Could it be the ultimate Fast Food sector ‘newstalgia’ offering? McDonald’s is hiring 20,000 Canadian summer students this year. Which should help put a significant dent in the current youth unemployment rate of 14.1 percent…
‘It’s really REAL, man!’
That’s currently more than twice the overall national unemployment rate. So the McHiring call comes as a welcome couterpoint to the April jobless report from Statistics Canada, on the doorstep of the annual ‘summer employment season’.
A legendary challenge…
The wording has changed a little over the years, but the core message remains the same.
“As an employer of 1 in 10 Canadians, a job at McDonald’s is a launchpad for success in more ways than one,” the official news release boasts. “Whether it’s a first job or part of a career journey, team members learn valuable professional skills in an inclusive environment that can be carried into future careers – like teamwork, leadership, agility, resiliency and decision-making.”
McD’s is proud to give its new recruits – 70 percent of whom are under the age of 24 and have not worked at ‘real’ jobs before – an employment ‘baptism by fire’, dropping them ‘into the middle of a fast-paced, guest-focused and local team’.
I remember the first of my contemporaries who worked at McDonald’s, back in the day, rating the first-day experience as something of a shock. But all in all, a good shock: “It was really REAL, man!” he reported.
‘Chat Wants YOU!’
A typical McDonald’s hiring call has always been less an ‘offer of employment’ than a ‘call to arms’.
“I’m looking for employees who want to earn extra money and also learn skills they’ll have for their entire lives,” says Chat Sangha, an independent McDonald’s franchisee from Edmonton. More than 90 percent of McD’s locations are owned by independent, local franchisees. “McDonald’s experience is a proven resume-builder and really is the best first job. I love giving job opportunities to hard working students in my community and seeing them thrive.”
My take
Sangha may sound like a ‘ringer’; some kind of cheerleader ‘plant’ from McD’s head office. But I know, from my own experience, that recruiters DO consider a first job at McDonald’s a serous proposition. Kids really do earn later-life career points for ‘sticking with it’ – mastering the skills McD’s requires, as well as embracing the concept of teamwork.
Fast Food sales have been declining – or at least plateauing – over the past couple of years. It’s good to hear that the McStrategists are expecting a seasonal resurgence in family travel and out-of-the-house activity this summer. Which is what will drive the current ‘call to arms’…
~ Maggie J.