Angela Ahrendts

• Company: Burberry

• Global MPW rank: 50

Indiana native Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, says "high school summers were spent as a lifeguard and swim instructor at a local pool."

Nancy McKinstry

• Company: Wolters Kluwer

• Global MPW rank: 38

Wolters Kluwer CEO Nancy McKinstry got her first job at the age of 13, working at a summer camp kitchen in the small town of Portland, Connecticut, where she grew up. "At 6:00 am I would help the cook make breakfast, then walk back home, and return to help with lunch and later dinner. The job helped me appreciate a strong work ethic and to really think about what I wanted to do; food services didn't seem a good fit."

Annika Falkengren

• Company: SEB

• Global MPW rank: 23

When she was 14 years old Annika Falkengren, CEO of Swedish bank SEB, packaged goods at a grocery store during two weeks of summer. Through her teen years she also worked for a big Swedish bookstore chain, Akademibokhandeln.

"I really liked that there was a lot of discussions about literature and authors among the staff," she says. "I learned from them and discovered the pleasure of reading."

Harriet Green

• Company: Thomas Cook

• Global MPW rank: 35

Harriet Green, Group CEO of Thomas Cook, say she first paid job was as a waitress at a pub that was part of a chain. The corporation ran contests for "up selling" — getting customers to order extra appetizers or buy a more expensive wine than planned.

"My specialty was to sell a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape at a cool £35 back then, nearly twice the price of a meal," she remembers. "The tavern was in the country so I would target the jockeys!"

Carolyn McCall

• Company: EasyJet

• Global MPW rank: 46

After finishing her degree in history and politics at Kent University, Carolyn McCall took her first job teaching history at Holland Park School in London.

She says, "Like all first jobs you learn quickly and develop skills which stay with you throughout your career. In teaching I learnt from other teachers how to be a clear and good communicator. I was always in competition with some sport lesson so I had to make things interesting, and I had to manage time well. I also learnt how to remember names and empathize with the kids I taught to get the most out of them. These are all learnings I've taken to every role since."

geijlsngi15 The effect is very visible - someone born to a father of 22 is already 5-10 per cent more attractive than those with a 40-year-old father and the difference grows with the age gap.'

In contrast, women pass on a maximum of 15 mutations to their baby, regardless of age, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

Surveying a group of six men and six women, researchers showed them each 4,018 photographs of 18-20-year-old men and 4,416 of women the same age, and asked to rate their attractiveness.

Those with older fathers were consistently rated less attractive.

However, the offspring of older men, though less attractive, are likely to outlive their peers with younger fathers, it is claimed.