As a recruiter what you think of someone with A levels working in McDonalds?

[Thenotes]

DS got OK A levels, not the amazing grades everyone else's DC seems to get on MN but enough for him to pursue his life's dream.

This has a long selection process and it's looking like, even if he is eventually successful, he'll have at least a year between finishing school and starting work.

Meantime he's working in McDonalds. I'm actually really proud of the watched applied himself to it, taking on extra shifts and responsibility and getting excellent feedback from managers, generally seeming to be their go to person etc.

However there is a generally held preconception about the kind of people who work at Mcdonalds and I'm worried that it won't be good for him if the dream doesn't happen and he needs to look for a career type job in a year's time.

The current plan does feel very much "eggs in one basket" but it's such a dream for him, I completely support him giving it a year.

McDonald's is a good employer. I respect anyone who works there as well, it looks like hard graft to me. It shouldn't be taken for granted that you'd just 'end up' there, either. I know a couple of really successful people in my line of work who applied for McDonalds in the past and were turned down.

I know the saying is 'Work hard or you'll end up working in McDonald's' but I always thought that was because it's quite a high pressure job for minimum wage. It's open kitchen, fast paced, busy, many shitty customers you need excellent customer service skills for, much physically harder work than an office job. The poor money and the shift hours suiting students is the only reason it isn't valued or desired as a career for most (though you could make a good career from it if you want to get into retail management). I would definitely see a stint longer than 3 months at McDonald's as very desirable on someone's CV!

I have a recruitment element to my job and I always think working in macdonalds looks like really hard, fast paced and stressful work. I would think highly of anyone who had stuck it out for a while.

i know someone who is wealthy (house in 1M range) and works for mcdonalds international. nothing to sneeze at.

It will be viewed positively. Great training, customer facing, fast paced, team work, cash handling. Nothing wrong with gaining all of those skills. Not sure why you would think it would be seen as a disadvantage/negative to be honest.
What would you prefer him to do straight from school with no work experience?

I'd think very well of him. If he makes it into management, even better. Their management program is very well known and tough. Lots of opportunities there. Had a good friend move from Swansea to Chicago for a major corporate back role in MacDonalds after being in their management scheme.

I don’t think the OP is being snobby at all, what she is worried about is the perception of it, “flipping burgers for a living” is used as an expression that someone has failed in life, (completely wrong obviously and actually very offensive) I would think anyone who works for McDonald’s is a grafter and has a good work ethic.

My DS graduated this year from uni with a good degree and is working in Tesco's. He's doing it while he applies for graduate jobs. I think it will teach him some transferable skills and he's earning money. How could a recruiter view that negatively?

My friend started out working in our local branch, now he's living in the US and runs European operations. He flies all over the world visiting different cities. He and his wife have a wonderful life thanks to McDonald's.

A mate of mine had family/financial problems during his degree at Oxford and worked the midnight to 2am shift at McDonalds cashing up every holidays. He’s now doing very well as a doctor in applied computational mathematics. I frequently recruit for very well paid graduate jobs and I always mark down the ones who haven’t earned money in a proper open market job (not an internship at Uncle Freddie’s form). Service sector jobs are absolutely fine.

However, if it’s for a whole year it would be preferable to spend at least some time doing something vocational.

McDonalds is far far better on your cv than no paid employment but 6 months at McDonalds (or Monday-Wednesday) plus 6 months (or Thursday-Saturday) doing something which would provide relevant transferable skills (over and above the basic but vital “turn up, work hard, obey the rules, don’t swear at the customers, even the annoying ones”) would be even better.

There’s limited jobs for teenagers and it’s not his career but a way to earn and get experience. What difference if it’s MacDonalds, Tesco, a hospital or local pub? It’s non skilled and low paying, but invaluable in terms of discipline and responsibility. My children go to a private school and several of my sons friends got there first jobs at these kind of places. I don’t know anyone who thinks the kids that work in these jobs are in any way less worthy.

There's a big difference between working in McDs as a student or on their management scheme and doing a full-time, unskilled job in food services or retail or similar. IME, it's fine short-term so I wouldn't have any worries about him doing it for a year but longer term, people do wonder why you've been in an unskilled job for so long if you're capable of doing something better.