So I decided to start a blog about my adventures in Disney since pretty much everyone and their brother is doing it, and you all know I like to talk and what better way than to create my own blog to update all of my friends and family back at home? The posts will probably be boring until I actually arrive there, but I thought I'd tell you a little bit of how I got the job, what a long process it was to get the job and what sort of work I will be doing.
How I got the Job?
I have been getting LOTS, and I mean LOTS of people asking me how I applied to the job. Now I am not going to take full credit for this, as I did not find this website on my own. I actually know someone who worked at Disney as Tinkerbell for a year. She was the first person I went to, as soon as I saw her Facebook status about her getting a job at Disney I freaked out, sent her a message and asked her how she got the job. She told me yummyjobs.com. I'm thinking, what a crazy name for a site. How trusting is a site called "yummyjobs.com" anyways? Is it official? Who runs it? Is it a scam? So I checked it out, it seemed pretty legit. Went to the "Opportunities" portion of the site. That listed everything from Adventures by Disney, to the ICP (International College Program, its actually a graduate program, kinda like graduate school, and for this you can work anywhere in the Disney Parks including the resorts or the theme parks!) to Cultural Representative Program. Cultural Representative Program was my ticket in, because there was a link at the bottom saying Canadian applicants apply now or something like that. This was back in November. So I made a profile, attached my resume, and hoped I would hear back.
Sure enough, the following day I receive an email from the Canadian recruiter asking to set up a time for a phone interview. I did that with great success. At the time I thought I totally messed up. I was okay with questions like "why do you want to work for Disney?" "Would you be okay living with people from different countries?" She asked me about Canadian culture and I just completely blanked out. I didn't know what to say, and just started saying things off the top of my head. All I know is that Canada is very "multicultural" as we get lots of immigrants, as well as we have 2 official languages. French and English. So I hung up and definitely thought I blew my chances. Sure enough, a month or so later, I get an offer to attend the face to face interviews. Now here I was just in complete shock, I guess I did something right in the phone interview! So the interviews in the East Coast only took place in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. I went to the Toronto interviews (obviously), and this was in March. I went up there for a night, my dad rescheduled a meeting he had with a lawyer in Toronto, I visited my best friend and me and my Dad actually ended up booking a room in the hotel the interviews were at. It was called the Delta Chelsea. I met lots of extremely nice people at the interviews, introduced myself to people I could possibly be working with, asked questions to previous cast members who were applying for something different this time around. I read up on forums and blogs that at these interviews, recruiters and Disney people could possibly be watching, so standing in the corner looking lost is NOT the way to go at these interviews. It's Disney, so they want to see how you interact with new people and atmospheres. I also had to dress professionally. I ended up borrowing a jacket from my aunt, because I had nothing. So after mingling with interviewees, we signed in, then filled out some paperwork. There was a lot of it. And it could only be filled with black ink. One was info about yourself, such as your name, address, medical conditions and all that fun stuff. Another was to say what role you were applying for. The choices were Food & Beverage, Merchandise, Kidcot, Attractions, and there was one more but I don't remember what it was called. Customer Relations or something? So I chose:
1) Merchandise
2) Attractions
3) Food & Beverage
Option 1 is the one you really want to do. Option 2 and 3 are backups just in case there are no openings for Option 1.
So after everything was filled out, Roger comes in who is an actual Disney recruiter straight from Disney where as YummyJobs recruiters are from the UK and one is from Port Huron, Michigan but she recruits Canadians. Now I loved this guy, you could definitely tell he worked at Disney. He was always happy, peppy, full of life, made jokes, just a really really nice guy and made the interview process less nerve-wracking. He showed us a presentation on the job, wages, what you can expect in the job, what you will be wearing, where you will be living and just watching this made me more excited.
So we handed these forms in, then entered another room where we had to confirm everything, where we were planning on flying from, if we had any tattoos and/or piercings because they do not allow them in Disney. Then we did some more mingling as we waited to be called.
