YEEEEEYYYY!!!

OMG I got an interview!!! 2nd of Oct, at Disney HQ. So excited and still shaking!! Will write more later....... AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh... my.... gosh

Just found out they are going to start sending out emails for the Face 2 Faces tomorrow. Not that I was ever overly confident at getting through, but I've suddenly lost all my confidence at all :( I really don't think I did that well when I read other people's experiences and what they said and now I'm just dreading that email because it means the dream is over. I really want to go and I don't know whether I can face doing this application process again, financially speaking. Emotionally I'd put myself through it because all the stress would be worth it in the end, but I'm not sure if I can afford to put my career off for what would really be at least another 18 months. Would anyone hire someone who graduated 3 years previously? If I didn't get through next time, all I could have to show for my time away from uni is a job at McDonald's. Oh I don't know! Luckily I'm walking the dog, then making cupcakes this afternoon, so I might be able to distract myself for a while. Tonight may require a few glasses of wine, however! Anyway, the next time I write it may be that I've got my email, so please, please wish me luck! And I'll be sending out my thoughts for the other wdwip forum members, who have been amazing during this process. Everyone is so happy to give out advice, even to people who are technically the competition and everyone is there to offer support and answer questions, and just generally share the nerves and excitement. When you count the number of regular posters, there aren't really that many of us compared to the number of overall phone interviewees, so there's definitely a chance that everyone could get in, and I really, really hope so because everyone there deserves it. I certainly won't begrudge any of them their places if I don't get through (only the strangers lol). So good luck everyone!! Fingers crossed for some good news soon! xxx

Just got back from seeing Toy Story 3- loved it!! I also rented the Princess and The Frog (watched it twice!) which I think is genuinely the best Disney film of the last decade. Not the best way to distract myself from the waiting, since it probably made me even more Disney-excited, but it was good enough!

Applications for early 2011 have officially closed!

Everybody's got a laughin' place

I am officially an employee of McDonalds! After getting offered an interview, then rejected, I got a phone call inviting me to an interview today. Although the manager was half an hour late in seeing me, and conducted the interview in the middle of the restaurant in front of all the customers, the interview itself was really easy and she told me I had the job at the end of it! I knew before she said though because she wasn't very good at hiding what she wrote down so I saw her tick 'hire' before she even told me...

So as soon as I got in I emailed Yummy Jobs telling them I'd added to my CV. I don't know whether they care about experience at all at this stage but the one thing my CV was obviously lacking was food and beverage experience, which I can now say I have! Or will, by the time I get out there! Hopefully if I was on a 'maybe' after the phone interview this could have helped knock me into the 'yes' pile! It's gotta show I'm keen at least, I only considered McDonald's to help my application! Although the people did seem really lovely so I reckon it's gonna be fairly good craic anyway!

Really sorry all these blog posts are me rambling on about job applications, but it's all I've got to distract me at the moment! Applications close on Monday and I was hoping they'd start letting us know soon after that, but when I emailed Hannah I got an automated reply saying she wouldn't be in the office until the 13th! So either she's already decided which of her phone interviewees made it through (in which case maccy d's might not save me at this point) or they won't be making any decisions until the 13th... I suspect it's the latter one so a couple of more weeks waiting for meeee!! Love x

Wow, when it rains it pours! Had my interview for Next today- thought it went OK but it was about 45 minutes and some of the questions were reeeallly hard! And at the end we had to do a role play where I had to try and sell him a bread bin... and how exactly do you do that? I think I said something along the lines of: 'Do you have a bread bin? No? Well what do you do with your bread?' and than rabbited on about how rubbish freezers are because they make your bread soggy. Hell yeah. So one of those interviews where it's really hard to tell, and I have to wait two weeks to find out.

I also got another email last night from McDonald's inviting me to an interview, this time at Dalton Park. But there were no more interview slots left when I tried to choose one and then this morning I got an email saying I'd been rejected... so not entirely sure what that's all about!

And then finally, this afternoon I got an email saying I had been selected for a longlist interview at Sheffield University- it's an HR Internship at my old uni that I applied for a few weeks ago and had almost forgotten about. Luckily, the interviews don't clash with anything that I've already scheduled but the final interviews take place on the 12th October. If I manage to make it through to the F2F interviews for Disney, this is around the time I'd be expecting to hear back whether I got a place or not. So assuming I get to the final stage of both (and it's a big assumption I know) I could have some big decisions to make- one about a really good career opportunity and the other one about a once in a lifetime opportunity but that won't help my career in anyway. So if, for example, I got offered the job at Sheffield, it could still be a week or so before I found out about Disney. And what if I turned it down, but didn't get offered a role at Disney? Or what if I accepted, and then a role at Disney came up?Thing is, if I got offered them both at the same time, I'd definitely take Disney even though it's technically the less sensible option. I just want to work there so badly I don't care what other opportunities I miss. I'm already thinking about re-applying if I don't get through to Disney this time, but if I got a proper job I couldn't really do that. Arrggh decisions decisions. Of course, I might not get a F2F interview or a second interview at Sheffield, so really I should shut up.

So after a couple of months of nothing at all it now seems to be interviews, interviews, interviews! Hopefully this luck will continue when I find out about the most important interview of them all next week... x <3

The Phone Interview

Well I had an interview today for Warren James. Thought it was going really well until the very end when she informed me that the position I had thought was only for a couple of months was actually for up to a year. At which point I knew I'd totally blown it since I'd told her all about my Disney applications! Doh! I have one on Friday for Next so this time I'll be more careful! I feel like my life at the minute is consumed by job applications, stress, interviews, more stress!

