Before President, Taft was Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Hamilton County, Ohio; Judge on the Ohio Supreme Court; Federal Circuit Court Judge; US Solicitor General; Civil Governor of the Philippines and US Secretary of War. When he was not occupied with public service, he was a lawyer, judge and legal scholar.
secretary of war
Andrew Jackson was a justice of the Tennessee Superior Court before he was President. William Howard Taft was a federal circuit judge before he was president and was appointe to the US Supreme Court after the presidency.
Before becoming the 19th President of the US, William Howard Taft had served as Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War. Prior to that, he had been a federal judge, Solicitor General, and Governor-General of the Philippines. He never served as a state governor, congressman, US senator, or vice-president, as other Presidents had.
He was governor of New York before he was nominated for vice-president, running with William McKinley. He became president when McKinley was assassinated.
William McKinley Cleveland harrrison
William Howard Taft was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Hamilton County, Ohio; Judge on the Ohio Supreme Court; Federal Circuit Court Judge; Civil Governor of the Philippines and US Secretary of War.
Former President William Howard Taft (1909-1913) is the only President to serve on the Supreme Court. President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1921; he presided over the Court until a few months before his death in 1930.
The answer is that several presidents had not previously held elected public office before becoming President: Zachary Taylor, U.S. Grant, William Howard Taft [although he was governor-general of the Philippines], Herbert Hoover, and Dwight Eisenhower. This now includes Donald Trump.
Woodrow Wilson was the US President from 1913 - 1921. He was preceeded by William Howard Taft.
kennedy
27th President of the United States, he was progressive in his polices, and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States. He is the only person to have served in both of these offices.
I have read somewhere that Obama's dream before becoming President was to be a bank manager.