Zachary Hinds

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I graduated in Spring of 2023 with a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science along with a double minor in Philosophy and Data Science. At Saint Michael’s College I also tutored Calculus one, two, and three over the four years that I was there. During the summer after my junior year of college I had an internship for the McDonald’s Corporation as a Software Engineer. I got this internship during the fall semester of my Junior year; the support of Saint Michael’s faculty and professors allowed me to pursue my goals with an amazing amount of support.

For the internship I had to move to Chicago, Illinois where the McDonald’s global headquarters is located. During the internship I was placed onto a software development team where I was to learn the ins and outs of how McDonald’s goes about software development. I am sure that all of you reading this know about the delicious consumable items that McDonald’s offers, but I believe that the technology that goes into supplying and serving that food often goes unnoticed. In recent history McDonald’s has implemented more and more technology including, but not limited to, the Point-Of-Sale machines, the Kiosk, and of course the mobile app. As an intern I was placed onto a team that works on the mobile app, specifically on the portion of the app that helps you save money, offers and loyalty. The internship was everything I hoped it would be, I made incredible connections with people at the company and I was able to start down a path that I had been dreaming about since high school: becoming the CEO of McDonald’s. After the internship, during my senior year, I received a full-time offer and completed the rest of college knowing I was preparing to go back to McDonald’s and pursue my dreams.

Having been in Chicago for a few months now, working for McDonald’s as a Software Engineer is more fun than I thought a job could ever be. The people at the company are nice and willing to help whenever. My current responsibilities as a Software Engineer at McDonald’s are to improve and innovate on the current state of the app. For instance, I work on converting code that is outdated to a faster and cleaner state. Along with that if there are any new features that must be added, I am on the team that will work to implement the changes needed for the new improvements. With these responsibilities I do run into issues, but my education at Saint Michael’s College prepared me to be able to logically work through any problem that I encounter, whether it be a social or technical problem. I know that with my experiences I have the composure and ability to overcome it.