They run the world’s biggest technology companies, but what were their first jobs?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that all the tech industry’s biggest players leapt straight into high-powered jobs at the start of their careers. On the contrary, plenty started off with unglamorous jobs before soaring up through the ranks.

Tim Cook – CEO of Apple

Now the CEO of the company responsible for the iPad, iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch, Tim Cook started his career delivering newspapers in Alabama as a teenager.

He then worked in a paper mill and an aluminium plant before joining the world of tech.

Marissa Mayer – President and CEO of Yahoo!

She’s worth an estimated $380 million dollars and boasts a $42 million salary, but the president and CEO of Yahoo! took her first ever job working at a grocery shop.

Her next stop was a degree at Stanford, followed by a stint working for Google. In 2012 she was poached by Yahoo! and is now one of America’s highest paid CEOs.

Jeff Bezos – CEO of Amazon

Jeff Bezos’s very first job was flipping burgers at McDonald’s, a far cry from his current gig as Amazon’s top dog.

However, it didn’t take him long to discover his business skills. After McDonald’s, he set up a summer camp for kids.

Jan Koum – Co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp

In January 2015, WhatsApp became the world’s number one messaging app. In 2014, the app was purchased by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion.

Its co-founder and CEO Jan Koum was born in a small village in Ukraine, before moving to America at 16. There, he started out sweeping the floors of a grocery shop to help his mother with household expenses.

Soon he discovered an aptitude for technology, working for many years at Yahoo!, before spotting a gap in the market and founding the popular app.

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