Looking for a Management Career: Why Not Try McDonald's Restaurants?

When people think of a good place to begin a career in management, McDonalds may not top the list, but there is in fact something that sets McDonalds apart from many other corporate environments where one may find employment today. While most places suffer from a structure of corporate apathy where the people who run the establishment are removed from the people who work in it every day and stupid policies that consider the bottom line more than the customers may be constantly announced. (How often have you been propositioned to switch your long distance company when checking out of an office supply store?)

It may seem strange but many owners and people who run the McDonald's corporation often started out in the restaurants themselves. I learned this fact working as a telemarketer briefly when trying to give away trade magazines for a company doing market research. At least 60% of the people at the corporate headquarters started out as minimum wage hamburger flippers.

While McDonald's has long been known for its charitable efforts and contributions such as the Ronald McDonald house that gives cancer and other terminally ill children a place to stay while undergoing treatment, it is only part of a philosophy which is perhaps best phrased by Google's motto "Don't be evil."

But what surprised me is how dedicated they were to it. There was at least one person who if I had her in my employ I would never promote to manager, but it seems that the staff who ran the chain of restaurants I worked for was willing to take a chance on her. In fact, she was often rude to the customers and would bring in food from other restaurants (and I mean other national chains by this) and eat it in front of the customers on her break. For some odd reason the restaurant I worked in did not have a break room.

She now manages the McDonalds at a local Wal-Mart. I do not know if she is any better in dealing with the public there as I tend to avoid going into that particular place if I see her behind the counter, but if a McDonald's restaurant was willing to take a chance on promoting a less than stellar employee to a managerial position for no other reason than she wanted to, imagine how much better someone who deals well with the public will be received. (For libel reasons, I will not give out her name.)

Not only that even part time workers if they have been their long enough can sign up for a health insurance program. But perhaps one of the strangest benefits is intangible. While I worked for the store, I found most of the employees to be happy and satisfied with their jobs. Singing and not necessarily to the radio was not uncommon.

In my previous experience with entry level positions, I found many employees to be bitter and resentful of people, but something about the environment caused people to actually want to work there, often wanting even to put in extra hours. It did not necessarily apply to me, but for someone looking to start a career in management, you can not get much better training than that offered by the world's largest fast food chain.