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As someone who worked at McDonalds for four years (from ages 16-20), I assure you that I do not lack ambition or creativity. Working such a job while going to college can actually show more tenacity, but mostly it was just about surviving.

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I think my point is more about working four years at McD when you're 16, vs working four years at McD when you're 26. At 16-20, it demonstrates some commitment. At 26-30, it demonstrates complacency.

McD 'university' grads make a lot of money as managers and their school is free. Costco is another one of these companies where you can work at lowest level and move to upper mgt so staying there 4 years doesn't always mean burger flipping.

Many companies have incentives or a form of tuition reimbursement/schooling they're willing to pay for to put good people through a college or trade program, with the understanding that they stay at work for the company for X amount of years. It's been a thing for a long time, so the old school thoughts of "no ambition" often times don't have an applicability to today as it used to.

I've seen someone get put through management school for McDonalds and they went from 'order taker' to owning their own franchise in about 10 years. That's ambition.

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