Crew Member Review

I would make food, serve customers at the desk and tills, help them on the self-service machines and keep the store clean. I would help with restocking items such as cups, boxes, food and drink and had to follow health and safety guidelines while doing all of these tasks listed.

I further developed my customer service skills, learnt a lot more about health and safety in the workplace particularly with food and cleaning procedures. I expanded my knowledge on operating till systems and assisting customers. I learnt how to create each item on the menu and how to keep the store tidy.

I personally did not find my programme enjoyable. I was supposed to receive time during working hours to do my apprenticeship-specific studies, but I was never given this time and had to do it all at home. My workplace gave me minimal support for my apprenticeship and completing work for it.

Lifetime Training did a great job at giving me support, however I felt there was a severe lack of communication between the training provider and the place of work, as any communication that happened was mostly through me (which was mostly towards the end of the apprenticeship, telling my workplace exam dates and asking them to fill out a form).

I barely received any support from my employer. I was supposed to be given time during working hours to complete apprenticeship work but spent all of my time on the shop floor except for a couple of my final exams which took place on the phone in a break room.

My training provider gave me a lot of support. We had monthly phone calls where I would be allotted work I had to complete between them, and they would explain anything I was confused about during these calls. They were very organised during my apprenticeship, yet I am still waiting to receive my certificate over a year after completing my apprenticeship.

I don't believe that my qualification and workplace were very well linked. A lot of the training was in relation to finer dining and it was often quite hard to apply this to my role, however I did find the information fairly interesting and could be applied to future roles.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to get involved in any extra-curricular activities in the workplace, however we did often do fundraising at the tills for the RMHC, selling keychains that would give customers who bought them special £1.99 deals or offers. This was made into a competition for the employees.

No

The McDonald's I worked at was not a pleasant place to work. There was a lot of drama where people seemed to have to 'pick sides', and the managers didn't often do anything about it or were involved themselves. There were many occasions when employees would say uncomfortable things to others, and I don't believe the store was very well managed.

McDonald's looks good on a CV as it shows you can work in a structured environment, work under pressure and you're able to adapt to a variety of tasks, however, be sure that the place you choose to work is well managed and ask many questions during your interview, as an interview is just as much for your benefit as it is theirs.