From Grocery Store To Google: First Jobs Of Top Women In Business

11:15 am, June 15th | by Laura Donovan

It’s easy to look at powerhouse women such as Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer and assume they have it made, but they didn’t reach their top dog professional stances without starting from the bottom. Mayer bagged groceries in high school, Sandberg taught aerobics as a teenager, and 3.1 Phillip Lim co-founder Wen Zhou served cheeseburgers and fries at McDonald’s before turning 16. Lots of top businesswomen today had small beginnings, so here are a couple of successful ladies in the industry who worked the same kind of job as you had in high school.

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1.Marissa Mayer: Grocery checkout clerk

Google's VP of Location and Local Services was a grocery store checkout clerk long before working for one of the most powerful sites on the Internet. Mayer told Fortune of the experience, "I was a checkout clerk in the County Market in Wausau, WI -- a summer job when I first turned 16. Many of the cashiers had years of experience and were very committed to their jobs, so I saw firsthand the importance of a great work ethic... I also learned a lot about family economics, how people make trade-offs, and how people make decisions on something fundamental, like how to eat."

2.Sheryl Sandberg: Aerobics instructor

In high school, the self-proclaimed "geek" Facebook COO taught aerobics.

3.Carolyn Everson: Waitress

The Corporate vice president of global ad sales for Microsoft served breakfast foods for her first job. She has said of the work, "I was a waitress at a pancake house! And that taught me to deal with all kinds of people, to always smile and to remember where I came from...as a matter of fact, while at MTV, I literally hired a waitress from our local pancake house after she impressed the heck out of me by remembering our order the following weekend."

4.Wen Zhou: McDonald's employee

At age 15, the 3.1 Phillip Lim co-founder worked at none other than Mickey D's. She told Fortune of the gig, "I worked as a cashier, which I really enjoyed and excelled at. The social and communication aspect was very rewarding and also a big confidence-booster since you interact with so many different people from all walks of life. Not to mention that the pace was really demanding, and you had to do it with a smile!"