BANGALORE: Hard work and persistence precedes popularity and prosperity in every sphere. It takes total dedication and determination to reach that level. Yes it’s true that some of Silicon Valley's most iconic figures are worth millions and billions now, but there are many who started out with small jobs. Excited to know about what these techie biggies started out before they became rich and famous.

Here's a look at how some of the biggest people in tech got kick started:

1. Marissa Mayer

Can you believe? Marissa Mayer who is the CEO of Yahoo, used to take classes at Stanford before working at Google. Her leadership skills began to shine during her time at Stanford when she taught a computer science class in symbolic systems.

Although she a belonged to upper-class even then she took to it naturally. Eric Roberts, a computer scientist at Stanford and Mayer's mentor, previously told Business Insider that she was "unusually good at it" and "extremely effective." After completing her graduation with her master's in symbolic systems, Mayer became one of Google's first employees.