Best Places for High School Graduates to Start a Career

Best Places for High School Graduates to Start a Career

Nearly four in 10 recent high school graduates across the country will not enroll in college this fall, and most of them will enter the workforce in entry-level positions.

For many high school graduates who plan to enter the workforce, the opportunity to climb the career-advancement ladder, with promotions and pay growth, will come down to where they choose to work. Those starting in the same entry-level jobs at different large companies can have very different outcomes.  

The American Opportunity Index has assembled a special list identifying the 50 best large companies for those with high school degrees to start their careers, providing a valuable new resource for young job-seekers based on a groundbreaking assessment of entry-level workers' career trajectories over the past five years.

The American Opportunity Index’s 2024 Best Places for High School Graduates to Start a Career list is based on scores on three key Index metrics: how well firms hire entry-level workers (First Jobs), promote them internally (Advancement Within) and prepare them for better opportunities when they leave (Advancement Beyond). Excelling in these areas can have a profound impact in the early stages of a person’s career. 

For many high school graduates who plan to enter the workforce, making the right decision about where to work—as well as what they choose to do—can have a profound impact on their economic trajectory over the following years. While it is true that many young people who do not enroll in a four-year college immediately after high school will struggle to get ahead, a recent study by the The Burning Glass Institute found that almost one in five workers without degrees out-earn the median college graduate annual wage.  

Employers on the 2024 Best Places for High School Graduates to Start a Career list offer young people strong upward mobility either by promoting them within the company or serving as a launchpad for them to leverage the skills they have acquired to land better jobs at other firms. 

Topping the list: 

  1. Chipotle Mexican Grill
  2. Lowe's Companies, Inc.
  3. Walgreens Boots Alliance
  4. Foot Locker
  5. PNC
  6. Gap Inc.
  7. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
  8. Best Buy
  9. Chewy
  10. Starbucks

Explore the full list here



The American Opportunity Index assesses 400 of the largest U.S. companies that file public financial statements, measuring how well these firms maximize their internal talent to drive corporate performance and the growth of their employees. The Index is unprecedented in this approach: It is not based on corporate surveys but on an independent, big-data analysis of the career trajectories of nearly 5 million workers from 2018 to 2022, drawn from how they report changes in their work history on social-media platforms, resumes posted online, as well as comprehensive salary and job-posting data.

The Index is a joint project of the Burning Glass Institute, the Managing the Future of Work Project at Harvard Business School and the Schultz Family Foundation.

Robert "Rob" Cork

"Experienced Retail Leader | Sales Growth Specialist | Team Builder | Customer Service Expert | Operations Guru"

2mo

Well said! This is why we need to invest in teachers and schools. We need to teach more of the things needed in real life. Teach about money, loans, credit cards and how these things can improve or ruin their life's. Educate the basics like cooking, carpentry, basic plumbing, electrical, DYI work, how to take care of basic car repair, electronics, computers, check books, bank accounts, or the stock market. Information on or importance of health, nutrition, first aid, health insurance, life insurance, car insurance and property insurance. When you hire and do onboarding as I have over decades it's amazing how many young adults as well as their parents don't know how to fill out a W2, don't realize how important it is to sign up for 401k account, and it's free money to them. That's investing in our kid's life and hopefully they will be able to help themselves and others. With all parents working, kids are not learning as we did, from our family members. Hopefully when they are older and running the government they won't forget about taking care of the every day family and seniors.

Leon Khaimovich

Satisficing Practitioner of Metaphysics of Quality and Hands-on Designer of Knowledge-Intensive Processes

2mo

Real opportunities are in starting your own company. Look at some people, who recently never went or dropped out of college: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, and Larry Ellison. I am not speaking about Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John D. Rockefeller. Of course, these are exceptional cases, and not everybody is as driven, capable, and lucky as them. Yet, there is an old joke that becomes more and more true. Those, who can get a job after high school, do it. The rest goes to college. Those, who can get a job after college, do it. The rest goes to graduate school. Given a mind-boggling number of 60% of high school graduates going to college, it's pretty clear that colleges are preparing for nothing else but bullshit jobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs). My question is: For how much longer our greatest in the world economy will be able to support it?

Brenda B.

Pharmacist | Drug Utilization Review | Community Pharmacy | Helping improve patient outcomes by promoting optimal, evidence-based medication therapy

2mo

I am glad Bath & Body Works made the list. The culture was great when I worked there, and I learned much more than I was expecting to learn at that job. If BBW is looking for a pharmacist, I know where they can find one! 

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