Apply thru: McDonald's now hiring via Alexa, Google Assistant

Starting Wednesday, McDonald's Corp. will let job seekers start an application by using voice commands with Amazon's Alexa or Google's Assistant.

If users say, "Alexa, help me get a job at McDonald's," Alexa will ask which country they want to work in and play McDonald's catchy "I'm lovin' it" jingle. After that, users can share their phone number and get a link to continue the application process. Alexa also shares some facts about working for the company, such as how it can lead to jobs in other fields.

I had to apply for two security jobs through the computer. I think I made a couple of errors and won’t get those jobs.

I miss the days when I could just dress presentably and hand in a resume to the secretary and hope for the best.

Like it or not, we are entering a brave new world in which everybody has an online profile that can be accessed by others. For example, with a push of a button, I can obtain my credit score on the Credit Karma app (both from Equifax and Transunion). I downloaded this only to see what information everybody else had on me.

In my company, we have already automated much of the hiring process. On-boarding is almost 100% automated, with network log-ons, email addresses, etc., auto-created and devices are configured and sent to the employee the day of hire.

Low skill jobs like working at fast food or retail can definitely be automated as background checks and credit checks can be conducted behind the scenes in seconds and give the applicant a thumbs up within just a few minutes.

I remember applying for me first real job (at a supermarket) back in the late 1970s. I was 16 years old. It involved several trips to the store, filling out various carbon-copy forms, speaking to at least three managers and so on. I had to wait six weeks to find out whether I had a job or not and two weeks later (two months total), I was finally filling my first bag of groceries. Even getting a time card to punch was a bit of a hassle on my first day. Had to go to the upstairs office and wait about a half hour for the secretary to type one up for me.

Those days are gone forever.

Electronic hiring opens your company up to libel.

When one of the three big credit agencies, contains incorrect slanderous information from a simply typo, and refuses to correct it, and your company rejects that applicant, you also hold liability.

There are libelous companies, that contain their own broken down corrections process, that won’t fix bad information on people, simply because it costs money.

Good, truthful, reliable data costs money, so bad data survives.

This violates lawful due process. Some tech wienie becomes court and jury.

It is a disaster in society. Each individual if wronged, should keep a detailed papertrail on your company and pursue it, sue it with a vengence.

That works.

Every electronic crumb you leave behind, is a potential lawsuit.

There is a reason Donald Trump never uses email.

He has no electronic bread crumbs.

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