David Letterman calls this his greatest career achievement

David Letterman is the longest running late night talk-show host in history, and "The Late Show with David Letterman" was nominated for a whopping 76 Emmy awards. The accomplishment he is most proud of, however, is simple: Creating jobs.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Letterman appears reluctant to compliment himself in any way. Instead, he opts for his trademark self-deprecating humor: "Boy, how about the time that we had the donkey that came out and the jockey threw up?"

But the famously self-critical comedian says that he is able to find peace with his performance by taking stock of how many people his show was able to support. "Some nights the show would be okay; some nights the show would not be okay," Letterman says. "But the one thing you can't assail is what my wife was shrewd enough to point out ...

"I was able to give jobs to people. That's an accomplishment."

Letterman hosted NBC's "The David Letterman Show" from 1980 to 1993 and CBS' "The Late Show on CBS" from 1993 to 2015. For 35 years Letterman employed hundreds of people through his shows and through his company, Worldwide Pants.

One of those employees, Kathy Mavrikakis, says that Letterman was a good boss and that she knew creating jobs for people mattered to him. She started as an intern and worked her way up to become a supervising producer for Letterman's show. She later held a corporate finance role with Worldwide Pants.

"I worked for him for 30 years, and this is something I absolutely know that he is proud of," she says.