To think McDonalds can lead to a decent career?

[ProverbialOuthouse]

Ok I'm looking for reassurance.

DS2 has just left school at 16. Applied for apprentiships but got nowhere. His gcse grades were not great. It got to September and he still wasn't sorted so I said he had to go to college. He agreed. His useless selfish bastard of a father then totally put him off and talked him out of it as it meant he would need to carry on paying maintenance so instead he applied for him a job at McDonald's. he had his interview which went well and now has a trial which sounds promising. Ex has already decided that if he gets the job he will stop maintenance with immediate effect.

So now it looks like DS may end up working full time at McDonald's. I'm so pissed off as he could have done more.

However looking on the bright side I suppose he will gain work experience, retail experience, catering experience and a job reference as well as money in his pocket (to be fair the pay is pretty decent for a 16 year old).

AIBU to kid myself that a start at McDonald's could potential lead to better things in his future or is he doomed to a life of minimum wage?

*dramaqueen

Of course you can leave school at 16. You just have to be in employment education or training.*

Education, training, or employment and education or training.

You may well find working in this for a year might make him realise that he wants to go and study and get qualifications for later life. I was adamant that I didn't want to go to uni etc, 3 months working in Superdrug in the run up to Christmas quickly made me realise that I wanted more for myself and went to uni the following year.

I would absolutely be insisting that he does some kind of college course part-time though, that combined with a part-time at mcdonalds sounds good.
I'd be surprised if mcdonalds gave him a full time contract straight away, it's usually zero hours for the majority, though that suited me well at the time.

Macdonalds or college..mm. Your ex is an arse, is there any reason you can't persuade him to go to college?

If McDonalds will put him through their apprenticeship programme, he will continue to be paid his normal hourly rate and would end up with an Intermediate Apprenticeship in Hospitality and Catering (level 2) if he completed it. And they say on their website that their apprenticeship programme is open to all employees info here. That way he'd be earning, learning, and meeting government requirements for people of his age wrt EET.

Absolutely.

It depends on the person.

I had a friend who should have gone to university (according to teachers and parents) but he worked full time in Tesco. He's still with the company years later but fairly senior and making 150k a year.

Mamabear.. How very judgemental. He can do both.

There is nothing wrong with working in any kind of job.

The vast majority of people who work full in time in retail roles do not end up as managers though. There are few managerial roles compared to a lot of front-line jobs.

Never underestimate the potential of a job. My son got a job in a phone company call centre years ago. At the time I thought he would be stuck in a dead end job but he worked his way up to an executive job and travels the world. He never went to University and had a happy go lucky attitude until he worked there but something inspired him to get stuck in,.

I dropped out after my first yea of uni as hated my degree (my a levels grades are pretty bad but amazing gcse)..

I went to work for a well known cut price shop ft. I hated it and I wasnt a stranger to graft as had worked for a catalogue shop from age 16 pt. But it gave me motivation to go back to my uni and talk to them. They got took me for a trial in a completely different degree providing I proved myself. Now I have a degree and work in the nhs.

Providing he's working and not dossing about then give him the thumbs up. Sometimes it can take a while to work out where u want to be.

People have raised some great points. And remember OP he's still young, even if this doesn't work out he has lots of time to figure out what he wants to do - he can always go back to college in future if he decides he wants to do specific training/qualifications down the line.

I think my DS will end up doing a similar thing, he simply hates school and I don't want his dossing round the local college which he will probably hate as much. The law says that they can do 20 or more hours work and a PT course, but no one seems to check up on this and from why I have been able to discover it can be any sort of education or training. So for my DS an on line L2 gym instructor (which is an area of interest) would suffice.

As an employer the most important skill I look for is work ethic, this overrides everything so I agree that McDonalds could be a great start for your DS.

Absolutely- I used to work at Dominoes and the franchise owner also owned a couple more restaurants, including the local McDonalds and Costa + similar in different towns. My manager was a former McDonalds employee who was the owner's first hire. He'd been so impressed by the guy that he'd put him in as the first manager in each new franchise until it was running smoothly. He left to work on the business side and (judging by his very nice cars...) earns a killing now.

