Anyway, as promised, here is a run down of how my phone interview went. Since I don't know if I made it through to the F2F interviews yet, I wouldn't advise you to use any of my answers!
OK so the night before I prepared my questions and answers. Having read a gazillion blogs, vlogs and forum posts I had a pretty good list of previous questions so I wrote down rough answers for them all in case they came up, and practised saying them outloud. I also got my mum to ring the phone, so I could practise using the speakerphone and work out how far away I should stand etc. Then I got roughly 1 hour's sleep as I was so ridiculously nervous and excited!
My interview was at 11.30am so in the morning I just re-read over the CRP description to get it clear in my head what they were looking for and what the program involved. I also re-read my application in case she asked me questions about that. Then I just tried to relax... not that it worked...
Hannah from Yummy Jobs was a couple of minutes late in ringing, during which point I paced around the room nervously, talking to myself like an utter loon to psych myself up and also to make sure I didn't sound like a frog when I answered. Eventually phone rang, cleared my throat, pressed answer and... silence. I hadn't switched on the speakerphone so missed what she said. Although I knew it would be Hannah on the other end, I didn't know exactly what she'd said so I had to say 'excuse me?' and start again. Not a great start!
Anyway after that I'd switched the speakerphone on and could hear her perfectly. She started by asking basic questions, confirming my phone number and email address, and asking me about any tattoos and piercings I had. Which is quite good because it gives you a few minutes to calm down your nerves and get used to speaking to her before the real questions started.
Then she asked me the first question: 'tell me a bit about yourself and why you applied for the program'. So I took a deep breath and started 'Well, I've always loved Disney and...' and then Hannah interrupted me and told me she couldn't hear me! So I tried not to panic and once AGAIN tried to work the speakerphone. In the end, I ended up with some kind of weird compromise where I could hear her perfectly though the speaker but she could only hear me if I held the phone up to my mouth... weirdness. Anyway, that kind of threw me off track and I think I mumbled through the first question not as well as I'd like. In the end, I told her about how I'd just finished university, was looking for a fresh challenge and always loved Disney- not just the brand itself but the parks in particular and the way in which the Cast Members made each guest feel special. I think I mentioned that I'd just been to Florida and had come back and searched for ways to work there, found this program and applied. And something about wanting to contribute to Disney. I don't think it was a really bad answer bout could have been better and I think my nerves really showed through my voice at that point :(
After that, she asked me what I would tell people about England and I reeled off a few basic facts about the UK, tried to throw in a bad joke about not being able to sunbathe on the beaches and a few other things. She didn't ask about the town I came from, which I was disappointed in because I had a few facts to give her that were a lot more interesting than my England facts.
We then talked about my previous work experience. At this point, my nerves had gone and I found myself quite happily talking about my past work in a travel agency, and she asked me lots of questions about it and we had quite a good conversation about it. Hopefully I made the most of the experiences that I've had. She asked me about an example of really good customer service that I've shown, and I had an example prepared that I thought was a really good one. She then asked me what I'd do if I was working in food and beverage and someone didn't like their food. I think I probably got asked that question because I have no experience in F&B, so she wanted to see how I could handle that aswell.
The last main topic was about living with people from all over the world- I was asked how I'd cope living with people who may not be from England, and I used my experiences at uni to say how I thought it would be quite enjoyable, and she seemed quite interested when I told her about a friend from Trinidad that I lived with at uni.
She then told me that they'd had over 1000 applicants(!), they were doing around 300 phone interviews(!) and that I'd probably hear around mid september, after the applications close.
So I have honestly no idea how well I did. Towards the end, I felt I relaxed and gave really good, thought out answers but I'm not sure what kind of first impression I made. If they go more on technical answers- like my experience and how well I'd cope in different situations, then I think I've probably done OK but if personality is a big thing then I don't really know how well I did! I tried to smile and I was as honest and friendly as possible but it's really hard to show personality over the phone- especially as you can't read the other person's reactions and don't have any hints as to when to stop talking/carry on/change the subject! So I'm hoping that they leave the personality testing side of things to the Disney recruiters at the face to faces (since I do much better in face to face situations- I hate talking over the phone!!!) and go more on experience/ability.
Just got to wait and see! Applications close on Monday (6th) so I'm hoping we hear back soon after that, even if they said we might not hear until the middle of September!! Ahhhhh!! This wait is killing me!!
In the meantime, wish me luck for my Next interview!! At least it's all good practise! xxx
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