Jeff Bezos Once Worked at McDonald's
The Claim
Jeff Bezos worked a summer job at McDonald's.
News posted on
Emerging story
Amazon founder and billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos recently announced his plan to go to space onboard the first flight of his aerospace company, Blue Origin.
Upon the news, several social media users began noting that although Bezos is one of the world’s wealthiest people, he was once a humble McDonald's employee.
Misbar’s Analysis
In several interviews, Jeff Bezos has described working at a McDonald’s in Miami when he was a teenager. He was a fry cook who made eggs, burgers, and fries for a summer. Bezos jokingly mentioned in one interview that because of his acne as a teenager, the McDonald’s manager put him in the back and not with the customers. Still, he enjoyed the fast-paced nature of working in a restaurant.
Although his tenure at McDonald’s was short, it did leave an impression on Bezos. In the book Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers that Began at McDonald’s he said, “You can learn responsibility in any job if you take it seriously.” The job taught him the importance of customer service, which is reflected in the customer-centric philosophy of Amazon today.
It is safe to say that Bezos has come a long way from his burger-flipping days, considering his current net worth of $189.1 billion. In 1980, when Bezos was sixteen years old, McDonald's paid an hourly wage of approximately $3.68 ($11.91 when adjusted for inflation). Amazon workers make around $16.88 per hour today. Bezos makes thousands of dollars per second on average, and he made $8 billion on a single day in 2020.
