The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: okamigirl64 on August 23, 2017, 07:48:35 AM
-
Hello friends! I'm applying for the Walt Disney College Program and I have my phone interview on Friday! How I do will be the make or break into the program! Would love some interview tips if anyone has any. If I get in, I will be on the path to hopefully become a Walt Disney Imagineer some day! :D
-
Oh, goodluck!
Just be yourself. I had one that caught me offguard because I was not expecting it and if you are you and truthful your passion will show though :)
-
Good luck! I'm sure you'll get into the program! If they don't let you in, they obviously just lost a great new team member.
-
Awesome! I had so much fun with the college program I did it twice (Fall Advantage 2003 and Fall Advantage 2007). I remember that they asked questions about how I would get along with roommates and what we would do if there was an issue, that sort of thing. Just be honest and upbeat. :) Good luck!
-
Best of luck
-
Best of luck! A couple of things to bear in mind:
- Make sure you warm up your voice before the interview, especially if it's first thing in the morning. Talk to a friend for a few minutes or even just read something aloud. You don't want your voice to sound scratchy.
- Have a glass of water handy, just in case your throat gets dry or tickly. You don't want to interrupt the interview to open a bottle.
- As tempting as it may be, don't have notes / answers to possible questions open in front of you. You won't have time to search through them, and it's far too much of a distraction. That said, having your resume / application form and a pen in front of you is fine, just like in a face-to-face interview.
- Remove distractions from your surroundings. Turn off the TV. If you live with someone, make sure they know not to come in.
- Smile! "You can hear a smile over the phone," is an old saying, but it happens to be true. If you look cheerful, you sound cheerful.
Feel free to PM me for more advice. I've been a hiring manager for a couple of years now, and I've done a lot of interviews. :)
-
Good luck sweetie!
-
Good luck! :)
-
Good luck!
-
That is super awesome!
Good luck! :)
-
Good Luck! Just be yourself and answer truthfully :).
-
Thank you everyone! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow! And thanks for the tips SnorkMaiden! Especially about warming up my voice ahead of time cause it is at 8am haha.
-
Good luck. I saw a lot of youtube videos about how stressful it can be. I don't want to upset you or anything but you may want to look up the program before your interview so you know what you're in for.
I hope you do great though. :)
-
I don't think the program is anything to stress over. It's just like any other job (except you get to go to Disney World on your days off). :)
-
I did it twice. First in fall of '98 and again in fall of '06. Second time I worked at POTC.
All I remember about the interview is - If they ask about outdoor foods or quick service, say yes, you are OK with that position. I kinda got the feeling if you say no, its an automatic disqualification.
It's not stressful but it's a program where you will either love it and go back several times or you will hate it and curse Disney for the rest of your life. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. Basically, its a job in the tourist industry, and all the crap that goes with it.
I will warn you though, during peak seasons (Xmas being the biggest), you may be looking at a LOT of work. I don't know if regulations have changed over the past 10 years but some people were scheduled well over 40 hrs a week. You do have the option to trade away or pick up shifts if you want but you have to be trained for it. Like if you work splash mountain, you can't pick up a shift at Pirates, unless you are trained for both rides.
The housing is 50/50. If you get roomartes you can tolerate GREAT. But you can also get ones that you hate and that will make the program a bit tough to get through.
-
I did it twice. First in fall of '98 and again in fall of '06. Second time I worked at POTC.
All I remember about the interview is - If they ask about outdoor foods or quick service, say yes, you are OK with that position. I kinda got the feeling if you say no, its an automatic disqualification.
It's not stressful but it's a program where you will either love it and go back several times or you will hate it and curse Disney for the rest of your life. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. Basically, its a job in the tourist industry, and all the crap that goes with it.
I will warn you though, during peak seasons (Xmas being the biggest), you may be looking at a LOT of work. I don't know if regulations have changed over the past 10 years but some people were scheduled well over 40 hrs a week. You do have the option to trade away or pick up shifts if you want but you have to be trained for it. Like if you work splash mountain, you can't pick up a shift at Pirates, unless you are trained for both rides.
