Maccas manager celebrates 25 years under the golden arches

Mr Hyde started his career at Macca's in Wellington when he was 14. Now a father-of-three, he has just celebrated his 25th year with the company.

"Celebrating my 25th anniversary... I actually felt really, really proud," he said.

"There have been times throughout my career where I think, 'is this for me'? 'Do I wanna continue going forward'? And then another big change happens and I go, 'oh, this is exciting'."

When he was growing up, there weren't a lot of opportunities for school kids in Wellington to find work.

"It's a pretty small town so there's not much variety as to what employment you can get... so I applied for McDonald's," he said.

"I actually had family already working there since the store opened two years earlier and they told me how good it was to work there, so I applied for a job."

Mr Hyde started as a crew member and became a crew coach, training all the new staff who came into the store. But he had bigger ambitions, eventually leaving school to work full time with the company.

"I got to the stage where I wanted something more out of it because I enjoyed it," he said.

"So I went and spoke to the owner at the time and put my interest forward to become a manager... Within a week I basically stopped going to school and became a manager full time at the age of 17.

"Then I just continued to work my way up."

Now Mr Hyde is a supervisor, overseeing all three of the McDonald's locations in Dubbo as well as the one in Wellington.

"At the moment, I look after close to 200 staff and about 30 managers," he said.

"The days are very challenging, having to manage multiple restaurants as well as multiple managers and multiple staff."

Asked what his favourite moment at McDonalds was he said he couldn't pinpoint one, "because every day is different", but he has enjoyed the journey, the training opportunities and the friends he's made along the way.

"It is really well planned out and once you get up into the management roles as well as progressing, you can really make it into a career rather than just a job,"

He said he also enjoys being able to use his role to support community events, local athletics and the eisteddfod and the fact that "every day is different".

"You never go to work and feel like you're gonna have the same day, there's always something different and McDonald's is forever evolving," he said.

"Something is always changing within the organisation to keep up with the times and the customer's needs... They continually change things to make things easier for the employees as well as a better experience for the customers."

There have been many changes in the way McDonalds does things since Mr Hyde started working there all those years ago, but he said the biggest is the way burgers are made.

"The biggest change from when I first started as a crew member was we used to have the burgers made when the customers walked in the door, with the exception of if they wanted to order something special," he said.

"Now we make the burgers as the customers order them."

Mr Hyde encourages young people in the local area looking for work to consider a job at McDonalds. He said it can be a great stepping stone into other jobs or could be the start of a life-long career.

"McDonald's is often where the employees come as their first job," he said.

"They get to make good friends while working at McDonald's, learn a lot from the basics of general customer service, handling cash and learn how to actually cook everything as well."