The first jobs of Nobel prize winners

We all start somewhere.

Reuters has proven this edict since last August, when we started asking some of America's greatest achievers about the first jobs they had. We have talked to chief executives of billion-dollar companies, beloved authors, TV personalities and tech gurus.

But then we figured: Let's talk to an even more elite club. And you can't get much more exclusive than those who have reached the absolute pinnacle of human achievement: the Nobel Prize.

Here, in conjunction with the release of the nation's monthly jobs report, some American Nobel winners recount their very first humble gigs and the unlikely lessons that set them on the path to extraordinary achievement.

This slideshow originally appeared as a Reuters story here.