The interview process did not even feel like an interview at all. It was more like a conversation. He took 2 people at a time. I went with this girl Ashley, she was cool. The only question he asked was who our favorite Disney character was, and I said Dory from Finding Nemo. Oh and why we wanted to work for Disney. Everything else was like "what are your plans for the weekend?" "What are you doing after you leave here?" I don't know how we got into it, but I told him I sing and play the piano and liked singing Taylor Swift songs. I also told him I've been told I look like Tori Spelling and he made the disgusted face and he was like "that's not a compliment, I have a cousin that looks like Tori Spelling, and she's so ugly!" lol. It was funny. So after the interview was done, we headed back to the room, picked up our bags and left. We were told we would be notified within the next few weeks if we got the job or not which I HATED. That's the worst. WAITING. Eww....
So I checked the forums literally EVERY day seeing if people got accepted, or have heard anything. FINALLY one person posts and asks if anyone else has received rejection emails. I almost peed myself right there. Seriously. I was freaking out, had a nervous breakdown. I kept refreshing my email finding that there was nothing from Disney. I was getting mad lol. I guess a wave of rejection emails were going out and I was just going insane that whole day. So the day finishes and I have no emails. Good? Bad? The following day there are people posting left and right that they got a call from Disney. Now here I am like frantic, I had the phone on me all day, answering every long distance call that comes in (which were all telemarketers) I seriously stared at the phone like some pathetic loser waiting for that one call. Still nothing. People were still saying they were getting phone calls and I had heard nothing. I am talking to people on msn, facebook wondering what's going on because some others haven't heard anything either. After about a week (seriously) the "Opportunity List" emails go out. I was one of those lucky people who were put on the "Opportunity List". What's an opportunity list? It's a waitlist. Yepp. Waitlist as in "we will call you when a job becomes available". Annoying. In this case, they hold onto your information until November so I was thinking I was never going to get off. I haven't heard anything all summer so I figured "hey why not apply to school as a backup plan?" so I did just that.
Got into school. The FIRST day (which was 2 days ago) I get a call. The first day of school.....after buying my first 2 textbooks (which can't be returned, one is used and one is open) and finishing homework assignments. I saw that there was a missed call on my cell from a 1-810 number so I'm thinking its another wrong number, or a telemarketer. I get lots of wrong numbers calling my phone, its annoying. Anyways, I go home and check my email as a daily routine. Sure enough, Kristen's name pops up (the recruiter) I was thinking it was just another reminder, shed send out emails randomly during the summer making sure that we knew certain things and gave us important information, also to be prepared just in case a job becomes available. She said how I missed her call and that she just wanted updated info and told me to call her back before Sept. 9th so I called her back right away. She asked me again if I had any tattoos or piercings, and then said that there were jobs available in food & beverage and asked if I was interested. You all know what I said! lol. More like yelled. So she said she'd call me back the next day, I told her to call me around 6 cause I was supposed to be at school until 5. Well, my first class ended 20 minutes after it started and it was at 11, and my next class didnt start until 3. So because I was bored sitting around, I decided to email Kristen and told her to call me since I had 4 hours to spare. She gave me a full load of info, it was a lot to take in, but I have some documents printed off, and I'm getting more in the mail at the end of the month called a "welcome package". It's info about The Commons (which is where I will be living, apparently there are 8 to a room with 4 bedrooms), my working visa (really important sheet that says I can work in the states), info about the job, orientation etc. I was told I have to wear something professional for orientation, we get trained in classes and stuff which I think is pretty cool. I have to buy my own lumberjack boots. Oh yeah I get to be a lumberjack and sell popcorn, how awesome is that?
I also heard throw in is awesome. Throw in I guess is a huge party that people throw for new Canadians coming in. I guess its kinda like an initiation. They have throw ins and apparently throw outs? I gotta get used to these terms lol. But I am sure I will keep you updated on how it went. Well I will try, who knows how busy I will be.
I think that covers everything. See you all on the flip side.
And have a zip a dee doo dah day. Sorry had to practice haha.
xoxo your favorite lumberjack, Nat
