Curator Intern Blog Series

By Lauren Macalalad, PR Intern

Last week, McDonald’s in Australia turned to Snapchat for help in seeking Millennials who have the potential to become a part of the company’s workforce. The company implemented what it likes to call “Snaplications,” which is its new way to seek out young individuals (Snapchat’s target audience) who are looking to begin a career with the $110 billion company. All the applicant has to do is swipe left for the McDonald’s filter, which dresses the user in a McDonald’s uniform, including a black hat and nametag. The applicant then has ten seconds to deliver their best elevator pitch, all while being professional, confident and full of personality. Once the applicant sends their snap to the McDonald’s Australia account, the company will reply with a link to where the candidate will find the rest of the application.

Snaplications are a great way for companies to get a sense of prospective employee’s personalities and could potentially save them time when deciding on whether to invite candidates for an in-person interview. The way a person sells themselves in 10 seconds or less says a lot about planning, preparation and effective execution. Would a company be able to hire someone solely from watching a 10-second video elevator pitch? Probably not. But, those 10 seconds are definitely a good indicator for the type of personality and overall essence a potential candidate may bring to a team.

McDonald’s intentions were to access a larger pool of young individuals, and, with that in mind, a similar feature could serve the LinkedIn community well, too. A short video feature on individuals’ profiles could definitely be useful, as long as the clip gives employers a good sense of who they are and what they would bring to the table as an employee.

The incorporation of Snaplications, or a similar short video feature on LinkedIn, would allow for better representation and presentation of an individual’s professionalism and personality, and it also has the potential to make LinkedIn more of an interactive platform. LinkedIn already allows users to write a personal bio on their profile, but a video clip, no matter how short, could strongly support the individual’s writing and storytelling capabilities as well. Millennials are often characterized as lacking strong verbal communication skills, so a video feature would help qualified candidates break that stereotype and demonstrate their presentation abilities.

Whether LinkedIn will follow suit with the incorporation of personal stories or video introductions is still unknown, and until that feature arrives, we’ll sit back and watch Snaplications take form. So, for all the companies out there looking to grow a larger workforce of Millennials (or young individuals), create a filter and let them swipe left!

This blog was written as a part of Curator’s Intern Blog Series. The author, Lauren Macalalad, is a senior at the University of Washington studying communication, Spanish and diversity. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.