Melinda Gates Credits Key Career Advice
Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, recently shared the pivotal career advice that shaped her journey from IBM to Microsoft. This advice, given by a supervisor, highlighted the potential of joining Microsoft, then a small startup, over staying at IBM. This decision played a crucial role in her eventual success.
In an interview with LinkedIn, Gates explained that her IBM manager, a woman, suggested that she accept a job offer from Microsoft, despite IBM’s interest in retaining her. This advice proved crucial in Gates’s career trajectory.
“My hiring manager at IBM, a female, said to me, ‘Okay, are you ready to accept the job offer?’ And I said, ‘Well, I have one more company to go interview—this little company, Microsoft. It was tiny. She said, ‘If they give you an offer, you should take it,’” Gates recounted.
Gates took a senior position at IBM before being encouraged to move to a startup and ultimately joined Microsoft, where she spent nine years and contributed significantly to its growth, eventually becoming general manager of information products. Microsoft has since become a tech giant valued at trillions of dollars.
Taking a leap of faith meant uprooting her life, but Gates was drawn to the innovative work at Microsoft.
“I didn’t know anybody in Seattle,” Gates explained. “It was moving to the West Coast, but I was so excited about what they were doing. I was like, ‘I want to be part of that.’”
She now encourages others to embrace risks in their careers.
“I remind them all the time you can pivot careers. You can change. You can go over here. It’s not like one or two paths that carry you forward, even though you had plans before this,” she said.
Gates is currently one of the wealthiest women in the U.S., with a net worth exceeding $15 billion. She believes that her career path might have been remarkably different had she remained at IBM. Gates’s experience highlights the importance of decisive action when it comes to career opportunities.
