GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina tells this only-in-America life story in nearly every speech. She uses this description — of how she began her business career as a secretary and went on to be the first female chief executive of a major technology company — to portray how she overcame the odds to challenge the status quo.

In fact, Fiorina’s PAC, CARLY for America, owns the domain for FromSecretaryToCEO.com, a Web site dedicated to her life story. It evokes a rags-to-riches-esque narrative reminiscent of a Horatio Alger novel — where the main character, with grit, hard work and some luck, lifts himself out of humble beginnings to achieve success.

So we dug into her career trajectory.