In the quarter century that I have been on this Earth, I would say that roughly 40% of that time I have lived with the knowledge that someday I WILL work for the Walt Disney Company. And during that 40% of the time, I have had five interviews for jobs at various levels, three of which actually resulted in offers. Where does that leave me now? Well… I’m still not employed with the Walt Disney Company, but I certainly have tried, and I’ve learned a lot from the process.

Over the years, I have applied for basically four different types of jobs: Walt Disney World College Program, Full-Time Hourly Attractions Host at Walt Disney World, Part-Time Hourly Attractions Host at Walt Disney World, Advanced/Management Internship at Walt Disney World, and Operations Manager at Walt Disney World. Out of those five, the three that resulted in offers were the College Program, and the two hourly roles. But, because of circumstances at the time, I ended up turning them down.

So, what is a Disney interview like? Well, that depends upon the position for which you are interviewing! I’ll start with the College Program.

For the WDW College Program, you must currently be enrolled as either a full- or part-time student in a college or university. The WDW College Program travels all around the country to various colleges and universities to recruit for the program. They start by giving a presentation about what all you will experience as part of the college program, and explain some of the philosophies behind their expectations of the Cast Members.

In order to interview for the WDW College Program, you MUST attend one of these presentations, even if they don’t come to your school. You can always find a complete recruitment schedule at their website, www.wdwcollegeprogram.com.

The interview process takes place at your college or university, either immediately after the presentation is concluded, or the following day. It is very impersonal, as they are trying to interview quite a few candidates in a very short amount of time. For my interview, I was taken into an office with one of the recruiters and two other candidates. This was very awkward for me, simply because I had never experienced a group interview before. I felt very strange trying to show that I was a better candidate than everyone else when two other candidates were sitting right there with me!

After the interview is completed, you wait. Depending upon how early in the semester your interview took place, it could be a month or two before you hear anything back. I think it was about a month after my interview took place that I was finally notified that I had been accepted into the program as a Custodial Host. Well, not necessarily my first choice, but okay. However, once I really started looking at how much time this was going to take out of my college career, I decided to put it on hold for the time being, and I eventually turned the job down. In recent times, I have really regretted that, as I’m finding that it is very hard to get your foot in the door when you live so far away. The College Program would have allowed me to do just that in a single move. I would have gotten a job, they provide you housing, and you have excellent opportunities to network with people. All these are things that are very hard to do on your own.

Both of my interviews for hourly Attractions positions actually took place at the Casting Center at Walt Disney World. This process is quite a unique experience in its own right. After entering through the main entrance with doorknobs based on the talking doorknob from Alice in Wonderland, you turn left and find yourself at the end of a long hallway that gradually slopes upward. At the end of the hallway you can see a desk, and a model of Cinderella Castle behind that. On the walls on either side of the hallway are scenes of Disney characters and various backgrounds from around the parks. It really does get you excited about potentially working there.

Once you get up to the desk, you are given an application form to fill out. This is a rather lengthy application form, and it took me about 20 minutes to complete. You are then sent to a large waiting area where television monitors continually play “Cast TV,” which explains the various roles throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Every 15 minutes or so, a Casting Cast Member calls for anyone who has not yet viewed the pre-employment video to enter into a small theater area to do so. This video then explains in depth Disney’s policies on costuming, grooming, pay scales and frequency, and goes into a brief history of the company as a whole and Walt Disney World specifically. For someone like me who has devoted a large chunk of my life to researching the Walt Disney Company, I didn’t really learn anything new here.

Afterward, you are returned to the waiting room until it is your turn to be interviewed. After waiting what sometimes seemed like an eternity, a Casting Agent eventually will come out and call out your name. You are then escorted back into an office, where the formal interview takes place. Questions range from why you want to work at Disney to giving examples of how you would handle various scenarios that are given to you. Oh, and make sure you do pay attention to the pre-employment video, as they do ask you some very specific questions just to see if you were paying attention!

The interview lasts no more than 10 minutes, and in both of my cases, a job offer was made immediately. Because of my situation of living out-of-town, I could not start immediately, but was instructed to call when I was able to start. The offer was good for 6 months, after which I would have to interview again.

As far as hourly roles go, I’ve found that it is very easy to get a job offer. Even though they are still just hourly roles, I still recommend dressing up for the interview. I either wore a suit, or at least a coat and tie with nice pants. I wouldn’t go in your t-shirt and jeans, although I did see people in the Casting Center dressed as such. Just remember to keep a smile on your face and be friendly and interactive with your interviewer. When asked how you would handle certain scenarios, just think about how you would want to be treated if you were the Guest involved. They are really looking to see how Guest Service-oriented you are. One final piece of advice: Pay attention to the pre-employment video. You might get asked questions about some things it discusses!

That’s it for now… Next time, I’ll discuss my two interviews for salaried positions that didn’t turn out the way I had hoped… Until then, I’ll see ya real soon!