5 ms·

If you actually want to be an astronaut and to pay off your student debt, your best bet is to join the US Navy or the US Air Force, and become a fighter pilot w

If you actually want to be an astronaut and to pay off your student debt, your best bet is to join the US Navy or the US Air Force, and become a fighter pilot who is also a technical and scientific genius. They will, however, start you off on doing things which are far more demeaning, gruelling and uncomfortable than merely flipping burgers, before you ever get to fly a goddamn fighter jet or a spaceship. Flipping burgers isn't a particularly good pathway to anything, but all the good pathways to anywhere start off just as shite.

derleth 14y ago
You're missing the point by focusing too closely on a specific, unrealistic example. The point is that flipping burgers can't be a path to anywhere because once you graduate college, your debt load is so high that a minimum-wage job can't possibly help you pay it down. Especially if you need to live on that wage, too. Getting a government job (including something in the Navy or Air Force) is a different matter entirely, due to massive amounts of tax money being poured into the military (which implies massive amounts of tax money not being poured into anything else). It is a world unto itself.
rprasad 14y ago
Flipping burgers can be a damn good pathway to an executive position in the fast food industry, as long as you actually put the effort into it. Turnover is high in the fast food industry, so promotions are rapid. College graduates who stick it out are frequently offered full-ride scholarships to business school on the company's dime, with managerial and executive-level positions (in either cases paying >$100,000) afterwards. From a career perspective, starting your career by flipping burgers at McDonalds can yield greater dividends (in the long-term) than being a programmer.
- marshray 14y ago
  Good to know folks aren't afraid to be contrarians around here. There are a few programmers who have become managers and executives too of course. But yes there are executives who would sooner bring in a graduate of Hamburger U than promote talented technical people.

derleth 14y ago

You're missing the point by focusing too closely on a specific, unrealistic example. The point is that flipping burgers can't be a path to anywhere because once you graduate college, your debt load is so high that a minimum-wage job can't possibly help you pay it down. Especially if you need to live on that wage, too. Getting a government job (including something in the Navy or Air Force) is a different matter entirely, due to massive amounts of tax money being poured into the military (which implies massive amounts of tax money not being poured into anything else). It is a world unto itself.

rprasad 14y ago

Flipping burgers can be a damn good pathway to an executive position in the fast food industry, as long as you actually put the effort into it. Turnover is high in the fast food industry, so promotions are rapid. College graduates who stick it out are frequently offered full-ride scholarships to business school on the company's dime, with managerial and executive-level positions (in either cases paying >$100,000) afterwards. From a career perspective, starting your career by flipping burgers at McDonalds can yield greater dividends (in the long-term) than being a programmer.

marshray 14y ago
Good to know folks aren't afraid to be contrarians around here. There are a few programmers who have become managers and executives too of course. But yes there are executives who would sooner bring in a graduate of Hamburger U than promote talented technical people.