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

One step closer!!

Well a lot has happened since I last posted! I sent in my CV and covering letter on the 21st June, and on the 17th of August I got my email inviting me to a phone interview! The blinkin thing had gone into my junk mail so I got a real surprise when I discovered it around midnight (needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night!). And of course since I first posted I've moved back in home and have been trying (and failing) to get a job. I was hoping to get something either F&B or Merch related to help my application but at this stage anything would do!

So a little more detail on what I did for my first application. My cover letter was just under a page long. I started off saying a little bit about myself, and why I wanted to work for Disney but without trying to be too 'beggy' (pick me! pick me!). Then in the next paragraph I talked about my previous work experience and how what I had learnt from that would make be a good Cast Member. So to do that I went on to the Disney site, the Yummy Jobs description and various other sites and places to make sure I'd included all the things they wanted in a CM. I summed up saying how I wanted to learn from Disney (suck up a bit to the company- always helps, although for me I don't need to pretend how much I love Disney!) and then thanked them for the opportunity. Overall, I'd say I tried to make the cover letter more about what I could bring to the company than what I could get out of it and why I wanted to do the program. Oh yeah, and I also put a teeny tiny Mickey next to my signature. Not big enough to be distracting, so it still looked professional but was a little fun as well ;)
For my CV, I just used one of the templates I found online (YJ has one on their site which I didn't discover until later). Even though you can't change your past experience you can still tweak it a bit to make it sound more related, so for example as I'd worked in a shop I used the word 'merchandise' which isn't something we really use here but obviously directly relates to one of the Disney positions. I also made a big deal of the fact that when I worked in a travel agent, we did a lot of Disney based holidays... stuff like that. At the beginning of my CV, I put a few opening lines telling more about me as a person, stuff like I enjoy travelling, I speak french, I've done fundraising activities etc etc. More personality than would have been professional in the cover letter.
There was a bit of confusion on the forums (www.wdwip.com) as to the best way of uploading the CV and cover letter. When you do your profile on YJ, it's essentially your application, except it just sits there until the applications open then you click the 'apply now' button. No-one was really sure what to do with the cover letter, as there's a bit which says 'upload CV' but there's no mention of a cover letter anywhere. There's also a text box labelled 'motivation'. Some people pasted their cover letter into that, which seemed to work fine and as far as I know most of them got phone interviews. I decided to put my cover letter and CV into one word document, uploaded that and then used the motivation box as extra space. I talked a lot more about why I personally wanted to work for Disney, why I loved it and why I wanted to be a part of the program. More personal than the cover letter. So even though it looks like there's not much space to say everything, if you're creative there's more than enough.

The best advice I could give would be to thoroughly research the program, really get a feel for what you think Disney is looking for then tailor your application to show that you have that!

The phone interview itself was good. You get to pick your date and time so you won't be taken by surprise and I had Hannah, who really was lovely. I had a couple of disasters with the phone (note to self: you are rubbish with technology so never try to do anything as sophisticated as using speakerphone again!!) which made the first couple of minutes a little more nerve wracking and difficult. I hope I recovered well and by the end I was in full swing and really enjoying myself, so fingers crossed I did enough!

I'll talk more about what was actually in the phone interview next time, cos otherwise this is gonna be a looooong post!!!

So now it's waiting!! I've already been waiting for over a week and it's already killing me! I want this so badly, but then again so do the other 300 or so people that got phone interviews so we'll have to wait and see! Hopefully they only get rid of about 100 or so that did really badly, and don't only keep those who did amazingly. Cos I think I'm somewhere in the middle!! Don't expect to hear for at least another fortnight yet, so once again crossing fingers, toes and everything else!!

So now I'm going to get out of bed and have some breakfast as it's 1pm. Oh, the joys of being unemployed!! ;) xxxx

Hello!!

So this is my first blog... ever!!

Like many others before me I've decided to apply for the Cultural Representative Program at Walt Disney World in Florida. I found reading blogs of people's experiences really helpful so I decided to write my own, even if the process hasn't really started yet!

A bit about me: I'm Vix, 21 years old, just about to finish my Law degree. I've been a huge Disney freak since I was tiny. Since I graduate this summer (everything going to plan of course!) I've been trying to decide what I want to do next. I went back to Florida this easter and it all just fell in to place- I want to work for Disney!!

And so the fun begins... the applications don't open until the 21st of June, and that's only the first of many rounds. Yesterday I finished my CV and cover letter, which I've done way in advance so I can go back and change it, which knowing me I'll want to do a lot! Luckily I'm quite busy over the next few weeks, with my final exams and then moving back home from uni, so the wait until the applications start will probably go quite quickly.

After that, though there's a massive wait until the next stage, I think it could be a couple of months. If you're lucky, you get a phone interview during which (from what I've read) they ask you questions like 'What Disney character are you most like?' and 'What are some interesting facts about where you live?'. Durham's quite an interesting place so I'm alright there, but I'm still thinking about my Disney character... I want to give a good answer that I actually mean and have thought about. I don't need to worry though cos like I said I have months to decide!

The stage after that is the Face to Face interviews, which I think take place in London around October time. Even for me, that's too far in advance for me to really prepare for! I really, really hope I get that far!

Hopefully, with fingers, toes and everything else crossed I should be working for the Mouse in early 2011. If I'm not, I'll be applying again in the next round, and then again after that... maybe when I hit thirty I should start thinking of alternatives, but not until then!