My degree of difference

Training a global workforce for a consistent experience

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Kirsty Hughes, BU Business School graduate

There’s no denying that my placement year at BU had a pretty big impact on my education and my career. I spent it working at McDonald’s Global HQ in Shoreditch, London, but it grew into much more than just a placement year. Although my placement role was initially as part of the Operations Team, my role developed while I was there and I also took over a human resource role. When my placement finished, I was kept on in a part-time role as an Operations Project Co-ordinator while I finished my final year of study – and I was even able to base my dissertation on McDonald’s, using lots of the things I had learned from my time there.

When I graduated, I secured a full-time role as a Knowledge Hub Operations Co-ordinator, which I’ve been doing for almost three years now. I work with over 90 different McDonald's markets around the world, and the aim is to produce a solid, consistent brand experience in every single one of them. It’s a huge challenge, but an incredibly enjoyable one.

I work with markets as they upgrade their technology, supporting the training side of deploying new equipment as well as more general work around people skills. It’s a really interesting time to be involved with technology in the restaurant sector, as it has a big impact on our business. McDonald’s is using technology to become faster and better at what it does, and the challenges that will bring in both the short-, medium- and long-term future are fascinating to be a part of.

It’s also great fun that my degree and placement experience has given me this opportunity at a company as big as McDonald's. I’m really passionate about our brand – it’s a business that has a huge impact on the world in many ways, including as a huge cultural reference point for billions of people.

It’s such a big place that you’d think everyone might feel very small and unimportant, but the working culture is completely the opposite. There are so many opportunities to get involved in conversations about what we are doing and what we’ll be doing next – it’s an incredible company to be involved with, and I’m really glad that my time at BU gave me the opportunity to get my foot in the door here.

I can honestly say I haven’t looked back!