I love being an alumni and part of the DCP Facebook pages because it gives me the opportunity to answer questions! Most questions I see are about housing, and how to choose your apartment. Choosing your housing complex is not like picking your dorm or house hunters, where you'll pick exactly what you want and know everything ahead of time. I'm going to walk you through the process, based on what I remember from last year, and changes I've heard about since then. You'll be invited to select your housing preferences 2-3 weeks before your check in date, but there are things you can do in the months before that! There are two things you should do in preparation to pick your housing. I've listed these as "Step 1" and "Step 2" but I recommend doing them simultaneously.
In the last two posts I talked about high need and high volume roles. These are other roles that are offered for CPs although only a handful or a few people are accepted for these roles. Obviously people are accepted for these roles every season however the odds of it are rare or uncommon. Fair warning: since these are more uncommon roles I might not know much about them, if that's the case, I'll try to include lots of references! Bell ServicesBell Services During my last program, a few of my friends worked bell services. The two things they usually did were working at the bell services desks and transporting bags between resorts. Hours: My friends usually got the full 40 hours and it was fairly easy to trade shifts. Locations: Resorts Pros: Not too much too do, where I worked they usually watched youtube videos during their entire shift, bell services isnt' open late, it's the job of Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya Del Rosa Ramirez! Cons: It can become boring, you work in a resort Resources: waltdisneywongdcp.blogspot.com In the first part of this post you heard about the four high need roles, in this post you'll hear about four more roles: the high volume roles. Even though these aren't high need roles, they are roles that a lot or moderate amount of CPs are accepted for so you have a good or moderate chance of being accepted into these roles. AttractionsAttractions cast members are responsible for running attractions and parade audience control, you can also be placed as a park greeter who scans tickets and finger prints. Working attractions includes running the control panel, fastpass and standby merge points, loading people into rides, greeting at the front of the queue and scanning fastpasses, and more. You'll also likely have to spiel which can include reciting the rules or reciting a full script for the duration of the ride on attractions like The Great Movie Ride or Jungle Cruise. During your shift you will rotate between positions at the ride and possibly at other rides, attractions, or character meet and greets. You can also be asked to help with stroller parking and attending the fastpass kiosks.
Hours: My friends were usually scheduled 36-40 hours, 6-8 hour shifts, they also had very active facebook groups for trading, picking up, and giving away shifts. Locations: Parks, Water Parks, and Disney Springs Pros: This is a super fun job! The coworkers are usually cool, you're right in the middle of the action and a part of the heart and soul of the theme parks Cons: You can only pick up shifts at your location, some of the tasks like running the control panel can become redundant, sometimes parents and guest can become hostile because of the wait time, height requirements, or when a ride goes down, hearing a que line rope fall to the ground will make you NUTTY! Resources: courtskingdom.wordpress.com https://jagerdoesdisney.wordpress.com/ http://livingthatdisneydream.tumblr.com/ http://maddieinwdw.tumblr.com/ This post comes as a request from a reader, and is in three parts. As you think about applying and what roles you want to list as your top roles, or even which to put as high, medium, or low interest, it's important to know what each role entails. I'm here to help! I want to provide you with descriptions, details, and links to other resources for each role! These posts only includes roles offered at Walt Disney World, since that's where I have experience and where most people are accepted. This post will include descriptions of all the roles listed as "high need" on the application, the next will include roles that hire a lot or moderate amount of CPs, the final post will include the rest of the roles. To read the official role descriptions from the DCP website, click here. On the new application (It's different from both times I applied before), they first ask for your interest in the "high need roles" which are custodial, housekeeping, lifeguard, and quick service. These are the roles they need CPs for the most so you are most likely to be accepted for these roles. CustodialObviously Custodial is the best role out there! Custodians are responsible for keeping the parks and resorts clean. This includes emptying trash cans, spot sweeping, general cleaning, and cleaning bathrooms. Resort custodians are scheduled for bathrooms and general cleaning each shift but park custodians are scheduled for either bathrooms or general cleaning each shift. In many locations custodians also get to answer a lot of guest question, pin trade, and give out stickers. Custodial is often titled "the best kept secret" or "the hidden gem" of the college program because of those fun perks and the flexibility and freedom the role offers since you're not always right next to your supervisor and coworkers. You can make magic by pin trading, giving out stickers, or giving out no strings attached forms. Hours: As a resort custodian I was usually only scheduled for 32 hours, but many of my friends who worked in parks were scheduled 40-50 hours with many opportunities for overtime. You can trade shifts with people at other parks (if you're at a park) or resorts (if you're at a resort). Locations: Resorts, Parks, Water Parks, Disney Springs, ESPN Pros: Lots of freedom! Lots of experience for guest service, not too busy, if you work in parks you get to watch parades and fireworks, lots of opportunities to make magical moments Cons: You need to be familiar with the area you work so you might not feel comfortable picking up shifts, resort custodians can't pick up parks shifts usually and vice versa. It's all cleaning! Resources: My blog, thedcplife.blogspot.com So, you passed your WBI and were offered a phone interview, woohoo!! Now ensures the panic! Everyone seems to spiral into a frenzy over the phone interview. Today I'm going to give you some tips to help you avoid this seeming inevitable panic. 