Plenty of chefs started washing dishes. Starting at the bottom isn’t a detour. For a lot of people it’s the road.

Entry-level work is often where the actual knowledge is, because you see the whole operation from underneath. Washing dishes teaches timing, pace, what happens when the kitchen is slammed, and who is good at their job. Treating that period as a waiting room rather than a classroom is the only way to waste it.

Whatever job you have now, decide what you will learn from it beyond the pay. Who is best at their role and why, how the place makes money, what the people above you do all day. Ask one of them how they started, because the answer is usually less impressive and more useful than you expect.