When I was 16, I applied for my first job at McDonald's. I ended up working there during high school and through most of university. I learned so many skills that last me a lifetime. I was very fortunate enough to learn the ins and outs of the technology that runs a McDonald's Restaurant. The technology that runs a McDonald's restaurant, is a testament that withstands times.

I've always been great with technology and implementing new things. I sometimes wonder why I didn't always go into IT right away. That's a conversation for another time.

While I worked at McDonald's, I was the de facto guy who knew technology and could fix most problems right away.

Since I've last worked there so much has changed but at the same time it hasn't. When I left, lot's of the things we take for granted now at McDonald's we're implemented.

McDonald's changed their back office software from a command-line interface program to a web based back office web application. I remember being a 22 year old college student being in charge of implementing the transition from the old system to the new system. That's a lot of trust in someone to make a major change to the mainframe. If you look at the picture above, this CLI program ran the entire store. I could open the store, I could run reports, I could count down drawers, make transfers, etc. IT DID IT ALL! Talk about , "If it ain't broken, don't fix it!" This is a prime example of legacy software that is virtualized and maintained to run the operations of one of the most popular food chains.

Performing major projects was key to make sure the store was up to date so we could handle the new software implementations that were coming up (many of us didn't know what the future had coming.) It was fun to do all these since these were hands on and it got me away from my normal duties as a McDonald's manager.

Major projects

• Replace two main frame computers (one OS upgrade and one electrocuted computer.)
• Replace Drive-Thru system
• Replace old back office software to web based

Not only was I trusted to handle the equipment of a multi-million profit store location, I also started to trust myself and be more confident in myself.

Mobile Ordering was officially implemented. Back in the early days, there were no time limits on when you can use a deal.

After, I left the ordering kiosks were implemented.