The surprising former careers of politicians — from Kamala Harris' stint at McDonalds to Joe Biden's lifeguarding experience

Before she worked as an attorney, or took to politics, Kamala Harris claims that she scooped fries at her local McDonalds. While Donald Trump has questioned whether the Democrat candidate did indeed work at McDonalds, the company has suggested there's no reason why she didn't. Company records do not stretch back into the 1980s, as Kamala reportedly worked for the food company pre-digitization, but that didn't stop McDonalds from making a statement.

"Though we are not a political brand," the message read, "we've been proud to hear former President Trump's love for McDonald's and Vice President Harris's fond memories working under the Arches. While we and our franchisees don’t have records for all positions dating back to the early '80s, what makes '1 in 8' so powerful is the shared experience so many Americans have had."

The vice presidential candidate was famously a geography teacher before he took to politics, working at Mankato West High School. He was also the beloved football coach who saw the high school team get to the state championship.

Before she was representative for New York's 14th district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made money as a bartender and waitress in the Bronx to help her mother fight the foreclosure of their home.

During his teenage years, long before politics was on his radar as a career, Obama worked at a Baskin Robbins in Honolulu, Hawaii, serving ice cream. He said of the job: "As a teenager working behind the counter at Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu, I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot."

"My first summer job wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it taught me some valuable lessons," he continued. "Responsibility. Hard work. Balancing a job with friends, family, and school."

Growing up, the current president worked as a lifeguard at his local pool in Wilmington, Delaware. The pool would later be named after him.

The now-100-year-old former president worked on his family's peanut growing farm, and would later expand the business, taking classes and studying agriculture.

Prior to his work as a Republican politician, Ben Carson was a world-renowned neurosurgeon. At 33, he was the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the country, and he would later gain fame as he led a team of surgeons in the first known separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. While the surgery was a success, the twins would go on to experience medical complications.