Series: Fast Food Lessons

Golden Arches, Sharon Drummond

Many people who know me are surprised to find out that I worked at McDonald’s in high school. Why? … because I am a vegan! Before you get side-tracked, I assure you that I did not become vegan because of the food I ate when I worked there. I’ll leave it at that (although, looking back, it should have been a reason).

I remember a lot about the training I received when I started my job, from the old out-dated cheesy training videos, to the shadowing I did with existing employees at the customer counter. I also remember smelling like grease all the time, no matter how much I showered. But I digress…

This was back in the early 90′s when the classic McDonald’s characters were still around, though waning in appearances. Back then, in the restaurant I worked in, most employees worked hard to deliver value (a.k.a. food) to the customers. I sure did! I was getting paid to work, and work I did. We still had fun on the job, but never at the expense of the customer experience.

I quickly moved up the ranks from the main in-store counter, to the food delivery window in drive-thru, to the high pressure first drive-thru window (I was the multi-tasking queen!), and to new-hire trainer. I even revised the outdated training program to be more relevant, effective, and context appropriate.

I learned a lot during the 3′ish years I worked there, many of which I carry with me in my work today. Believe it or not, many of these learnings are readily transferrable to other businesses, even those in software development (including software testing).

What was intended to be a single article has taken a mind of its own and evolved into a full-fledged series. I hope you will follow along – watch for the first one soon!

Entries in this series will be added as links below as they are published.

Fast Food Lesson #1: Customers Are Key

Note: I am not an advocate for McDonald’s, do not own stock in the company, and don’t plan to step foot in one again if I can help it, for reasons not relevant to this series.

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