Time for another check-in! I know I am bad at blogging (I would say welcome to working full time and going to grad school, but I have gone through periods with 0 excuses). However, I am really good with following the intern Facebook pages and answering questions! I figured I may try to revive some blogging habits and do some posts on topics of frequent questions that I help answer in the groups, so here is my first topic!
Many people who apply for professional internships with Disney use it as a way to get their foot in the door to hopefully get a full time position. While many full time cast members in professional roles were once PIs, there is definitely not any guarantee of a full time offer during or after your internship. Because of this, a frequent question that people ask is the likelihood of going full time at after your PI. While I don't have any hard and fast numbers, I can tell you a bit of what I have learned from my experience of completing two PIs and staying with the company in a full time capacity.
Work Ethic
Before you even think about full time, make the most of your PI. You aren't going to get anywhere with a full time offer if you cannot impress your leaders on your internship. Hiring managers will ask your leaders about you (they do it even for full time cast moving into new roles) so don't spend all your time worrying about the full time offer and not taking advantage of doing quality work and maybe learning a few skills to put on your resume. Recognize you may need to do 2 internships before getting anywhere, so build up the skills in your...
Area of Expertise
A big determination of how likely you can stay with Disney is what your background is in. For example, if you have experience in analytics, there are many teams around Disney that you may be qualified for and is an area that generally is growing. This means that you have more opportunity to stay, whether or not it is in the department that you interned in.
On the other hand, if you are in Environmental Education, there is really one department you can work under. Thusly, by the nature of the team, you may not have a good chance of going straight to full time after the internship because their is a limited number of full time positions, so for this team you may need to go part time for a while (months or years) before getting a statused full time position. While going part time is an option for that area, not all areas have that option. Therefore, if the team you intern with is one of the only teams in your area, you may not have a good chance of staying with the company, because a lot depends on...
Timing
Timing is everything. If you are interning during an economic downturn, there may be a lot of cuts without many positions opening. This could also be conversely true with periods of growth as well.
I always say that it is unlikely to stay with the team you intern with, because there has to be a lot of luck with the team either growing and gaining new headcount or someone leaving the team resulting with an opening. Not only that, you often have to hope that the position is going to be posted as an entry level position and the team enjoys your work enough to consider you. With those situations being few and far between, to take full advantage of your PI, you need to consider...
Networking
Networking is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of having a PI over applying externally. While I was awful at it (and really, REALLY lucked out to get a position without it), this is one of the biggest pieces of advice I give interns. Really use your time with the company to your advantage! It is such a big company with departments doing things you never knew Disney did, so take time to go and learn about them. The more you know about what you can do with your experience at Disney and the more people in those departments that may have openings during your time as an intern, thereby increasing your chances! If leaders can recognize your name in a stack of resumes, it can help increase the chance of getting interviews and potentially a full time position!
So when your on your PI, go talk to your leaders on how to approach networking, because who knows if you connect with a department or someone you network with and they end up having an opening on their team! Maybe I'll even do a post on how to network one of these days....
So to top it off, don't go in thinking everyone is going to love you and you will have a job offer in the first month (yes, there are some people that think this way), but if you work hard in your internship on your team, keep an eye out on my Disney Career for job postings, and do meet and greets, the timing of a great position and your skill set may align and give you that opportunity to stay with Disney post-PI!
