My Summer Job

Not only is McDonald's going to be my summer job, but it is my job year round. Since October 2008 I have been working at McDonald's. When I started I was a cashier, then I become a Crew Trainer, showing new employees the ropes, next I become a Team Leader (manager in training) and now three and a half years later I am a manager. When I first started a lot of my high school friends worked there and it was just a part time job that made me some spending money. I took the job seriously and therefore was promoted multiple times. This, similar to the design industry shows how you start at the bottom of the food chain and little by little you work your way to the top. Secondly this is like the design industry because one of the first things you learn as a cashier is "the customer is always right." This could be translated to the client is always right. At the end of the day it's the customers that make the restaurant money and the clients that make the designer money. Next, working at McDonald's is like working in the design industry because it's all about communication. Almost every shift a customer has a complaint about the food, the store or an employee. As a manager it is my responsibility to make sure that at the end of the day the customer is satisfied. This means finding the problem, apologizing, finding a solution, making sure that it is prevented for the future and then wowing the customer. Lastly, my job is most like working  in the industry because of the people that I work with. There are roughly 110 people that are employed at my workplace, this means teens ages 15+. Some of these teenagers and I have conflicting personalities. Like in the design field, you don't get to chose who you are partnered with but are expected to work efficiently no matter what the case. Although it may seem like being a designer and a manager at McDonald's are worlds apart there are many more similarities than you would think.

Pictures from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/McDonalds-Brentwood.jpg
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AX445_mcinsu_G_20100929181848.jpg