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McDonald's go large on job applications

Damian Wilson
Jun 18th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Work & Careers

It is hard not to sneer, but apparently more than 2,200 people every day are applying for a job at McDonald's.

The lure of the burger empire is proving too much for jobseekers from diverse employment backgrounds and the global junk food giant is finding university graduates, bank workers and teachers among their applicants. I'll declare now that my vested interest here is that I was refused a job by McDonalds when I was just 16 years old.


Why I was knocked back still remains a mystery, as my brother, to his eternal embarrassment, was the branch's star employee at the time and I knew the manager, who interviewed me, very well. He obviously didn't see my future and that of the Golden Arches in karmic synchronicity.

Anyhow, with unemployment at a record level of 2.2 million, I guess it's all stops out as people look for that first rung on the career ladder or cling to it with a vice-like grip to keep a wage, any wage, coming in. And McDonald's are doing their best, with the company hiring 140 people a day to flip burgers, cook fries and ask customers "Would you like a large meal" at every order.

But let's face it, even the Oxford English Dictionary looks down its nose at the McJob, describing it as 'an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects'. And though McDonald's keep fighting to have that perception changed, it's an uphill battle.

One of the problems is that the hamburger chain and others like it, is not really taken seriously. Sure 67,000 people across the UK work for McDonald's but if they disappeared tomorrow, would the economy suffer a terminal long-term setback? It's not an industry that is considered an 'international wealth creator'.

Micky Dee's doesn't make anything we export or that any other country cannot make for itself. It's not like manufacturing or the financial sector, which drive the British economy.

And though people can and do make money out of running or working for McDonald's franchises, as a career, it's just not that attractive. End of story.

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