The housing is 50/50. If you get roomartes you can tolerate GREAT. But you can also get ones that you hate and that will make the program a bit tough to get through.
I agree with all of this. However, with the working more than 40 hours a week, I kind of liked it. My second time (2007) I drove the Kilimanjaro Safari and when we would work 12 hour days we got a break every 2 hours. Plus, since they only had us work those longer shifts during peak times-like the week of Thanksgiving, there were a ton of people scheduled so sometimes you'd go on break and by the time you got back on a truck you'd do one drive through (which was approx 20 minutes) and then be called back out on break. And also keep in mind that anything over 8 hours in a day is time and a half and anything in the week that's over 40 hours is time and a half. My 60 hour weeks were some of the easiest ones I worked!
As far as bad roommates go sometimes you can convince them to switch apartments. I had one roommate that liked to leave huge messes and then blame them on me, she told our other roommates I said things that I'd never said, she would call in sick to work and then go out partying with her friends, she was drinking underage, she allowed a boy to sleep over in our apartment without asking us first--not to mention that it was explicitly against program rules and we all could have been fired if he'd been caught there (so if she had asked we would have definitely told her no!), and so many other little issues that escalated over time. I was the first to see through her act, which is why she tried to convince our other roommates that I was the one responsible for all the messes. I refused to put up with her garbage (she claimed to be an adult, after all) and my other roommates knew that I hand washed my dishes (and I didn't use the apartment dishes, I'd bought my own) so there was no way that the messes were mine. After three months we'd all had enough and someone else called her out on her crap. She got butthurt and cried to the apartment managers and they switched her out. The rest of us had a grand time after that.
People will complain that they didn't get paid enough, but I think if you're smart with your money it's not an issue. My second time was just after I graduated college (and I think they were paying us $6.25/hr--whatever minimum wage was at the time). By the time I came home I'd paid off my college loans, bought everything I wanted, paid to ship it all home and was still able to put money in my savings account. If you call out sick all the time (like my one roommate) you don't get paid, and you'll end up calling your parents for money (like my one roommate had to do) because they take your rent from your paycheck before you get the rest of it. Some people will end up owing money for rent because they don't go to work enough during the week to pay it. And really, I think when I was there you had to work 12 hours a week to pay your rent (depending on which apartment you were in). So if you can't manage that, it's just sad.
So just be smart about it, enjoy the experience and it will be a great memory for you.
-
How'd the interview go? My good friend is an imagineer here in Burbank, California. He loves it!
-
Hope your interview on Friday went well :)
-
Oooh how'd it go? I know it went well, but I want to hear it from someone other than the voices in my head!
-
As far as bad roommates go sometimes you can convince them to switch apartments. I had one roommate that liked to leave huge messes and then blame them on me, she told our other roommates I said things that I'd never said, she would call in sick to work and then go out partying with her friends, she was drinking underage, she allowed a boy to sleep over in our apartment without asking us first--not to mention that it was explicitly against program rules and we all could have been fired if he'd been caught there (so if she had asked we would have definitely told her no!), and so many other little issues that escalated over time. I was the first to see through her act, which is why she tried to convince our other roommates that I was the one responsible for all the messes. I refused to put up with her garbage (she claimed to be an adult, after all) and my other roommates knew that I hand washed my dishes (and I didn't use the apartment dishes, I'd bought my own) so there was no way that the messes were mine. After three months we'd all had enough and someone else called her out on her crap. She got butthurt and cried to the apartment managers and they switched her out. The rest of us had a grand time after that.
