I had two topics I wanted to cover on the blog this week, but since I finished the hiring process for a part-time position at McDonald’s yesterday, I figured I’d write about this hot topic!

Reason 1: I want to know about McDonald’s hiring/training system
You may be thinking, “All of a sudden, why are you going to start working part-time at McDonald’s???” The reason why I came up with this idea was because I saw a video of a YouTuber who said, “McDonald’s is one of the largest human resource training companies in Japan (since it has about 2,900 stores and 150,000 crew members in Japan). It was an eye-opening thought for me. At the same time, since the company hires nearly 70,000 crew members every year, I became very interested in how they hire and train them to create that amazing teamwork that can be seen from the outside.

Reason 2: I want to become a more humble person
The second reason was that one of CEOs used to say, “If something happens to me, I can always get a part-time job at McDonald’s.” So I asked myself many times, “If something happens to me, can I really take a part-time job at McDonald’s? Can I really work at McDonald’s?” by imagining a few realistic scenes like some crews yelling at me like “Masaki, finish up the fried fries ASAP” & “Can you hurry up and clean the floor?” I was filled with a sense of humiliation as well as annoyance, though this was just happening in my imagination. However, I came to the conclusion that this feeling came from a small, unimportant pride: “I’m much older than you, and I’ve been doing my job for a long time, so I should be treated with respect.” And I began to think that I would like to once again have the same sense of humbleness that I had when I first took a part-time job.

Reason 3: I want to communicate with young people
At the store where I work part-time, there are many university students working as crew members. In the three years since I started my business, I have been communicating with people in their late 20’s to 50’s, all of whom have a wealth of experience as working adults and are naturally capable of business communication. I wanted to improve my own communication and relationship building skills by actively communicating with such young people who are not used to such communication.

It will take a while for the safety shoes I need to work at McDonald’s to arrive, so I was not able to work this week. But I will try to write about the changes in myself after I work for a while again. Also, most importantly, I’ll do my best to contribute as much as I can! (laughs)

Masaki “Mark” Iino
Founder & CEO
SOPHOLA, Inc