How Can Snapchat Help You Earn This Summer? McDonald’s To Hire 250,000 People Via Social Media App

Young people looking for summer jobs this year have an opportunity to work at McDonald's -- if they have Snapchat installed on their phones. The global fast-food chain will accept "Snaplications" for 250,000 jobs this summer through the social media app, something it started doing in Australia in April.

Summer is usually the fast-food company's busiest season of the year.

"To aid in hiring efforts, McDonald’s is leading the way with a modern approach to recruiting – Snapchat," the company said in a press release. "‘Snaplications,’ a term coined by McDonald’s, is a first-to-market hiring tool in the U.S. that allows job seekers to be served an ad and opportunity to begin the application process for a job at a McDonald’s restaurant through the Snapchat app."

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McDonald's will, from June 13, start serving up to Snapchat users nationwide 10-second video ads of real restaurant employees talking about the benefits of working at the company. Those wanting to work at the fast-food chain will simply have to ‘swipe up’ from the ads to instantly visit McDonald’s career page in Snapchat to find out more about the opportunities; they can then apply to their local restaurants through the app, the company said.

McDonald said this will help it target its potential employees more effectively as more than half of the workers at its restaurants are "projected to be between the ages of 16 and 24 years," and for many, it would be their first job.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Teen labor force participation has been on a long-term downward trend, and the decline is expected to continue to 2024, the latest year for which projections are available."

The novel hiring approach makes sense as almost 80 percent of people in McDonald's target age group are regular Snapchat users. "We're always looking for new and innovative ways to find job seekers. We thought Snaplications was a great way to allow us to meet job seekers where they are – their phones," said McDonald's USA spokesperson Jez Langhorn.

"As we see the younger generations seeking out their first jobs, we want to make them aware of the great opportunities available at McDonald's," he added.

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When the Snapchat recruitment started in Australia, McDonald’s Australia COO Shaun Ruming called it a “world first,” adding it “gives users the ability to apply for a job — or at least commence that process — by sending a 10-second snap.” Although the app is just a recruiting tool, and cannot substitute for a job application process complete with a face-to-face interview, it can still help facilitate the recruitment process, a report said.

“It certainly won’t replace a thorough face-to-face interview, but we’ll obviously take it into account,” said Ruming. “We’re looking for that positivity, bubbly personality, someone we think would be good in a customer-service role. Based on what my daughter sends to her friends, you do get a bit of a glimpse [from a 10-second video].”