Melinda Gates reveals the ‘career advice’ that made her quit IBM to join Microsoft in its startup days

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ ex-wife Melinda French Gates revealed an important piece of advice she received early in her career. During a recent interview, she said that this advice —which was to forgo a stable job at IBM for a small startup that later became Microsoft — helped in her journey to becoming a billionaire. Gates mentioned that she got this advice from an IBM supervisor who made this suggestion despite the company’s interest. This made Gates leave a senior position at IBM to join the then-nascent Microsoft, where she spent nine years and played an important role in the company’s growth. She rose to the position of general manager of information products at Microsoft, which is now a $3.1 trillion tech giant.