What's What! Video Game Facts (77/365)
Atari hired a young, sandal-clad, unkempt, hippie passionate about new technologies.
The great Steve Jobs before founding his own company Apple Inc. with Steve Wozniak, had to live on something, that's why in 1974 Jobs where according to different versions appears Atari’s lobby demanded a job, and he would not leave until he got one, luckily the personnel director didn't call the cops, and offered a contract to this 20 year old hippie, so he would earn US$ 5 an hour and work as a tech, really cheap deal for Atari.
Other versions claim that Jobs was looking for a short-term job to raise money and take a trip to India, in search of spiritual relaxation and even he had no training or experience because he left the University of Reed College in Portland at 6 months, due to the high cost of his studies. When he arrived in Atari, he said that he had worked at Hewlett-Packard aswell, something totally false, it was his friend Stephen Wozniak who worked at HP as an engineer.
Either way Jobs managed to be hired. but it ends up being a very complicated character, it was difficult to understand and he made fun of those people he considered to be stupid. This behavior began to be a daily routine which led to having enemies instead of partners. ATARI didn't think about it and decided to create a night shift, where Jobs would be alone.
And although he didn't have much relevance in the company, he was able to solve a small problem that Atari presented at its headquarters in Germany, due to failures that some games were having with the power supply, Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, proposed a deal to Jobs, paying him the trip to Germany on the condition that he solve the problem.
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Quien lo diria!... Yo vi la peli "Los piratas de silicon valley" y saltaron esa parte. Me encanta la personalidad de su tocayo y colega Steve Wozniak.
Para Jobs 5 dolares la hora era, aun en ese tiempo, un sueldo ridiculo pero para muchos paises suramericanos eso es mucho dinero (por no hablar de vzla).
I didn't know he worked for Atari. Really interesting :)