Anecdote, possibly no longer relevant because of political changes (especially 9/11):

I've been in the US for six months, back in 2000. A few days before my visa expired, I was in a fast food and started talking to the guy selling me food. (Not a McD.) Turned out he was the owner :) One thing led to another, I told him I was bummed because my visa was expiring and I had to leave; he said "you speak English very well, I will hire you - none of my guys here have a visa". I didn't want to take him on, the company I was working for at the time had promised me they would try to bring me back (they didn't) and I didn't want to overstay since that would have been an automatic rejection.

The worst thing was... the company I was working for (as a programmer) was paying me around $15 / hour. He offered me $17 :)

Anyway, back to your point. That event had also led me to believe that finding a job in fast food is incredibly easy... I'm surprised to find out it's not.

Totally agree re: "find an apartment you can afford". My parents we're laughing their asses off when I told them "it is not easy to find a room for $600 in NYC with a month-to-month lease".

They thought I was brain dead. It just turns out that they haven't apartment hunted in 30 years.

Talked to a local business owner here. He started a small restaurant because, after having moved here and looked for a job for a year, he couldn't get hired. Big box stores, grocery stores, other restaurants. He's ... probably early 50s, and was looking to just be a good employee someplace, clock in, clock out... and could not get hired. He's always been a hustler, and that probably comes through in the interviews, and they pass on hiring him. So... the "go get a job flipping burgers"... isn't always as easy as it's made out to be in many regions. For the record, he's now flipping burgers in his own burger place (made his own job, basically).

To add to this, if you are applying to McDonalds, try to dumb down your resume so that they don't think you are a flight risk.

I.e. remove really technical stuff and leave high school education.

They will in today's job market (which isn't typical). Hiring for unskilled labor is incredibly tight.

"Just go to mcdonalds" may not necessarily be a strong argument, but "look for any job, not just a cs/eng job" definitely is.