Take A Look At Bill Gates' 1974 Harvard Student Resume: Would You Have Hired Him?

Microsoft Corporation MSFT co-founder Bill Gates shared his 1974 resume on LinkedIn last year. 

While sharing his old resume on the social media platform, he told the followers that he was sure their resume looked a lot better than his own.

The August 2022 LinkedIn post read, "Whether you're a recent grad or a college dropout, I'm sure your resume looks much better than mine did 48 years ago."

In his resume, he mentioned that he had taken courses, including operating systems, database management, and computer graphics, among others, and had been honored with A's in all those courses.

One of his followers responded to his post on the platform and said, "Thank you for sharing, Bill Gates. Great one-page resume. We should all keep copies of our past resumes to go back and have a look. Sometimes, we forget how much we have accomplished in our lives."

Image: Courtesy of LinkedIn

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His resume was far different from today's resume posts. The resume was created on a typewriter. Even though his list of jobs and skills was quite impressive, certain aspects of the resume should have been avoided. 

According to a career expert quoted by CNBC, Gates should not have mentioned his height, weight, and dependents. These are all personal things, and sometimes it makes people laugh. 

The expert said that it is always better not to mention those kinds of personal details in a resume. 

Gates wrote about his previous salary in the resume, and in the "desired salary" category, he mentioned "open". However, experts say this information is also not pertinent to any resume. 

The expert also mentioned that Gates' resume format was not up to par, and it would be difficult for anyone scanning through it to understand important information about his work background. 

The latest study shows recruiters spend about 7.4 seconds on an initial resume screening. So keeping the resume in a suitable format and shorter is the right approach for HR administrators to review the document efficiently. 

And lastly, Gates's resume wasn't effective in terms of language and writing specific, meaningful words. The expert said it is always better to use solid and active verbs to indicate what you have done in your career history while crafting your resume. 

Originally published Aug. 13, 2022.