The Unglamorous Early Jobs of 15 CEOs

  • Many of the world’s most powerful business leaders began their careers in more humble ways.
  • From Jensen Huang working at Denny’s to Mark Cuban selling garbage bags, they worked their way up.
  • Some, like General Motors CEO Mary Barra, started at the companies they now run.

Washing dishes. Throwing newspapers. Flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

Some of the world’s most powerful business leaders — including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — started their careers far from the C-suite. Many of them are now worth billions of dollars, with all of the net worths in this piece reported using Forbes’ estimates.

Here are the unglamorous early jobs of 15 top current and former CEOs.

Jensen Huang


Jensen Huang speaks during an event

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang started his career at Denny’s.

Lee Jin-man/AP

Before he was running a $4 trillion company, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was washing dishes and waiting tables at a Denny’s in Portland, Oregon. He got his first job at the diner when he was 15, and, years later, batted around the initial ideas behind Nvidia at a Denny’s in Northern California.

Now, Huang is worth $163.6 billion.

Michael Dell


Michael Dell speaking at a panel at SXSW at Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

Dell’s first job was at a Chinese restaurant.


Errich Petersen/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images


Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, took a gig washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant when he was 12. Today, he’s worth $140.8 billion.

Warren Buffett


Investor Warren Buffet arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York, U.S. on September 20, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files

Warren Buffett has been investing since he was young.

Thomson Reuters

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is notoriously frugal, despite being worth $148.2 billion. Buffett got his first job delivering newspapers as a teenager. Ever the businessman, he invested some of those savings.

Mary Barra


Mary Barra

Mary Barra started on the GM assembly line.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Mary Barra is the CEO of General Motors, but she got her start on the assembly line at the age of 18. She spent her time inspecting the hoods and fenders of the vehicles.

Jeff Bezos


Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos’ first job was at McDonald’s.

Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for America Business Forum

As the founder, former CEO, and current executive chair of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is worth $243.8 billion. But he spent his teenage summers working the grill at McDonald’s.Door

“The most challenging thing was keeping everything going at the right pace during a rush,” Bezos told author Cody Teets. “The manager at my McDonald’s was excellent. He had a lot of teenagers working for him, and he kept us focused even while we had fun.”

Elon Musk


Elon Musk at a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington.

Elon Musk left home when he was 17.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

Elon Musk, who has cofounded and runs several companies, left his home in South Africa at the age of 17. He stayed with his cousin in Canada, where he tended to vegetables and grain bins on a farm, according to the book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” After visiting an unemployment office, Musk ended up cleaning the boiler room at a lumber mill, the book says.

Musk is now the world’s richest man, worth $749.7 billion.

Doug McMillon


Doug McMillon

Doug McMillon started his career at Walmart.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Doug McMillon started his career at the same company he now leads: Walmart. For his first job, he unloaded trucks at a Walmart Distribution Center in Arkansas.

Reed Hastings


Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings started as a door-to-door salesman.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Before co-founding and becoming the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings went door-to-door selling vacuums. He’s now Netflix’s chairman and is worth $5.2 billion, but has said he looks back fondly on that time.

Bob Iger


Bob Iger

Bob Iger started as a weatherman.

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, started out as a weatherman in Ithaca, New York, before moving to New York City to work at Disney-owned ABC.

Mark Cuban


Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban got his start selling garbage bags.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

When billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban was 12, he said he asked his dad if he could get a pricey pair of sneakers. His dad told him to get a job. That’s when one of his dad’s friends chimed in and said he needed to sell some garbage bags, so the not-yet-teenage Cuban went door-to-door.

Cuban is now worth $6 billion.

Jan Koum


FILE PHOTO: Jan Koum, co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California October 25, 2016.     REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

When he was 16, Jan Koum swept up the grocery store.

Thomson Reuters

Jan Koum, cofounder and former CEO of WhatsApp, immigrated to Mountain View, California, when he was 16. While there, he swept floors at a local grocery store to help his mom pay their bills. Now, Koum is worth $17.2 billion.

Marissa Mayer


Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer worked as a grocery store clerk.

MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images

The former Yahoo CEO began her career as a grocery store clerk in Wisconsin when she was in high school. She led Yahoo from 2012 to 2017, and is now worth $1.3 billion.

Michael Bloomberg


Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg parked cars to make money for college.

Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images

Former CEO of Bloomberg and mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, parked other people’s cars while in college. He used the job as a summer parking attendant to help pay his way through Johns Hopkins. Bloomberg is now worth $109.4 billion.

Tim Cook


Tim Cook

Tim Cook would wake up before school to throw newspapers.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Apple CEO Tim Cook started working when he was 12, delivering newspapers in the early morning hours before sneaking in a nap before school. He said that the job helped “start my college education.”

Now, Cook is worth $2.6 billion.

Abigail Johnson


Abigail Johnson

Abigail Johnson was a customer service operator.

Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Abigail Johnson’s father was the CEO of Fidelity Investments, but he had her start at the bottom of the corporate ladder, taking customers’ orders. She took the job the summer before college, before eventually returning and working her way up to CEO in 2014.

“I was responsible for filling out the forms to correctly put in order the transactions that they were requesting,” Johnson told Fortune. “It was a pretty basic job. But it gave me an appreciation of what it was like to be responsible for really important things in people’s lives and making sure that they were always done accurately and correctly.”

