The Application/Interview Process

So you want to work at Walt Disney World, eh? Maybe you have always wanted to work for the mouse, or maybe you want a job in the world of art and entertainment and this could be a good stepping stone. Maybe you are feeling unmotivated in your current life and need a change. Maybe you just love Disney SO MUCH and working there and getting to go to the parks every day would be a dream come true. Well no matter the reason, deciding to apply to Walt Disney World is certainly the first step to a big adventure!

I applied to the cultural representative program in January 2016. You must create an account with Disney’s dashboard system and when applying for a position the system asks you a series of questions about your education and work experience and then there is a page to upload your cover letter and resume. For more information about the application process, check out Morgan's blog where she gives some really great advice about applying to Disney: http://morgansdisneycrp.blogspot.ca/p/the.html. At the time when I applied I am certain that the system said I would hear back within 30 days regarding my application. At the beginning, I frequently logged in to dashboard to see if any progress had been made with my application (probably once per day). 30 days came and went and I still didn’t hear anything, so I slowly began checking less and less. Around March I started to become discouraged because I hadn’t heard anything yet but I was really focused on my work as a teacher at the time so I really didn’t have much time to dwell on it.

On March 29th I received an email from Disney inviting me to an interview! The interview would take place at their Toronto office and interviews took place over two days on April 20th and 21st. In the email I was asked to select an interview date and time. I was able to secure an interview spot on the first day of interviews and my interview time was between 3-4pm. However, we were also required to attend a presentation in the morning at 9:30am, which would mean I would have quite a bit of time to kill in Toronto in between the presentation and my actual interview.

At the same time that you are invited for an interview, Disney also requests some additional information from you. We were asked to indicate preferences for what types of positions we might be interested in. Based on my research leading up to the interview (and by “research” I mean reading blogs and watching vlogs), I already knew that the Canada pavilion hired the most employees for food and beverage (more on this later in this post), and since I have 4+ years of serving experience I expressed a high level of interest for working in food and beverage and I also expressed a high level of interest for working in attractions/kidcot. I expressed a moderate level of interest for working in merchandise, because although I would love to work at Disney doing any position, I really would prefer either food and beverage or attractions. I thought it was interesting that the site also asked you to indicate preferences for working at Animal Kingdom/Animal Kingdom Lodge. At first I was a little thrown off by this because I knew it would be impossible for me to have a position there but I think it is just because they have a generic site for all applicants from all over the world. Disney also asked us to register with their document site which required us to upload a passport. I actually did not have a passport at this time and was planning to wait until I knew if I got the job to get one (they are expensive!) but then I read that you needed a passport in order to be offered a position so off to the passport office I went. I got the 10 year passport ($160) and I made my boyfriend promise to take me on a vacation in the next 10 years if the Disney thing didn’t work out (lol).

My interview took place on April 20th. I don’t live too far from Toronto so it was not a big adventure for me to get there. I met some people at the interview who had flown from Vancouver and Manitoba or had traveled hours by car from Quebec for this interview! I hate driving in Toronto though, and it would especially be a nightmare trying to drive in rush hour traffic in the morning so I decided to take the GO train into the city. From my house, it took me about 45 minutes to drive to the GO train station in Burlington and then once I was on the train it took approximately an hour to get to Toronto. The GO train was nice and quiet and I used that time to get pumped for my interview by listening to Disney music and reading the Disney Institute's book “Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service”.

I arrived in Toronto around 8:30am so I had some time to relax before the presentation. The Toronto office is about a block from Union Station where I got off the train so it didn’t take me long to find the building. I found a washroom and a Starbucks in the lower level of the building and so I sat to enjoy my chai latte until about 9:00am when I made the trek up to the office on the 29th floor. I was one of the first to arrive and we were asked to wait outside until about 9:15am. I met a few people while waiting and then we were led into the presentation room. In the presentation room I sat beside some really nice people and we just chatted until the presentation began. I am guessing that there were about 30 people at the interview and this was the first day of interviews.

Because I had read a lot of blogs about the cultural representative program leading up to my interview and there is actually a lot of information out there regarding the interview process, the presentation did not hold a lot of surprises and I knew a lot of the information that the two presenters told us. We were told about the different types of roles we might have, the housing options, our expectations as employees, etc. We were also told that they hire the most people yearly for food and beverage positions (approximately 60 people), while for attractions and merchandise they only hire approximately 10-15 people each. At this time, they were hiring for positions starting August 2016 to February 2017, however they told us in the interview that they did not have specific start dates for January and February yet so if you wanted to start then and you were successful you would be placed on the wait list. I really did not want to placed on the wait list, so when they asked me in my interview when I wanted to start I said September.

After the presentation, if your interview was not until later in the day you were free to leave so I met up with a friend who was also in Toronto for lunch. I did have a mini-panic attack leading up to the interview because I forgot to print off a resume to bring with me but I actually did not need it. I returned for my interview slot at approximately 2:45pm but it was pretty clear when I arrived that they were running behind. I was called for my interview around 3:50pm and there were still people from my interview time slot waiting to be interviewed.

I was interviewed by a Disney recruiter, while others were interviewed by the manager of Le Cellier. My interviewer was really lovely and it really was a relaxed interview. I really tried to let my personality shine through in my answers, although some were simple questions such as “Do you have any tattoos?”, “Would you be willing to do a drug test?”, "How do you handle the heat?, "Can you handle heavy lifting?", "What role do you prefer?". The question I think I faltered on the most was “What would you like you guests to know about Canada?”. I was expecting a question like this but in the moment I struggled to concisely articulate what it was about Canada that I wanted to share with other people from around the world. They also asked questions about my work experience and my interviewer seemed to be really interested in my teaching experiences so at some points it felt like we were having a conversation rather than a Q&A. One piece of advice I will give is to be honest! One of the questions was about my knowledge of wine, because the restaurant at Le Cellier has a very extensive wine list (approximately 150 wine offerings). Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience with wine and I was honest about that with my interviewer, but I did express a genuine desire to learn about the different wines. Also, as with all interviews, you should always answer the questions by giving a specific experience to highlight why you are the best candidate for the job. And finally, if you do have an interview with Disney, you should most certainly expect them to ask you why you want to work at Disney!

After the interview it was time to go home. We were told that if you could start in August and you were successful, you would be hearing from them within a week or so because they needed to start the visa process. If you indicated that you could start anytime between August-February, they said we would probably hear in the middle of May.

Waiting for the email indicating whether or not you were successful is really hard. I began second guessing every single answer I gave and I had almost convinced myself that I didn’t get a position. But I told myself that if I didn’t get the position that I would just keep moving forward and really focus on my teaching career, which would also be amazing. But obviously since this blog exists you know how this story ends (spoiler: I got the job) but that will be explained next!