Earlier this week, seven-year-old Chloe Bridgewater made the news when a letter she wrote to Google asking for a job resulted in a direct reply from CEO Sundar Pichai.
Business Insider took the opportunity of this very non-corporate correspondence to reach out to handwriting expert Kathi McKnight and see what she could tell us about the mind of Pichai, based on his signature in the letter he sent to Chloe.
Here's the letter:
Andy Bridgewater
"I would say this man is one who sticks to facts figures and statistics based on his slant, so it's a pretty big deal for him to take time out of his mysterious life to respond to this darling little girl's letter," McKnight tells Business Insider.
"The signature is highly illegible with extra lines and dots, so all of that combined means there is much going on inside the mastermind of this CEO that we do not, nor may ever, know about. He keeps a lot close to the vest," McKnight says. "He is very logical, cerebral and head oriented, as is revealed by the slant of the couple of letters we can actually see or almost read."
Reuters/Beck Diefenbach Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Finally, McKnight says "the line at the end of his name reveals someone who rose to success, very quickly. The underscore to his signature reveals an extra bout of confidence."
This tracks with what we know of Pichai - a math whiz from a young age in his native India, he started working at Google in 2004 before quickly rising through the ranks. Within 11 years, he went from the head of the Chrome business, to Google cofounder Larry Page's second in command, to the CEO of the company in 2015 following the company's Alphabet reorg.
As a bonus, McKnight also analyzed the handwriting of young Chloe Bridgewater, who started everything with a letter addressed "Dear Google Boss."
Here's the letter:
Andy Bridgewater
"Right off the bat Chloe's handwriting reveals an independent little girl. She is one who is already eager to stand on her own two feet, as is revealed by the way she writes her personal pronoun letter 'I,'" says McKnight. "My recommendation? Keep her application on file, Mr. Pichai."
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