Early days: When Melinda French Gates called Microsoft a ‘little company’; shares anecdote

Bill Gates’ ex-wife Melinda French Gates erstwhile called Microsoft a ‘little company’. During an interrogation with LinkedIn successful March 2025, French Gates shared that during internship astatine IBM, her hiring manager offered a occupation offer, but she had already interviewed astatine Microsoft.

“My hiring manager astatine IBM, a female, said to me, ‘Okay, are you acceptable to judge the occupation offer?’ And I said, ‘Well, I person 1 much institution to spell interview—this small company, Microsoft. It was tiny,” French Gates said during the interview. “And she said, ‘If they springiness you an offer, you should instrumentality it’,” Gates recalled adding “And it dumbfounded me”. Melinda French Gates yet joined Microsoft and went connected to enactment astatine the institution for 9 years.

During her clip there, she played a cardinal relation successful the company’s maturation and roseate to the presumption of wide manager of accusation products. Her vocation astatine Microsoft besides contributed importantly to her idiosyncratic wealth. With an estimated nett worthy of $17.4 billion, French Gates presently ranks among the 10 richest women successful the United States.

French Gates said modulation to Microsoft wasn’t ‘easy’

During the interview, Gates recalled however moving to Microsoft which was connected the West Coast means she had to uproot her life. “I didn’t cognize anybody successful Seattle. It was moving to the West Coast, but I was truthful excited astir what they were doing. I was like, ‘I privation to beryllium portion of that,’” she said. Sharing proposal for others, particularly women, Gates said “I punctual them each the clip you tin pivot careers. You tin change. You tin spell implicit here. “It’s not similar 1 oregon 2 paths that transportation you forward, adjacent though you had plans earlier this.”