Johnson is now worth $35.6 billion.

Visited 1 times, 1 visit(s) today

Related Article

In 2025, Trump Changed U.S.-China Competition

How might one begin to describe the year in U.S.-China relations? A roller coaster? A tightrope walk? A boxing match? A stormy sea? A high-stakes game of chess, tug-of-war, or poker? Whatever it was, it sure kept the staff at Foreign Policy on our toes. U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January promising

Lauren Sanchez celebrates first birthday as Jeff Bezos’ wife at lavish Kardashian-packed party

Show summary Hide summary Lauren Sánchez marked her 56th birthday with a lavish, holiday-themed evening hosted at a star-studded gathering that included members of the Kardashian-Jenner circle. The celebration doubled as a festive holiday party and a high-glam social moment, drawing attention for its guests, couture looks and over-the-top decorations. Star-studded guest list and social

Xi chairs CPC leadership meeting on Party conduct, anti-corruption work

BEIJING – The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened a meeting on Thursday to discuss and plan the Party’s efforts to improve conduct, build integrity, and combat corruption for the year 2026. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting. In 2025, under the

Pope Leo, Donald Trump differ on course of United States – DW – 12/25/2025

In mid-December, 70-year-old Pope Leo XIV criticized US President Donald Trump (79) once again, albeit without naming him. “The remarks that are made about Europe, also in interviews recently, I think, are trying to break apart what I think needs to be a very important alliance, today and in the future,” the pope said. Everybody understood whom

Trump admin sued by 19 states over declaration to restrict gender transition care

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A group of 19 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a declaration that aims to restrict gender transition treatment for minors. The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; and its

Kennedy Center Christmas Eve jazz concert canceled after Trump name added to building

A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition at the Washington, D.C., performing arts center dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled.  The show’s host, musician Chuck Redd, told The Associated Press he called off the performance after the White House announced last week that President Trump’s name

As Trump’s tariffs hit Indian fox nuts, the superfood eyes new markets | Trade War

Katihar, India – Ravjit Singh, a leather garment trader who lives in Denver, Colorado, has started to feel the pinch of 50 percent tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump on Indian goods in recent months. The 50-year-old, originally from Kolkata in eastern India, told Al Jazeera that rising grocery prices have sent his

Trump adds ‘clean coal’ into holiday mix in Christmas Eve call with kids

President Donald Trump injected some politics into this year’s Christmas Eve phone calls with children from across the country, touching on topics like energy production and the 2020 election. Fielding calls as part of the U.S. military’s annual NORAD Tracks Santa event, Trump asked one caller what she wanted for Christmas. “Not coal,” said the

Trump-backed candidate Asfura declared new president of Honduras | Honduras

Donald Trump-backed candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election after a vote count that dragged on for almost a month and was marred by fraud allegations and criticism of interference by the US president. The rightwing Asfura, 67, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, secured

Donald Trump calls coal ‘beautiful’ during NORAD Santa calls with kids

Dec. 24, 2025, 6:43 p.m. ET It’s Christmas Eve in Mar-a-Lago, and the first couple talked with children as part of NORAD’s Santa calls. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participated in the longstanding holiday tradition for over 20 minutes, seated in gold armchairs near a Christmas tree. The president spoke to families

Trump-backed conservative Nasry Asfura wins Honduras election: Authorities | Elections News

Asfura says he is ready to govern after narrow vote as the US urges ‘all parties to respect the confirmed results’. Nasry Asfura, a conservative candidate backed by United States President Donald Trump, has won the closely contested presidential elections in Honduras, the country’s election council has said. The final results, announced on Wednesday –

So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

Nearly two years ago, Donald Trump kicked off the presidential-campaign season with a declaration: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island,” he posted on Truth Social in January 2024. Reports to the contrary, he insisted, were the fault of AI—and of his political rivals: “This is what the Democrats do to

Do Idahoans Know The Celebrities Who Share Birthdays With Jesus?

Throughout the world, there are a great number of people who share birthdays with Jesus Christ. Many of them have reached a level of fame not quite rivaling the ‘Son of God,’ but they’re still loved throughout the Gem State and the rest of the planet. I grew up with a friend who had a

Democratic lawmaker sues Trump over Kennedy Center’s name change | Donald Trump

Democratic US representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio sued Donald Trump on Monday to seek the removal of his name from the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC. The lawsuit from Beatty, an ex-officio trustee on the board, argued that the vote to rename the Kennedy Center is a “flagrant violation” of

China preparing to ‘win a war on Taiwan’ by 2027, new Pentagon report warns

The US on Wednesday released its annual report on China’s military power — revealing that its fast-growing war machine poses an increasing threat to the United States and its allies. The report, produced each year by the Pentagon, warns Beijing is gearing up for conflict — potentially over Taiwan — within the next two years.

25 products celebrities recommended in 2025: Beauty, fashion, more

Page Six may be compensated and/or receive an affiliate commission if you click or buy through our links. Featured pricing is subject to change. New Year, new finds to add to cart. In 2025, several stars gave Page Six Style the inside scoop on their favorite things to shop — from lifestyle icons like Martha

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x