In the Summer of 2018, temperatures in the UK skyrocketed and England nearly bought it home. I was at the end of a sweaty shift at a major fast food franchise that started at 5am in a grey uniform sort of too big and too small in all the wrong places when I received an email that said I had been accepted for a three month, part-time internship in London. My interview had been the day after England played Croatia in the World Cup Semi-final, I had told myself that if England won then I would get the job so I hadn’t been expecting to hear back. I decided that this would be my last shot at trying to make it as a designer, having (almost) totally accepted an eternity of being asked what a flat white is on a daily basis – or at least until that advert had stopped being shown on the TV. England lost but I somehow got the gig and began my career.
The Gap in my design CV is because I ended up working at Mcdonalds and I’m okay with that. In my last post, I mentioned this briefly and re-reading it back, it seemed negative but I was trying to give an insight into how I felt at the time rather than how I view the year I spent working there now. I have recently spent some time reflecting upon how Mcdonalds made me a better designer and person and I feel really called to share the full story.
When I first finished University, I thought my career path would look just like this:
But it has ended up looking something like this:
Other than a couple of short internships and work experience opportunities, I found myself without work and I had never had a job in the real world. I’d never ever waited tables, pulled pints or worked a till and it showed. I ended up in a vicious cycle of not being able to get a design job because I had no idea what I was doing but not wanting to give in and do something ‘normal’ for a while because I thought a CV gap would look bad – but I didn’t have any experience in the real world anyway so nobody really wanted me. Eventually I properly ran out of money and my local Mcdonalds was hiring. Working at a fast food restaurant is an absolute life skill and if I was ever without design work in the future, it is something I could go back to to survive.
My first few days at Maccies completely transformed my work ethic. At Uni I had worked hard but to be honest I spent a proportion of the week as follows: Waking up and giving myself a long pep talk to go into the studio and work, arriving and seeing that oh look! So and so is over there! “Hey what are you doing? Let’s see your work then. Oh, you’re taking a break now? Do you know what, do you want to go get lunch with me?” We would go to the pub for a panini and a pint and talk about how stressed we were and a minimum of another hour passed. I would then proceed to spend the afternoon doing research, overthinking absolutely everything, being stressed and panicking until I felt ill. Okay fuck it. “Who’s out tonight?”.
At Maccies, every second of the days is counted – not only your clock-ins and breaks, but how fast orders are going through, how slick you are on the tills and how long food has been left out. My degree didn’t matter, it mattered how quickly I could pop Happy Meal boxes. I learnt how to be more disciplined with time – when I was working I was working but breaks were breaks. If you have ever worked a dual lane drive thru with a hangover, you do it once and I quickly stopped drinking in the week and staying up all night playing Animal Crossing. As I had to get out of bed at 4am for breakfast shifts, it became paramount that I actually slept. I finally got into a sleep pattern because I was tired at night from working during the day. Once you have clocked out and gone home your responsibility completely ceases, there is something comforting yet unsatisfying about never being able to fully complete the job, the floors are going to need mopping again and the queue never gets smaller but the shift always has an end. Even if it feels like it never will, the shift ends and you get to go home.
I next learnt how to talk to people without a drink in my hand. The most outrageous person at the party is usually the most anxious – Hi. At the time I struggled to interact outside of partying. I suddenly had to speak to hundreds of strangers in a day and get them to like me in three seconds, all whilst sober and wearing something unflattering. It was terrifying. I learnt the art of small talk – how to be friendly for a minute or two whilst taking someone’s order and I gradually built up a rapport with the regulars, I’d remember their orders, give them table service and make an effort. I also had to make friends with the other staff members, many of which were just passing their GCSE’s and didn’t know who Busted are so I found it hard to relate at first but I was refreshed by meeting all sorts of people from around the world and of different ages, I learnt so much about people and that I could be likeable without the booze all the time. These skills are without a doubt what lead me to getting back into design.
Before Mcdonalds, I had been unemployed for a short period, I’d spent a lot of time looking at my ceiling and thinking and it hadn’t been very good for me. With my body occupied with repetitive actions, my head reset. As my working day became more automatic I was able to think productively again, and I thought about design. Being surrounded by one brand all day long was fascinating to me. I realised that Mcdonalds is something you see and experience and the food products are a small part of your visit. When you are in a Mcdonalds, you know exactly where you are and what you are getting. Mcdonalds staff give out balloons to the children but Burger King staff give out hats. I had never grasped how language is an integral part of a successful brand until then, for example we were taught what to say – ‘We never say chips we say fries’ Has stuck with me from day one of training.
Everything in the store has a process – you are working in a very tight space so nothing in there is unnecessary. I approach design like this – when you think you are finished then ask yourself ‘What can I take away?’. For this reason, Mcdonalds packaging and procedures are understood universally by customers and staff – you don’t necessarily need to be able to speak the local language to order from or work at a Mcdonalds.The way that the same paper is used to wrap burgers except folded differently so only the relevant design is visible is truly brilliant. I loved that even the items customers never see such as the coffee packaging is branded and designed really nicely. That brand meant behaviour started to click for me, I began to understand the things that my tutors had taught me and why Mcdoanlds is the global giant it is. I really believe that this all elevated my design work.
It’s important to note here that all these insights are gleaned from 3 years distance to the situation. At the time I was miserable and exhausted and I couldn’t say that Mcdonalds was where I could see myself in 5 years time. There were regular fights outside and difficult customers that all had to be dealt with using a smile and an extra sachet of BBQ sauce. One guy came by every single day at the same time to order a plain mcflurry and a double cheeseburger. I had to learn to grit my teeth and laugh when he said “Cheer up love at least you don’t work at Mcdonalds” literally every day or he would complain about me to my manager. Being honest, the only part that I really liked, that I got out of bed for and wasn’t hungover for and took extra shifts for, was the money. Infact, I actually earnt more at Mcdonalds than I did later on, working as a junior designer in central London. I accepted that money is what keeps us alive and as much as I love every second I spend designing I also enjoy being paid for my time.
So ultimately, as much as I took away from the experience, I didn’t enjoy it but it took something I detested to give me a final kick up the arse to improve my design skills and give things another shot. I started applying for internships and going to interviews again. Eventually, I got it right. For the first time I just decided to be honest about my struggle to get a job and adapt to the world post university. We didn’t even discuss my work that much, It felt good to talk about football and music and not have to pretend that design was my only interest. Your potential employer will absolutely see through you telling them how much you loved commuting into London with no money and making coffee all day on your first internship. I now understand this having interviewed people. Why was I always saying I liked working in a ‘fast paced environment’ when I never really had? We are all advised against putting statements like this on our CVs but I can’t be the only one who panicked and did it again and again anyway.
The next chapter of the story is that I spent the three months that followed, part time in London and part time at Mcdonalds. Outside of work I burnt myself out relearning software and brushing up, taking things home to work on and practicing. The company rewarded my hard work with a real chance and eventually employed me, allowing me to leave Mcdonalds and put that uniform in the bin. I stayed for two years and began to truly find myself creatively. Although I had literally been counting down the seconds, my last shift at Maccies didn’t feel like a momentous occasion, I simply grabbed my stuff out of my locker, clocked out for the last time and left, heading to the garage to grab a bottle of wine on my way home. I don’t even know that my shift manager was aware that it was my last day and I didn’t even mind – it was just a job, it wasn’t who I was.
Recka's Cabinet of Curiosity 