In general, I don’t think staying at one place and paying your dues is a good strategy for getting ahead anymore.
You can make a good career in the restaurant industry, including if you start in fast food. Working hard and taking initiative to make things better are always good ways to get ahead. But if you want to stay in restaurants, it’s best focus on other parts of the restaurant industry where the corporate structure isn’t so rigid.
Plenty of people get their start at entry-level restaurant jobs. In an industry like this, and/or if you don’t have a college degree, getting ahead is all about your personal qualities. People who are innovative, hardworking, and entreprenurial are the ones who have the biggest career growth.
Often that means staying at one company so that you can improve things there and leave things better than you found it. But punching the clock and “paying your dues” won’t get you ahead in the current environment. It’s not like you can put in x number of years and get promoted. If you do that, there will always be someone more enthusiastic and hungrier, and people like that are persuasive.
An entrepreneurial spirit is the key to any career growth these days. You can even do that starting from a fast food job. It’s a fine starting point, but there are bigger and more exciting things out there than some mid-level corporate position that’s above management.