Hill Holiday has a new CEO in Karen Kaplan as she went from receptionist to CEO at the ad agency after starting in 1982 fresh out of college.  

The 53-year-old receptionist to CEO started out at the lowest possible spot: receptionist, but a couple switchboard operators let her know right off the bat, she was in the lowest possible position. 

Now she's CEO. 

Kaplan told Business Insider:

"They come on my second day, and they stand in front of my desk," Kaplan remembered. "They're looming over me with hands on their hips with their little headbands, and I remember they were like, 'Just so you know, just because you're out here and everyone can see you, you are still on the bottom of the totem pole.

"'You are below us, you are below the guy in the mail room, you're below the guy who delivers the packages.'" 

After the switchboard operators gave her their spiel, designed to keep the receptionist, but now CEO, in place, Kaplan said  "I thought to myself, 'We'll see about that.'" 

Kaplan now says one of the switchboard operators married rich and the other one, well, "Maybe jail."

One of the most stunning revelations after being named CEO was that Kaplan didn't know how to type.

After getting the job as receptionist following the dismissal of 40 other candidates, the French Literature degree Kaplan acquired at University of Massuchusetts in 1982, did little to help in terms of a promotion.

The receptionist to CEO said, "The only job that I had a hard time getting was the second."  

Kaplan said "I just didn't have the skills," even after enrolling in three separate typing classes: one in high school, one in college, and one on weeknights while working at Hill Holiday.

But after moving up to an assistant's spot in the Traffic department, she would come in on Saturday and Sunday to spend all day typing and collating the 16-page double-sided traffic sheet.

She didn't want anyone to know that it would take her all day Saturday to type the sheet, and all day Sunday to collate.

One weekend, she made a startling discovery that convinced her she should work to become an executive at Hill Holiday despite earlier debating the merits of Law School.

The receptionist to CEO discovered an "accordion shaped, burnt, toasty piece of paper that was wrapped around the drum."

It turned out to be the pay sheet for every executive staffer at Hill Holiday.  

"I didn't even know that people made six figures in the whole wide world," she continued. "I thought, 'Wow, I could spend some time at this place.'"

The receptionist to CEO replaces Mike Sheehan as CEO of Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned Hill Holliday. 

There is such a thing as working your way up and Karen Kaplan's receptionist to CEO trajectory should be an inspiration to us all.