Crazy Day: October 16th...

So... I had the phone appointment yesterday for the Professional Internship. I was super nervous for this call because it was either good or bad news. I went to a friends room to take the call so I would have some support. At exactly 10:30 I got a phone call from Orlando, but I missed the call... My phone never rang, and no voicemail was left. Again, the number would not let me call back. Fortunately, I got another call. This time my phone rang and I was greeted by a recruiter! He started the conversation by stating "Did you apply for Animal Programs, and how do you think your interview went?"

I honestly was speechless that I was on the phone with another person because I thought I would not go far in this process. I stated I did the best I could, and I hope it would be enough to land me the perfect internship. He then said ok... well there is a couple of things about your application that we must discuss (queue panic!). He asked me if I am guilty of any crimes or pending any crimes, if I had transportation, and if I was still adherent to the Disney look. After answering he paused and said:  

Congratulations! On behalf of Disney Worldwide Services, Inc., which is part of a business segment we call Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, we are pleased to let you know that you have been selected to participate in the Animal Programs - Conservation Education Presenter Internship position for the Spring 2014 season.

Afterwards, he described all the perks of working for Disney and detailed the process to live in Disney sponsored housing. I decided to do Disney sponsored housing. The only negative to this is that it is nowhere near the College Program housing. Now you may be wondering why I want to be near there, but I am only 20 and really young to be doing a PI. I will be the age of most CPs and I would like to meet many people. I accepted the offer and now the waiting for January 8th begins. I still need to write about my audition experience and I will also go further into detail about my job in a later post! Until then, have a magical day!

Disney's Professional Internships: Applying

Like I said in my last post, I applied for four Professional Internships with the Walt Disney Company. I will start by explaining the differences between the Disney College Program and the Professional Intern  program. The college program is simply a foot in the door where you will be working a pretty random job. You also have little say in what job you want unless you knock your interview out of the part or audition for character performer. You could be doing anything from serving food in a walk up style restaurant, operating rides, or taking photos to be sold at a later time. I applied for the DCP and was given the Hopper role.

Professional interns chose a specific role that they want. I applied to specifically work in animal programs or agricultural science. Within these departments, I specifically applied for Conservation Education Presenter, Plant Science, Biotechnology, and Entomology. You see, I applied for VERY specific roles within the company compared to the somewhat broader application for the college program. Professional interns are also more competitive than the college program, and the internship requires a defined skill set. To apply for the professional internship, you must meet the basic requirements and submit a resume and cover letter. One of the internships also required a recommendation letter. These documents made the application much longer and much more thorough than the college program.

So, I began applying for the internships on September 23rd! I had my resume and cover letter reviewed by my college's career services. Once it was submitted, I filled out the general applications which was pretty much complete because it pulled information from my college program application. It had a final page about basic qualifications to weed out all candidates not meeting the requirements. If you do not meet the requirements you will immediately move to no longer in consideration. I remained in submission for several days. On October 2nd, I got an email from the Agricultural Sciences department stating that my application was complete and that I would hear a final decision by November 25th. I also moved to in progress. To this date, I have not heard from this department which means I am probably out of the running. Lets all cry for a moment...

Ok, cry time is over because the next day (Oct 3rd) I got an email saying my application for animal programs was complete. This department had a questionnaire which consisted of more questions to expound on your basic qualifications. This completed my file for animal programs. On October 6th, I got an email from Disney's Animal Kingdom Guest Education. This is the Conservation Education Presenters department. They wanted to set up a phone panel interview with two of the managers! The interview took place on October 11th. The questions were very specific and nothing like the phone interview for the disney college program. Luckily, I did my research and found practice questions that REALLY helped. Overall, I came out of the interview feeling confident which is normally a bad sign. I normally have better results from the interviews I thought I bombed... Another strange occurrence was my lack of a phone screening. I feel like I went straight to the panel interview. They must have used the information from my college program interview.

After the interview, I waited until Monday, October 14th. I got an email from the generic Walt Disney Professional Interns email address. It wanted me to complete a consent form for a background check (Application DWSS Pro Intern Fl v2). I filled it out and submitted the form. Then today (Oct 15th), I missed a phone call from Orlando, Fl. They left no voicemail, and the number did not let me call back. Thankfully, I got another email from the professional internships website to schedule a phone call. I scheduled it for October the 16th at 10:30am. I have no clue what this could mean, but I hope it is an offer for Conservation Education Presenter. My dashboard moved to post-interview stage today for this position, too. My dashboard also added a new drop down tab called Pro Intern Callback ES Spring 2014. I will have to write a new post about my feels after the phone call and after I find out what this drop down means. I also auditioned for Character Performer last Saturday (Oct 12th) in Atlanta. This is a post for a later date.

A New Beginning: DCP

I am starting my blog a little later in the application process. I already applied and accepted a position for the Spring 2014 Disney College Program. I was assigned the role hopper. This role has the opportunity to do everything; however, I mainly see hoppers working at the Magic Kingdom TTC. A few seem to be stationed at EPCOT doing miscellaneous tasks. So where did this all begin?

On September 7th I filled out the initial application. It was short and mainly wanted to know my previous work experience. I almost immediately received my web based interview. This online interview asked questions about your personal work habits and your teamwork skills. The interview is also timed, but I did complete every question. The questions all ask how you agree or disagree with a statement. I responded to the questions by stating I strongly agreed or disagreed with a few regular agree or disagree. I did not have any neutrals. Immediately after my interview, I was told that Disney wanted to continue to interview me with a phone interview.

On September 17th, I had a phone interview with Ian. He asked really simple questions. I mainly tried to make my personality shine while answering the questions truthfully. I told him I rely on a fast work environment that is constantly changing and challenging me (I believe this is why I got the hopper role). After I told him this, he asked about a ton of different roles. The main questions focused around if I am ok driving a large tram, if I am ok with speaking in front of groups, if I could stand on my feet for extended periods of time, and if I am receptive to custodial. These are all potential roles of the hopper. He then asked me the hardest question of the interview which was "What would you do if two customers were fighting/causing a scene and the phone began to ring?" I answered and then we started to talk about the character assistant role. This was my top choice as I love the characters, and I am great at handling crowds. Needless to say, I got hopper, and I am excited about it! I found out on September 27th which was 10 days after my interview. I paid my housing deposit and am set to report on January 20th.

Oh, but I am not done here! I applied to four Professional Internships. I will go into detail on that experience in my next post.