1. Stop Panicking, it's not going to help you to panic and only going to make you more nervous which doesn't help you on your interview. 2. Set up a Mock Interview, You can do this with a friend or family member, I'm even willing to help you if you want, just contact me here or on Facebook and I'd love to help you. Here's a list of potential questions to help you out. Practice the general questions as well as questions related to your top choice roles and questions related to the high need roles (custodial, housekeeping, lifeguard, and quick service for the spring 2017 recruiting season). 3. Make ONE Page of Notes, more than one page of notes will be overwhelming, confusing, and ultimately not helpful because you'll spend just as much time searching for the answer as you would thinking of the answer. As you go through your mock interview mark the questions you can't answer quickly and make notes for those. For me those are the example questions such as "Describe a situation where you have had to work with a difficult person, boss, or teacher." Also include your list of your top 5 roles in order (just so you're prepared for if they ask for any number of top roles) and a space to write down your interviewer's name. 4. Repeat Step One, stop panicking, take five deep breaths, get a good night sleep, listen to some Disney music to prepare yourself. Do whatever will calm you down. 5. Prepare for your Interview, Set out your notes and a pencil or pen, find a quiet place where you get good phone signal, review your answers, smile, and be ready for the call. Be ready 15 minutes before your interview. Be prepared that your interviewer may call you 15 minutes early or late. Before I finish, I want to again extend the offer to contact me for help preparing for your PI. I want to remind you again to check out the potential interview questions. Finally, if you have any questions I can answer please submit them below or comment on this post.
As you fill out your Disney application you might be thinking about brushing up on your Spanish, ASL, or German skills. (For a full list of language pin options check out the Official Disney College Program Blog.) Thinking about all these other languages you might be interested in practicing you might have forgotten that working at Disney practically requires learning a whole new language! Disney loves to abbreviate, and in addition to that there are a lot of words that are just general "Disney-ese." In this post I will walk you through some of these Disney words and abbreviations and when you might hear them. If you come across any more words let me know in the comments at the bottom and I'll try to help! The Application ProcessApps dropped: Disney has released the applications and you can now apply!
Dashboard: Your dashboard is the home page where you can find all the information about the status of your application. WBI: Web Based Interview, Disney liked your application and they want to know more about you to see if you are a good fit for the internship. It's basically an online survey where you pick the answer that most describes you. PI: Phone Interview, you passed the WBI and now you get to have an interview with an actual person over the phone. In Progress: A general status term you'll see on your dashboard, usually this means you're going somewhere but who knows what this actually means. In Submission: Another general status term you'll see on your dashboard, usually one thought of to be more negative, I think of it like a waiting list for college. NLIC: No longer in consideration, this means you are not being considered for an internship with Disney this recruiting season but you are free to apply next season. Action Required: You have another thing you need to do to continue in the application process, this could be taking the WBI, scheduling your PI, or accepting your offer. WDW: Walt Disney World DLR/DL: Disneyland Resort I was accepted to the program my second time applying which is sooner than it takes for most people. How did that happen? I really don't know what particularly made that happen but I have two things that I think helped a lot. Remember, though, this is entirely my speculation. Here are my two things, try them and tell me if they work for you! 1. Related Experience
The summer before I applied and was accepted I worked at Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA of the Rockies, a YMCA resort. This experience helped me in two ways. First, I had experience working at a resort, in hospitality, and at a tourist destination. Second of all, my experience at the YMCA was very similar to the DCP because it had the three aspects of the program: living, learning, and earning. I worked full time, and lived in a dorm at the Y, and I was in a Christian leadership program so I was learning things related to that. I explained both these things in my interview. A few days ago I joined the DCP Spring 2017 page as an alumni and an applicant. Applications only came out a few days ago but everyone's already worried about the status of their app, and I don't blame them. There are tons of theories that float around every season as to how you get into "in submission" or "in progress" or what increases your chances of being accepted. All of these are valid questions, but also no one knows the answer. If this is you, I want to encourage you to slow down and remember it's going to happen or not, worrying isn't going to help you, quite the opposite actually. In order to encourage you to be patient and wait I wanted to give you a glimpse into what the timing of my application process last year.
On Christmas I officially announced I would accept my internship at Walt Disney World. Now, questions from family and friends are piling in! I want to write this post to introduce you to the program and answer some of the questions I'm asked often. This will be my blog for the time being. You can go back to my college blog here. General Information About the ProgramThe Disney College Program is an internship for students in college or who have graduated in the last 6 months. It's different from simply taking a job at Disney for a semester in that you get to live in company sponsored housing and participate in special events just for College Programmers. In this way you still get the college experience while participating in the program. The internship opens lots of doors for future positions with the company such as full time park positions, professional internships, cruise line jobs, movie industry jobs, business jobs, and jobs with other parts of the Disney company. You can find more information and apply to the program here. Commonly Asked Questions |
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