Was the boy also living in the same complex? I know a few people who were terminated because their guests never signed out by midnight )or whatever time curfew was) and the next day, they were terminated. The second time I extended my program with a roommate and we were moved together into a new apartment with 4 other girls. One girl never showed up. We never seen her. I guess she changed her mind. Anyway, Vista security came by one day thinking that she was still there. We said none of us ever seen her. They though we were hiding her or something, and every 2 hours for a few days, they were knocking on out door. The girl that was supposed to be sharing a room with the MIA girl, would sneak her boyfriend in by hiding him in the trunk of her car.
I was one of the ones who called out all the time. They make it soo EASY. Call in sick for 1 day and get 3 days off. Call in personal, get 1 point but you can still play in the parks. As long as you spaced the points out..you could seriously work the system. But it caught up to me with only 2 weeks left to go. (I had .5 of a point to spare but ended up with phemonia). I think they did away with this system for the CP though.
-
As far as bad roommates go sometimes you can convince them to switch apartments. I had one roommate that liked to leave huge messes and then blame them on me, she told our other roommates I said things that I'd never said, she would call in sick to work and then go out partying with her friends, she was drinking underage, she allowed a boy to sleep over in our apartment without asking us first--not to mention that it was explicitly against program rules and we all could have been fired if he'd been caught there (so if she had asked we would have definitely told her no!), and so many other little issues that escalated over time. I was the first to see through her act, which is why she tried to convince our other roommates that I was the one responsible for all the messes. I refused to put up with her garbage (she claimed to be an adult, after all) and my other roommates knew that I hand washed my dishes (and I didn't use the apartment dishes, I'd bought my own) so there was no way that the messes were mine. After three months we'd all had enough and someone else called her out on her crap. She got butthurt and cried to the apartment managers and they switched her out. The rest of us had a grand time after that.
Was the boy also living in the same complex? I know a few people who were terminated because their guests never signed out by midnight )or whatever time curfew was) and the next day, they were terminated. The second time I extended my program with a roommate and we were moved together into a new apartment with 4 other girls. One girl never showed up. We never seen her. I guess she changed her mind. Anyway, Vista security came by one day thinking that she was still there. We said none of us ever seen her. They though we were hiding her or something, and every 2 hours for a few days, they were knocking on out door. The girl that was supposed to be sharing a room with the MIA girl, would sneak her boyfriend in by hiding him in the trunk of her car.
I was one of the ones who called out all the time. They make it soo EASY. Call in sick for 1 day and get 3 days off. Call in personal, get 1 point but you can still play in the parks. As long as you spaced the points out..you could seriously work the system. But it caught up to me with only 2 weeks left to go. (I had .5 of a point to spare but ended up with phemonia). I think they did away with this system for the CP though.
Even if he lived in the same complex we still could have been fired if they'd done a random check, especially as he was using her roommate's bed (supposedly) and she was stuck sleeping on the couch. His program had ended (so he was checked out completely) but he wanted to "stay around for a few days" and didn't want to pay for a hotel. I was so mad when I found out that I went and submitted an "anonymous" complaint, which meant that they would show up to do a "random" check but wouldn't tell my roommates who had put in the complaint. The girl saw me filling out the complaint as she was driving the boy off to wherever he was going to hang out that day so when I got home from work she yelled at me and tried to get our roommates to side against me but they weren't happy about him being there, either, so it backfired on her. She didn't bring him back again because she knew if she did I'd just call apartment security and I wouldn't feel bad about it.
She hadn't made me like her enough to risk getting fired over some random guy she fell madly in love with at first sight. I don't even know what his name was, that's how much I knew about him. I can't imagine why I wasn't happy about waking up in the morning and finding out he'd been there all night.
You gotta be careful about those points, though, because if you decide you want to extend your program or audition to be a character, they look at how many points you've got and will deny your request if they think you have too many. When my parents came down to see me I was able to "give my shifts away" for a week and since my managers approved it I didn't get any points. That's another way to work the system. I just made sure that I worked enough hours to pay my rent and I didn't have to worry about being "caught" in the parks because I wasn't on the schedule.