[dawernik]

I don't think you have to work at a crappy job, but working at a job where you actually learn the difficult lessons of interacting directly with customers, or the struggle of selling to them - or the reality of the mindset and motivation of a frontline employee is invaluable.

I'm always shocked, especially in software, at how many people just come out of school (or worse yet grad school) with no sense of trying to understand the edges of their business. Blissfully working away in a 'lab'.