Despite being strapped for cash and out of employment there are still jobs in today’s market that youths will tend to avoid perusing. With aspirations of directing people to their seats in a peaceful theatre or serving skinny lattes in a swanky London coffee house, offering a king of the day meal to a family that should consider re-evaluating their diet probably struggles to compete. However one should not easily cast aside the fast food industry, especially in a world where jobs are hard come by and when working there might be a better option than you initially realised.

The thing that’s easy to comprehend about working in fast food is that it’s physically and mentally demanding. Whether you’re serving difficult customers or producing never-ending orders the work is always constant, making an hour feel like a day. This combined with the heat of a boiler beating down on you in addition to the speed at which you have to work to satisfy the customers demand for fast food can prove a challenge, but this is exactly what the working world is like! Between working in school or in an office the pressure is always on to keep up with deadlines and maintain a successful working standard, so why be lazy and look for an easy job when you can dive in the deep end? You can show employers that you have worked in Hell’s kitchen and survived and that the pressures of the job they are offering is something you can adapt to.

Something employers look for is a candidate’s ability to communicate with people, and let me tell you, you meet some interesting characters in fast food both inside and outside the kitchen. At times you may have to negotiate with difficult customers who swear that it was the cashiers hair they found in their burger despite the fact that no one has hair the same shade of bright ginger that is suspiciously similar to the customers, or the work colleague that has an interesting love life that he feels he needs to share with you. You find people of all walks of life and you need to work with them. Doing so is ticking the boxes of “Communication” and “Team Work” both of which are key traits that and employer looks for. If you can get on well with everyone you work with at a fast food restaurant then I guarantee you will work well with everyone you come across, not just in employment but in life as well.

I shan’t glamorise the fast food industry, Hollywood has already done that. It’s difficult work, there’s rarely a day you don’t come home smelling like double cheese burgers and chicken nuggets and if you’re lucky enough to have friends like mine you get the nick name “Burger Boy”. However from my experience you meet amazing people and it sets you up well for the future jobs that you idealise now (and now and then the guys treat me to a cheeky burger). Therefore, I strongly recommend fast food as a first job.