Pros
If you're young and have no other obligations, it is a great business to get your foot into out of college because they're one of the few places that will hire you straight out of college with no experience. - lots of upward mobility if you really open up your availability to moving to different locations, (don't buy a house somewhere). - Great training/experience to put on a resume' because "if you can run a WH you can manage anything". - I have used WH experience to guide me in NUMEROUS ways of life after leaving, so much so that I feel like a 4 year WH manager's experience on a resume' is WAY more valuable than a college degree. - teaches you how to manage your money well and budget accordingly - if you really dive in head first and take the bull by the horns, you can make great money, and on the flip side won't have a lot of time to spend it so you can make a nest egg.
Cons
- barely any quality of life unless you are able to find unicorns that will go to war for you. long days, early mornings, random 3rds during your work week. - constant moving around to different cities to advance quickly - no home life balance if you're actually meeting the objectives to advance - rigorous training/work environment - one extreme or the other when it comes to associates - borderline safety risk on 3rd shift at some higher volume locations, I had people threaten me quite a few times over trying to diffuse hostile situations - if you aren't good at building relationships with your associates, and really truthful and transparent, and FAIR, they will not take care of you, and you will not last long. one of the main reasons I lasted as long as I did was because I was fairly good at that portion of the job. - health insurance is pretty high compared to what I realized other employers do for their associates. - no 401k but they have a stock program you can invest into, but it is a pain to take the money out, and technically "doesn't have to be bought back". - further, the stock program as far as options go, only vest after 10 years. So, in order to see a dime of it you have to have 10 years with the company, and they sell you on the "free 15k in stock options" but what that essentially means is you get the net profit of the option (about 10k?) after 10 years. But with most businesses doing 401k % match you will gain about 30-40k in 10 years if you invest 3% of your income just through the 3-6% match. not to mention the compounding factor of the investment. But, it is free though, so there is an upside to it. - they have a really strict company policy and no voice and low quality picture on the cameras, so if something looks like you're acting one sort of way through video, but is completely different, they typically side with whatever the majority rule of the ordeal is. I've seen people band together and kick a manager out of restaurants when they actually did nothing wrong. - ****But again**** I have encouraged lots of friends/family/etc. to take a step on that side of business because it is kind of military grade training and overall is a pretty good paying gig for fresh out of college students. Gives you a lot of great work experience and appreciation, humility, insight, PATIENCE, etc. so don't think I am steering you away, just being honest. I wouldn't change my work experience here for anything, and I am glad that I took this journey in my career.