According to Sheryl Palmer, CEO of the home-building company Taylor Morrison, everyone can benefit from working at fast-food giant McDonald's.
She knows that from first-hand experience.
The CEO got a job at McDonald's at age 15 and worked her way up the ranks through high school and college, she tells Adam Bryant of The New York Times: "I went into marketing, doing a lot of community functions. When I was 20, I became McDonald's marketing manager for San Diego."
"Every 16-year-old should have to work at McDonald's, because you really do learn how to work," she continues. "You have to pull back the equipment and sweep behind. There are no shortcuts. You had to do it right because it was such a part of their brand.
"There were a lot of life lessons in that job."
Palmer's not the only successful CEO who got started at McDonald's. Author Cody Teets interviewed dozens of people who launched their careers at the fast-food chain, including the founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
"You can learn responsibility in any job, if you take it seriously," Bezos, who's worth an estimated $71 billion, tells Teets in "Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald's."
"You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald's. It's different from what you learn in school. Don't underestimate the value of that!"
