No number! When Steve Jobs didn’t have a phone

He came up with the iPhone and launched a string of revolutionary devices at the world’s largest tech firm.

But there was a time when nobody could actually even ring Steve Jobs -- and not because he was then a tot in his pram!

In fact, a freshly auctioned-off job application form that the Apple co-founder filled in at age 18 looking for work, shows his ‘Phone Number’ scribbled as -- “none.”

It’s not the only reason that auctioneers in the US are right to hail the form as “incredible.”

It shows Jobs' staunch frankness, self-perceived ‘special abilities’ and his penchant for brevity.

Refreshingly in today’s era of guides on how to subtly mimic the hirer’s style or persona, it also smacks of a certain unwillingness to appease for the sake of landing a job.

In the form’s mid-section, in reply to ‘access to vehicle?’ Jobs wrote: “Possible, but not probable.”

Then, having said he’s without a car or a phone, he gives his address as only: ‘reed college.’

Quite apart from it giving rise to the hirer -- if interested in him -- having to scour the entire college to locate Jobs, the answer was accurate. Yet within six months of enrolling, he dropped out.

The form also enquires about his 'Skills.' “Yes” he wrote as if asked in person, and then next to ‘Computer’ and ‘Calculator’ he added “Design, Tech.”

Elaborating at the bottom (‘Design, Tech’ was bracketed as if it were unimportant), he put down his ‘Special Abilities’ -- ‘electronics tech or design engineer.’

Bolted-on after the word ‘engineer,’ Jobs wrote -- on its own; “digital.” And then seeming to give his location, “from Bay near Hewitt Packard [sic].”

These details are clues that Jobs was filling in the form to apply for a tech job with a tech company, but the form does not state the position he was applying for nor the hirer’s name.

Other parts of the form, certified for RR Auction as originating from 1973, bear his name, ‘Steven jobs,’ and in a qualifications section, his major -- ‘english lit’.

The form has now gone under the hammer to an anonymous internet bidder in London for $174,000 (£123,000). It was auctioned off alongside a Steve Jobs-signed Apple Mac OS X technical manual (for $49,000).