My Junior Year Internship: McDonald's Edition
It’s taken me a while to really get into a groove while writing this blog post, but finally, I’ve found time to sit down and do this. In November, I OFFICIALLY accepted an offer from McDonald’s, aka the queen of chicken nuggets, to be a Global Supply Chain intern this summer at their headquarters! And while that’s all SO good, and I couldn’t be more excited, I think it’s important to talk about my journey to get to this opportunity.
I knew recruiting was going to be tough from my experience last year (read all about it here), but oh my god, I was really not prepared for the amount of rejection I faced for the first month and a half of true junior year recruiting. Last year felt like a walk in the park in comparison to how I felt at the beginning of the fall semester.
Going into the recruiting season, I thought I knew what I wanted out of a career. Key word is thought. I had complete tunnel vision, and that was definitely my number one mistake. Because I was completely focusing on one pathway, I was absolutely crushed when it didn’t end up working out.
When I say crushed, I mean I had a full mental breakdown and spent a whole weekend and a day crying, watching Tiktoks, and crying some more, all while trying to figure out if I was going to be employed or not next summer. I know, it was all VERY dramatic.
In a moment where I wasn’t crying, I frantically started exploring what companies I could potentially be interested in. I started looking at jobs that felt like massive long shots, because honestly, at that point I was like what do I have to lose? And during that time period, I found a LinkedIn job posting from McDonald’s.
I was immediately drawn to it. When I was little I had spent time at the Ronald McDonald house, and it’s always been my mom’s favorite fast food place, but for some reason it never crossed my mind to apply for a job at their company. All of a sudden, I remembered that McDonald’s was one of the best supply chain companies in the world, and immediately, as an Operations Management major myself, my interest was sparked.
Once I finished applying, I started doing so much LinkedIn searching to find someone in their supply chain division that could maybe provide me with some insight. I found a couple contacts and sent them a short note along with my resume. I thought nothing of it (because who has time to answer an email from a complete stranger) and continued on with life.
Later that week, I opened my inbox expecting nothing. Instead, I had two unread emails from the McDonald’s contacts I had sent an email to earlier that week. Both of them noted that they would pass along my resume to the recruiting team, and expressed their enthusiasm with my interest! I was pleasantly surprised by their genuine desire to help a stranger.
Honestly, those two shorts email replies back to me helped me really pick up my motivation and optimism about my recruiting journey. After feeling so unwanted from a company, I was truly starting to realize that maybe these rejections were happening for a reason.
Honestly after all that, recruiting started to become a little bit of a blur. What I do remember is that McDonald’s selected me to do a one-way video interview which I more than happily obliged to. That interview turned into another interview, and then eventually turned into an invite to basically a two-day superday at their headquarters in Chicago!
If you don’t know what a superday is, let me give you some insight. A superday usually refers to final round interviews that happen at a company’s headquarters. The day usually consists of anywhere from 3-20 interviews for multiple hours (according to the Wall Street Journal). A lot of companies will do 3 - 5 half hour interviews back to back with different professionals from the group that you are applying to.
I had never ever been to a super day before but had definitely heard a lot of things from my friend’s experiences about their own superdays. I was prepared for something incredibly competitive, tough, and emotionally draining. But once I got to my final round interview, I was genuinely surprised by the warmth that all the McDonald’s employees had. I probably had one of the best superday experiences ever known to a college student.
I remember heading to my dad’s house for a mini pre-Thanksgiving celebration after the interview, and telling my family that this was absolutely the company I wanted to work for. My two day experience at that McDonald’s headquarters absolutely reaffirmed that every rejection I had was for a reason. They said they would get back to us within the next two weeks afterwards, so obviously being the anxious person that I am, it felt like a REALLY long time.
Luckily, McDonald’s only made me wait a couple days before they called me with the good news. I remember I was sitting at work when I got a phone call from the recruiter. I can remember how hard my heart was beating, and I remember immediately texting all my loved ones that I had gotten the job. Saying yes was easy!
I’m not sure if there’s a moral of this story, but if there is, it’s definitely that keeping your mind open while choosing your first job after college is so important. I would have never even been in the position that I am in now if I hadn’t been rejected from what I thought I wanted.
I’m so so excited, and I’m so proud to be a part of a company that cares equally about their business as they do about their community.