‘Go Work At McDonald’s’: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Shares Unusual Career Tip For Young People

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has a net worth of $234 billion. Currently serving as the executive chairman, Bezos built the company from an online bookstore to one of the world’s largest retailers and cloud service providers. (File Photo)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has an unconventional tip for young people looking to build successful careers – he suggests they start at McDonald’s. In a recent interaction, Bezos said that working at such places teaches lessons that no classroom or startup hustle can match.

“I always advise young people: Go work at McDonald’s,” Bezos said, as reported by Fortune. “You learn responsibility. You learn how to show up. You learn how to deal with people. You learn how to hustle.”

Bezos, who built Amazon from a garage in 1994 into one of the world’s largest companies, said that entry-level jobs build traits like discipline, patience, and adaptability — qualities essential for entrepreneurs but often undervalued today.

His comments come at a time when many young professionals are drawn toward instant success through content creation or digital ventures. Bezos, however, believes that spending time in a fast-paced workplace like McDonald’s gives individuals a grounding in the “real world”, from teamwork and customer interaction to managing time and expectations.

“You don’t need to start a company at 20,” he remarked. “You need to learn how the world works first.”

Bezos, who founded Amazon at the age of 30 years old after about a decade of work experience, is now the fifth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $234 billion. Both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, on the other hand, were just 19 years old when they launched Microsoft and Facebook, respectively. Zuckerberg is the fourth-wealthiest person in the world with a $250 billion net worth, and Gates is the 15th-richest at a $121 billion net worth.

“Extra 10 years of experience actually improved the odds that Amazon would succeed,” said Bezos.

Currently serving as the executive chairman, Bezos built the company from an online bookstore to one of the world’s largest retailers and cloud service providers.