Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison argues that you can build a powerful career even without a polished resume by deliberately taking on tough, overlooked jobs and proving your value through results.

“When you don’t have an impressive pedigree, when you don’t have a resume that will stand out, the way that you get people to notice you is, you take jobs that nobody else wants, and you work really hard to be successful,” he told CNBC in an interview that aired on Wednesday.

Instead of waiting for the perfect role, Ellison urges workers to step into difficult, unglamorous assignments where expectations are low and the potential to stand out is high. He suggests that turning around a struggling team, process or location is one of the fastest ways to get people to notice you and create new opportunities that your resume alone would never unlock. 

How Ellison applied this philosophy to his own career 

Ellison, who has been CEO of Lowe’s since 2018, grew up in Tennessee and worked a series of demanding jobs while putting himself through college, including roles as a forklift operator, truck driver and janitor. At one point, he was earning $4.35 an hour in a part-time role at Target. In each position, Ellison focused on work ethic, reliability and performance. He used every role, no matter how small, as a platform to demonstrate his capabilities and earn the next step up. 

Over time, this approach helped him move into leadership roles at major retailers, including executive vice president at Home Depot, director at Target, chairman and CEO of JCPenney and ultimately CEO of Lowe’s. 

A recurring pattern in his ascent over the past 25 years is that in every job he accepted, his predecessors were either fired or forced out. Stepping into a challenging role “requires a degree of self-confidence,” Ellison told CNBC. “It requires a high degree of resilience, but it also forces you to understand the power of people, because none of these assignments were successfully accomplished by myself. It was always a team working with me.” 

Ellison joined Lowe’s after the previous CEO, Rob Niblock, was forced out of the company in March 2018. Niblock’s departure followed years of underperformance. The difficulty of the job drew Ellison, he said. He has since led the home improvement company to $83.67 billion in revenue and close to $7 billion in profits in 2025. 

By definition, taking the harder path does not always guarantee success. Throughout Ellison’s career, he sometimes felt passed over for job opportunities, including promotions, and isolated from his managers. His response, however, is to reject a “victim mentality” and focus on the factors under his control. 

“Don’t be a victim,” he told CNBC. “Take responsibility and make sure you’re focusing on making yourself better.”

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