It's just a job. Everyone (well, okay, not everyone, but most successful people) starts somewhere. When I was 16, I worked at the till in a supermarket. I spent some time working on a farm. I worked for about a year driving a delivery van for a florist. I also worked in a cafe. Some of that I did after school and before university and some of it I did while in university. But I still went to university, went on after to get my master's and I now have a PhD. Everyone has to start somewhere and working is always better than not working. What was key for me is that I had a lot of family support to be more than just a girl working at the supermarket for the rest of my life (not saying that's a terrible thing either, but it's hard to survive on those wages and I had the capability to do more than that). I had a parent who encouraged me to keep looking for other things, who talked to me about what I wanted in life, who helped me afford a car when I couldn't on my own so I could get to a better job or university far away. I also had some financial help from family when I needed it to afford university. I wasn't just left stuck in some low wage job with no one having expectations that I wouldn't be doing that forever. But I wouldn't necessarily worry it ends the possibility to do other things. It's just some pocket money and buys time so he can apply for other things and figure out what he wants to do with his life.

I know LOADS of people who started off in small, part time jobs within the food and retail industry, who worked their way up over the years, OP. Your DS will need the drive to do it, of course, and he will also be competing with graduates, but it's perfectly possible.

Advise him to take every training opportunity he can and get involved. Anything he can learn or participate in is another little extra on his CV, even if it's bullshit! I used to work for Tesco. Being a union rep, a Farm to Fork rep, community champion, etc. gave a lot of people the boost they needed to get onto the management options programme. Many of my old colleagues would get signed off as managers, stick around for a year or two, and then move elsewhere as soon as they had the initial management experience on their CV. Some were graduates, some weren't.

My daughter didnt want to go to college to continue education either, ended up getting an apprenticeship as had to continue education/training of some form as pp's have said until 18.

We have been checked up on, only yesteday got a phone call from Hampshire county council education department to check that she was still attending the apprenticeship as she isnt 18 until next year.

There are LOADS of skills which can be learned in places like McD's and transferred to other jobs in the future.

Team working, working under pressure, food hygiene, time management etc etc etc.

I worked at McD's during uni holidays, went to their HQ in London, took exams and became a Floor Manager. When I graduated I wrote to HQ and asked for some work experience which they happily gave me (and it was paid) and which got my CV off to a good start. While I was in HQ I met the UK Beef Buyer - he didn't have so much as a GCSE, he'd started as a crew member and worked his way up, he knew the business. McDs are great for promoting from within.

Got to be better than burger king - they were open on Christmas Day where DD worked, and all the McD were closed.

After 8 months, she was head-hunted for a new role with Apple.

My 2 siblings worked there - 1 became a manager and worked their way through uni and into a good career, the other gave it up when they went to uni. My SIL worked at another burger chain, became a manager and then went onto a decent career in finance (without a uni degree). So, yes it can definitely lead onto a career depending on what your DS puts into it (and what he wants out of it).

Do people actually realise that not everyone has it in them to be "successful" and earn 6 figure incomes? These threads piss me off so much with their sneering undertones of "well it'll do for now but of course no-one would want to work there forever tee-hee".

You know what? My son works in fast food, he earns a decent wage for his age, he works bloody hard and he's happy. I don't give a flying fuck if he works there for the rest of his life. I assume some of you judgemental twats never need to use a supermarket or a restaurant or any other form of service, because if everyone had your attitude, there would be no one to bloody well serve you!

I know of many young people that have found their time at McDs very beneficial. I also know of one recruiter that guarantees candidates an interview if they have worked in fast food establishments. He believes if you can work in that environment for a decent length of time you will have a good work ethic, so are worth an interview.

I don't see why he couldn't make something of himself from it. Even if he just takes some courses until he decides what he wants to do.

I've worked for a large supermarket chain for over a decade. Before children I worked myself to supervisor and was on track for management. I'm not interested anymore (hours, bringing work home ect) and earn wages just to enhance my life now.
But I had no experience nor qualifications. Just sensible hard worker.

Could you maybe point out to your ds that his father is only interested in saving himself money. If he doesn't go to college then he will not have to pay maintenance, but that if your ds is working then he will need to pay you money for board? I wonder if your ds is liking the idea of having cash and hasn't yet cottoned on to that fact that to a 16 year old the money seems good, if it's just for spending money, but maybe not so good when needed to pay for living expenses.

The McD job with their job training might well be a fine route for him, but you should also direct him at some of the articles about the young people who were striking a few weeks ago - the main complaint seemed to be that as a young person you couldn't actually support yourself on the salary - because you don't get enough hours and if you are paying housing costs, rather than living with family, it just isn't enough money.

There is nothing like a minimum wage job to encourage you to better your prospects. In your son's case he could this both through McDonald's internal training schemes, or by leaving and going to college, or by working/studying simultaneously.