Yay! Another blog post! This time I'm going to be talking about my experience with the application process. Hopefully some of you might find it helpful if you are currently applying or are thinking bout applying in the future.
One of the main requirements of the program is that you are a current college student. This means that when you are a freshman, you can apply for the spring semester, but it cannot be used as your first semester. Taking college credits in high school also do not count as being a current college student. I believe, just like any other job, having previous work experience helps you out when applying. However, I do know people who did the program with no previous work experience.
After sending your application, the next step is the web based interview. I remember I got an email to take the web based interview shortly after submitting my application. I actually applied to the program twice, the first time I didn't get past the web based interview. Basically, I wasn't super prepared for it and I wasn't too sure what to expect. This part of the application process is kinda like a personality quiz. They have statements that help speak about personality, how you would be in a work environment, etc. and you have to rate the statement from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The mistake I made the first time was not consistently putting either strongly agree or disagree on the statement, I rated a few more in the middle. You always want to answer more on the extreme side. You also want to answer these questions as if you are already a Disney cast member, meaning don't answer them based on your personal life. The second time I applied I took all this into account and passed this section. Literally right after you take this interview you know whether or not you've advanced to the phone interview.
Not gonna lie, the phone based interview is pretty intimidating at first. My suggestion is to make sure you the space you do your interview is very quiet and distraction free. I live in my sorority's house so this was a little rough for me, but luckily my roommate was very understanding and respectful about it, so I just told her when I was doing the interview so I could have the room during that time. As far as preparing goes, I did research some potential questions that might be asked and I did make sure my resume was printed out in case my interviewer asked anything about it. The main question you want to prepare an answer for though, is why you want to do the program. Take a second and think about what your response would be. Even though it is a fairly simple question, you definitely want to have a prepared answer and not sound blindsided during you interview. One piece of advice I got when I was preparing for my interview was to not over prepare. So while I did do my research, most of which I had already done when I realized I wanted to do the program, I didn't type out all my answers and what not. You don't want to sound too robotic and stiff, you want all your answers to sound natural. What I did do that proved to be extremely helpful was watching phone interview videos on youtube. This helped get a true idea of what my interview would be like and definitely calmed a lot of my nerves. The interview itself was very casual and easy going. He asked me some of the basic questions like why I wanted to do the program and why I would be a good fit, he also asked me some questions about the "Disney look". He did ask me some role specific questions, but interestingly enough none of the roles he asked me questions about I ended up doing. This was the same with other people I knew in the program, so definitely don't expect that the roles you talked about in the interview are the roles you are going to be in. My best piece of advice for this interview is too just calm down. Once you actually start it, you realize it's not as nerve-wracking as you thought and the conversation you have becomes very natural.
The hardest and most annoying part of the process is waiting for Disney to email you whether you got accepted or not. At least with my experience, they take their sweet time to get back to you. Just be patient, check your email often, and keep a positive outlook to whatever happens. That's all I have for this post! Next time I'm going to talk about housing, roommates, and all that good stuff. Till next time!
