 2018 for US$175,000, outlines ‘English literature major’ Jobs’s experience with ‘computers and calculators’ and special abilities in ‘electronic tech’ and digital design engineering. It is believed to date back to around the time Jobs dropped out of Reed College, Oregon.

Begbies Traynor’s Kris Wigfield said: “This is a fascinating insight into a character who went onto become one of the most influential people in the world, at a pivotal moment in his life. Knowing the seismic impact that Steve Jobs would go on to have with Steve Wozniak at Apple makes this document very special indeed.”

He added: “Sourcechain Technologies originally purchased the asset in a bid to obtain a higher Google ranking.  Having submitted the winning bid in 2018, the likes of the BBC, Sky, CNN and Fox News covered the story, resulting in an overnight increase in hits to the company’s website. Such a creative and clever idea, and certainly thinking outside the box!”

Olly Joshi, who bought the document, added: “The fact that this is the first, and only written document, where Steve Jobs articulates his future vision of design and tech being intertwined, and for that vision to have then changed the world, is what makes this document incredible.

“It really makes you appreciate that any small deviation from the path he chose would have meant a very different world from the one that we exist in today. It’s a crazy thought and an incredible piece of history.”