| President |
Major Jobs Before the Presidency |
Jobs After the Presidency |
| George Washington |
surveyor, planter, general of the Army of the United Colonies |
planter, lieutenant-general of all the U.S. armies |
| Thomas Jefferson |
writer, inventor, lawyer, architect, governor of Virginia, secretary of state under Washington, vice president under Adams |
writer, gentleman farmer, rector at the University of Virginia |
| John Adams |
schoolteacher, lawyer, diplomat, vice president under Washington |
writer |
| John Quincy Adams |
lawyer, diplomat, professor, U.S. senator, secretary of state under Monroe |
U.S. representative from Massachusetts |
| James Madison |
lawyer, political theorist, U.S. congressman, secretary of state under Jefferson |
rector at the University of Virginia |
| James Monroe |
soldier, lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of Virginia |
writer, regent at the University of Virginia |
| Andrew Jackson |
soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, governor of Florida |
gentleman farmer |
| William Henry Harrison |
soldier, diplomat, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Ohio |
died in office |
| Martin Van Buren |
lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of New York, vice president under Jackson |
activist for Free Soil Party |
| John Tyler |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Harrison |
lawyer, chancellor of the College of William and Mary, member of the Confederate House of Representatives |
| James Knox Polk |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee |
died 103 days after leaving office |
| Zachary Taylor |
soldier |
died in office |
| Millard Fillmore |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Taylor |
rogue political activist, chancellor of the University of Buffalo |
| Franklin Pierce |
lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from New Hampshire |
gentleman farmer |
| James Buchanan |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state |
writer |
| Abraham Lincoln |
postmaster, lawyer, U.S. congressman from Illinois |
died in office |
| Andrew Johnson |
tailor, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee, U.S. senator from Tennessee, vice president under Lincoln |
U.S. senator from Tennessee |
| Ulysses Simpson Grant |
U.S. Army general |
political activist, writer |
| Rutherford Birchard Hayes |
lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio |
education activist, president of the National Prison Reform Association |
| James Abram Garfield |
schoolteacher, soldier, U.S. representative from Ohio |
died in office |
| Chester Alan Arthur |
schoolteacher, lawyer, tariff collector, vice president under Garfield |
lawyer |
| Grover Cleveland |
sheriff, lawyer, mayor, governor of New York |
reelected president |
| Benjamin Harrison |
lawyer, soldier, journalist, U.S. senator from Indiana |
lawyer, lecturer |
| William McKinley |
soldier, lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio |
died in office |
| Theodore Roosevelt |
rancher, soldier, governor of New York, vice president under McKinley |
hunter, writer |
| William Howard Taft |
lawyer, judge, dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School, U.S. secretary of war |
professor, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court |
| Woodrow Wilson |
lawyer, professor, president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey |
retired in poor health |
| Warren Gamaliel Harding |
newspaper editor, U.S. senator from Ohio |
died in office |
| Calvin Coolidge |
lawyer, governor of Massachusetts, vice president under Harding |
writer, president of the American Antiquarian Society |
| Herbert Clark Hoover |
engineer, U.S. secretary of commerce |
chair of the Hoover Commission on administrative reform |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
lawyer, governor of New York |
died in office |
| Harry S. Truman |
farmer, soldier, haberdasher, judge, U.S. senator, vice president under Roosevelt |
writer |
| Dwight David Eisenhower |
supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, U.S. Army chief of staff |
writer |
| John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
journalist, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Massachusetts |
died in office |
| Lyndon Baines Johnson |
schoolteacher, soldier, congressman, U.S. senator from Texas, vice president under Kennedy |
rancher, writer |
| Richard Milhous Nixon |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Eisenhower |
writer |
| Gerald Rudolph Ford |
lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Nixon |
writer |
| James Earl Carter, Jr. |
peanut farmer, governor of Georgia |
writer, humanitarian, Nobel-prize winning statesman |
| Ronald Wilson Reagan |
movie actor, corporate spokesman, governor of California |
writer |
| George Herbert Walker Bush |
oil executive, U.S. congressman, U.S. ambassador to the UN, Director of CIA, vice president under Reagan |
private citizen; teamed with President Clinton to form tsunami and Hurricane Katrina aid funds |
| William Jefferson Clinton |
lawyer, governor of Arkansas |
writer, independent ambassador; teamed with President G.H.W. Bush to form tsunami and Hurricane Katrina aid funds |
| George Walker Bush |
oil executive, sport team owner, governor of Texas |
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| Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. |
community organizer, civil rights lawyer, constitutional law professor, Illinois state senator, U.S. senator |
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