Working At Mcdonald's Summary

It has been an enduring tradition for American adolescents to undertake a job while still advancing their education. Nonetheless, Amitai Etzioni challenges this tradition in his essay “Working at McDonald’s” by stating that fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s, are not beneficial to adolescents. He argues that such jobs are unbeneficial because they lack room for creativity or long-term growth.
In his article, Etzioni makes note that two-thirds of American high school students have part-time jobs. Although this seems to be a perfect opportunity for children to learn work skills and gain independence from their parents, Etzioni doesn’t believe so. He gives reason to why fast-food jobs like McDonald's tend to be detrimental to student’s personal growth. In his essay, …show more content…
I have experienced this firsthand in my preparations for dental school. Many of my mentors have told me that it is difficult to gain exposure to the dental profession at my age, since there is a lack of hands-on jobs that prepare adolescents for careers such as dentistry. I have been told that many jobs that would prepare me well for my career are usually reserved for older individuals with specific certifications. Etzioni’s claims also resonate with a close family friend, who graduated college recently and now has a full-time job at Merck. During his adolescent years, he worked in retail stores. As a result, he believes that there was no opportunity during his adolescent years that could have given him the skills he is required to have now. He believes that if there were jobs that allowed for people to gain valuable skills, he would be of much more value to his company and would be more competitive with other employment seekers. Therefore, the only jobs left that are left to apply to were the ones that Etzioni claimed were