Steve Wozniak thinks he and co-founder Steve Jobs could never have found employment at the company they created together, had they been in their twenties in 2015.
“I look at the experience and education levels you need to get a job at Apple today and I think, ‘Well, Steve Jobs and I never could’ve gotten a job at Apple today,'” Woz told The Australian Financial Review in an interview.
The reason, he says, is that the rigorous Apple hiring process (like the ones at other tech giants like Google and Microsoft) would never have favored two college dropouts like himself and Jobs. This bias means the companies are potentially missing out on finding the next person to come along with a world-changing idea.
“The larger you get you have to take so much care in designing products and software and making sure that it’s going to work for millions and millions of people, and that slows you down,” Wozniak says, referring to Apple today.
Woz says Apple is continuing to make great products, but that some of its best new creations are coming from smaller companies, which Apple then acquires.
“Apple had Siri before Google had Google Now and Microsoft had Cortana, but they bought it off someone else,” he says. “I loved Siri before Apple acquired it, but nobody else would ever use it. So by buying it, Apple showed that they can effectively give the best innovation in the world a huge marketing advantage.”
Woz also notes that he thinks the next big startups will be online service providers such as Uber and Airbnb, rather than hardware companies reliant on global component supply chains.
He’s not wrong, although tools like Kickstarter and a plethora of Silicon Valley hardware incubators make the startup hardware scene a whole lot more vibrant than it’s been in years. A hardware startup competing directly with Apple isn’t going to happen, but that’s not to say there aren’t some innovative companies in this space which can make a go of things.
As for the question of whether or not the next Steve Jobs would be lost in the haystack of job applications? Well, if true, that’s one more reason to overhaul the Silicon Valley hiring system.
Source: The Australian Financial Review
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
7 responses to “Woz says Apple would never hire him or Steve Jobs today”
i’m sure if you had billions in the bank, you could bypass the hiring process.
I love Woz, but he hasn’t had relevance to the tech scene in literally decades.
Definitely true. He was a nice guy working under Jobs direction who’s main claim to fame was designing and building those first Apple computer boards. His life would have been completely different without Steve Jobs pushing him along and doubtful he’d ever have been a millionaire. But still he’s beloved being part of Apple’s beginnings.
Hilarious statement considering that neither of them were ever “hired” by Apple to begin with.
I love the Woz too, but I wish he’d stop making statements about the inner workings of a company he hasn’t worked a day for since his plane crash in what ’82, ’83.
There’s a way around all this. Apple with it’s ample stash of cash could fund startups with great ideas and leave them alone, sort of like Skunkworks, to develop their ideas independently which then Apple can use and incorporate if they so desired. Multiple black ops R&D companies whose function is to think outside the box and not be influenced by what’s currently going on at Apple or in tech at the moment. Nor be hampered by corporate politics. The idea being to skate where the puck will be next. That would be really cool and forward thinking. The sky’s the limit for Apple to invent, innovate and re-innovate.
Even if he hasn’t been at Apple in years, I don’t think he’s wrong here. Microsoft and Apple are kind of ironic when you consider that, in both cases, they were founded by very smart people that didn’t finish higher education and this is hardly unique.
Then by Woz’s mentality, Apple wouldn’t have hired Iovine or Dr. Dre, because neither of them even went to college.