You can now apply for a job at McDonald's using Alexa and Google Assistant

[midian182]

In brief: Virtual assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant can perform a slew of functions. Now, they’ve received what is said to be a new ability: letting users apply for a job directly from a company.

McDonald’s Corporation has announced that devices featuring Alexa and Google Assistant can now help with the first step of applying for a job at the fast-food giant. The voice-initiated process, which is called McDonald’s Apply Thru, is part of the company’s ‘Made at McDonald’s’ global hiring campaign that aims to increase applications worldwide.

Those who want to begin the application process just need to say: “Alexa, help me get a job at McDonald’s,” or, if you’re using a device with Google Assistant, “OK Google, talk to McDonald’s Apply Thru.”

The voice system doesn’t consist of the entire application process. Users will have to answer a few basic questions such as name, job area of interest, and their location, at which point they’ll receive a text message with a link that lets them complete the application. But making it so easy to take that first step could encourage more people to apply.

McDonald’s says its campaign highlights all the opportunities a first job, part-time job or lifelong career at the firm can create. The company, which employees over 2 million people around the world, notes that 128,401 McDonald’s crew members have gone on to become nurses, 489,302 have made a career teaching, and 2,403,460 have become entrepreneurs.

McDonald's Apply Thru is available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the U.K, with more countries expected to be added in the future. While Alexa and Google Assistant are on board, there was no mention of Apple’s Siri.

This isn’t the first instance of McDonald’s embracing modern tech. The firm’s recent acquisition of a voice-based AI company could eventually see drive-thru customers giving orders to an artificial intelligence rather than a human.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82118-you-can-now-apply-job-mcdonald-using-alexa.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Applying for a job now days is considerably different than it used to be just 10 years ago. So many companies want you to go onto their web site and spend time filling out their applications. The more modern ones will take your resume and fill in all the blanks for you, but even still so many depend upon those pre-consideration questions, many so poorly written that they screen out a lot of well qualified candidates.

I had one company senior VP call me and asked why I didn't fill out all the forms (apparently he looked at the resume and saw what he wanted). I told him simply that for the dollar amount I commanded I wasen't willing to waste my valuable time (unpaid) to go through a system that was designed to make the Personnel Dept look good and ignore the wants and needs of management. He said "your kidding" to which I told him, "why would you say that, have YOU tried filling out that garbage on line, only to be ghosted by the company"? I got a call back three days later thanking me for opening his eyes. I learned they have since stripped that junk off their site and got rid of the people that developed & manage it and are now back to asking for a resume, sending out a note acknowledging receipt and a note afterwards telling those that didn't make it as much. THAT should be minimum standard for any top tier company!

 

[Jeff Re]

Applying for a job now days is considerably different than it used to be just 10 years ago. So many companies want you to go onto their web site and spend time filling out their applications. The more modern ones will take your resume and fill in all the blanks for you, but even still so many depend upon those pre-consideration questions, many so poorly written that they screen out a lot of well qualified candidates.

I had one company senior VP call me and asked why I didn't fill out all the forms (apparently he looked at the resume and saw what he wanted). I told him simply that for the dollar amount I commanded I wasen't willing to waste my valuable time (unpaid) to go through a system that was designed to make the Personnel Dept look good and ignore the wants and needs of management. He said "your kidding" to which I told him, "why would you say that, have YOU tried filling out that garbage on line, only to be ghosted by the company"? I got a call back three days later thanking me for opening his eyes. I learned they have since stripped that junk off their site and got rid of the people that developed & manage it and are now back to asking for a resume, sending out a note acknowledging receipt and a note afterwards telling those that didn't make it as much. THAT should be minimum standard for any top tier company!

THIS. Companies have gotten so horrible in their application process and they have ridiculous expectations in the interview process as well, especially for what they want to pay. I will not work for a company that clearly is run so poorly.