Melinda French Gates says she took a job in a “ small business ” called Microsoft after her recruitment manager at IBM told her to go there

• Melinda French Gates joined Microsoft in 1987 after graduating from the business school.

• French Gates said she had an IBM job offer before interviewing Microsoft.

• She took the job at Microsoft after her recruitment manager at IBM encouraged her.

The life of Melinda French Gates may have been very different, if not for a conversation she had with an IBM hiring director in the 80s.

During an interview with LinkedIn News on Tuesday, French Gates said that she had received a job offer from IBM after finishing two summer courses.

She then had a conversation with a recruitment official who made her decide to go to Microsoft – a choice that defined her career and her personal life.

“My job director in IBM, a woman, said to me:” OK, are you ready to accept the job offer? “I was in person with her and said,” Well, I have another company to interview. It was tiny, “said French Gates.

“And she said,” If they give you an offer, you should take it. “And it stunned me.

French Gates joined Microsoft as product manager after graduating from the Duke University business school in 1987.

“It will be a little frightening. I did not know anyone in Seattle. He moved to the west coast, but I was so excited by what they were doing. I said to myself:” I want to be part “,” said French Gates to LinkedIn News.

French Gates worked at Microsoft for almost a decade, where she accessed the position of Managing Director and supervised the company’s information products.

Microsoft was also where she met her ex-husband, Bill Gates. The couple got married in 1994, and French Gates left Microsoft in 1996. They divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

In May, French Gates announced her departure from the Gates Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that she co -founded with Gates in 2000. Her donation efforts are now mainly managed by Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company that she founded in 2015.

“Many years ago, I received this advice:” Define your own agenda, or someone else will define it for you. “Since then, I have worn these words with me,” wrote French Gates in an editorial in the New York Times explaining his decision to leave the Gates Foundation.

The representatives of French Gates did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.

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