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I’m the son of a billionaire who forged my own career path

Business Insider. July 3, 2024.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 29-year-old Pete Ballmer, a standup comedian and former product manager in San Francisco and one of the sons of billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As a kid, I liked computers. I used to subscribe to PCWorld Magazine because I liked reading about new products. I took computer science classes at my high school and really enjoyed them.

I majored in computer science with a concentration in human-computer interaction at Stanford. Many people told me I was doing what my dad, Steve Ballmer, did, but he wasn’t a programmer. He was a business guy familiar with the subject but didn’t push me into it.

My dad always told my brothers and me that he just wanted us to do what we were passionate about. He made it clear that he didn’t have specific expectations for our achievements, but he did harp a lot on working hard and doing our best. He would always say, “If you’re going to do a job, do a job. And if you’re not going to do a job, don’t do a job.” The rhetoric was, if you’re going to do something, do it to the fullest extent.

I worked a few internships

The summers after my junior and senior years of high school, I did a software engineering internship at a small startup called Dashwire.

I then did a software engineering internship at Expedia the summer after my first year of college. I kind of hated it. I was fine as a programmer but wasn’t the best, and I learned that I didn’t love programming.

During my sophomore year, I heard one of my friends talk about his product management internship. The nature of the role appealed to me; it’s a people-oriented job while still being analytical and creative.

The next summer, I got a product management internship at a startup called Travelnuts, which I liked. After my junior year, I interned at TripIt.

I never considered not working a full-time job after college

During my junior year, I was told I would inherit a six-figure sum from my grandfather when I turned 25. When I graduated from college at 22, I didn’t have that money yet and needed a job.

I had done some standup comedy in college and knew I wanted to do more, but I also knew the odds of “making it” were low. I didn’t have a lot of material, and the material I had wasn’t very good, so trying to pursue comedy full-time would’ve been a very risky move.

My parents paid for my college education, and it was unfathomable that I not get a full-time job after graduating. There was no way they would’ve paid for me to live in San Francisco and do open mics. Neither my brothers nor I have ever asked my parents for a notable sum, nor have our parents given us a significant amount of money.

I applied and was hired as a rotational product manager at Zynga, the company that made games like Words with Friends and Farmville. I was excited about having a product management job that paid well.

Working at Zynga was fantastic. It was a very fun environment with smart people, a good culture, and happy hours all the time with homemade beer. I respected my boss and liked the nature of my work.

I think there are two ways you can get fulfillment from a job: either the day-to-day work is enjoyable — that was true for me — or you have a long-term sense that what you’re doing matters. I knew I wasn’t making a massive impact on the world by making Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells games, but I wasn’t looking to get that out of my job, so that was fine.

I got all of my jobs without connections

I got all of my internships and jobs — I feel it’s important for me to say — without leveraging my family connections.

My dad, however, did go to Stanford, and I don’t think I would’ve gotten in if he didn’t because I was a good student but not exceptional. I didn’t want my family connection to influence my college acceptance, but I also really wanted to go to Stanford.