Sheffield auctioneer sells 18-year-old Steve Jobs’ handwritten job application for £200,000

The American business magnate, who died from pancreatic cancer aged 56 in 2011, penned the application in 1973, around the time when he was still a college student.

Collectors and tech-lovers watched on yesterday (Mar 31) as Sheffield-based auctioneer Begbies Traynor sold the sought-after item for a whopping £204,000.

The one-page document outlines Jobs’ experience with ‘computers and calculators’ and special abilities in ‘electronic tech’ and ‘digital design engineering’.

It’s not known what role the budding entrepreneur was applying for, however, had he got it he may never have met his future business partner Steve Wozniak and founded Apple

Experts believe Jobs penned the application shortly after dropping out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

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Just a year later he would join video game start-up Atari, where he worked with Wozniak, and just two years later the pair released their first machine, the Apple-1.

His application was offered up for auction by a UK recruitment business called Sourcechain Technologies, as part of the process of liquidating the firm and raising funds.

The document was purchased by London-based tech entrepreneur Olly Joshi, as part of a consortium of friends and fellow tech fans.

Mr Joshi said: “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.

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“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.”

Kris Wigfield, of Begbies Traynor, added: “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.”

Mr Wigfield said: Sourcechain Technologies originally purchased the asset for $175,000 in 2018 in a bid to obtain a higher Google ranking.”