In the 1970s, the coolest job you could have was flipping burgers at McDonald’s.
At least according to Paul Hendel. He started working at the newly opened McDonald’s in Merrick, New York on the south shore of Long Island in 1973 when he was just 16 years old, excited to snack on unlimited french fries and hang out with his friends between shifts. The gig paid $1.85 an hour.
“Believe it or not, you needed to have an in to get a job at McDonald’s back then, so my brother, who was working in the kitchen, recommended me for the job,” Hendel, 66, tells CNBC Make It. “Everybody wanted to work there.”
Hendel didn’t see a future at his high school job past graduation. He was accepted to C.W. Post University (now Long Island University), and planned to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in marketing and join his dad, Hank, who worked for a brokerage firm on Wall Street.
Fifty years later, Hendel owns and operates 31 McDonald’s locations across Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, including the flagship restaurant in Times Square.
“I never thought it would be my forever job,” says Hendel. “But I also can’t imagine working anywhere else.”
The conversation that changed the trajectory of his career
In 1975, Hendel was about to quit his job at the Merrick McDonald’s ahead of his first semester of college when his then-boss offered him a promotion: McDonald’s was opening a new location 30 minutes away in Glen Cove and desperately needed an assistant manager.
Hendel accepted the job, figuring he could use the money to help pay for tuition and books.
“There were a couple of parties that I missed, and I wasn’t happy about that, but it really paid off when I graduated, because I had zero debt and was really ahead of the pack in terms of work experience and networking with that job,” says Hendel. “Plus, being trusted to open a new restaurant when you’re an 18-year-old kid is pretty exciting.”
Hendel quickly proved himself to be a valuable asset to…
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