A Once in a Lifetime Business Trip

In August my team did a little bit of a re-org, which was both nerve wracking and exciting. In the re-org my responsibilities changed from working with the Disney Springs Region Resorts at Walt Disney World to our Hawaiian Resort: Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa. I'm not going to lie, this has been the biggest challenge I've had yet in my career, but last week I got to experience the perks of working with the West Coast team....a trip to Disneyland and Hawaii!

It was my first trip to DLR, so while my bosses were flying in Sunday afternoon, I decided to get up bright and early to fly out early Saturday morning. Since I am going to grad school, the week leading up to the trip was spent with some late nights trying to get as much homework done as possible. I also of course waited until the night before to pack, so I can't say that I started the trip off with a lot of sleep. While I had issues with my luggage and a few rides breaking down, I spent almost the entire day at Disneyland and it was magical! I even got upgraded to a theme park view at Paradise Pier so I headed back to watch World of Color from my room! It was so nice to relax and listen to the show music with my TV.

Saturday I was able to do Extra Magic Hours at Disney's California Adventure starting at 7 am and then finished a few more rides at Disneyland before heading to my new room for a nap: at the Grand Californian concierge level! It was a much needed nap before meeting up with my freshman college roommate and conquering DCA! We also met up with my bosses for dinner which was nice. Karen and I closed out the park with another late night.

The team spent the next two days in meetings, including a late work night on Monday, but late nights are better with concierge snacks! Then my one leader and I continued onto Hawaii on Wednesday. Aulani is an amazing resort! It was seriously paradise and I recommend it to everyone who can get a chance to go! I didn't get to enjoy the amenities this time, spending a lot of my time in meetings and the evenings trying to finish my homework. Luckily I was able to submit everything so I could enjoy my extra vacation days! I booked a red-eye out on Monday, so I had 2 and a half days to pack as much island fun in as possible! Including relaxing, swimming with sea turtles, watching surfers on the North Shore, watching traditional hula, enjoying Hawaiian food, going on a movie tour, and visiting Pearl Harbor! My internal clock is all messed up now, but I slept most of Tuesday when I got home at noon until this morning since I only got a little nap in on my flight. 

My trip was full of a lot of hard and meaningful work, but I also played pretty hard, too. While I have a lot of work to do in the next week with my job and school, and I will miss the weather of Anaheim and the beauty of Oahu, it feels good to sleep in my own bed again after 4 hotels in 10 days.

It's amazing what a few years and some hard work can do!

Likelihood of Full Time

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! 

Resumes

Creating a resume is a daunting task albeit perhaps the most important one in getting a job. Yes, even potentially more important than your degree, hot shot internship, or cool research project you worked on, because how can your recruiter know about those things if you can't portray them correctly in your resume?

While I do not proclaim myself on being an all knowing expert on resumes, I weirdly used to enjoy making them when applying to internships and full time positions. I feel like while I may not be the best writer in the world, I am good about making connections to my experience to the jobs I am applying for. There are many great places for resume advice like your school's career center, a parent, mentor, or professor, but here is some of the advice that I have picked up through my years of applying to positions at Disney (and even after sitting on a hiring panel once as well!)

My first step in creating a resume is opening up word and start listing EVERYTHING that you can thing of that you may want to put on a resume. Schools, jobs, volunteering, languages, conferences attended, major projects you have worked on (even if they were just in school), awards, scholarships, anything and everything you can think of: list it all out! I recommend this since listing everything out can really help you see all you have to offer and can actually help you focus more on the important things to include rather than trying to figure out what is most important to include off of the top of your head. Also, make sure to list all responsibilities that you had in roles or projects including software/machinery used (or whatever may be applicable in your subject area). This document could be 2 to 10+ pages long depending on your experience. Remember this is a starting point and not what you are submitting!

Then start looking at what positions you are interested and try and figure out what is most applicable to include on your actual resume. I recommend tailoring your resume to every position you apply for, so this is why the previous step is helpful: you don't need to start over every time you are applying to a new position. You have a starting place to plug and chug and modify as necessary to have a nicely polished, focused resume. 

Now while making your resume here are some tips:

- Don't try and cram everything on one page if you honestly have more relevant experience. It can begin to look sloppy and hard to read if you have too much there 

-Nowadays it is very acceptable to have a 2 page resume, but don't go over 2 pages unless they ask for a CV. Life has changed from when our parents and grandparents applied for their first jobs and the 1 page rule is becoming much more of a thing of the past

-If you do go over 1 page make sure you can fill 2. Doing 1.5 pages looks sloppy and most recruiters don't like it

-Try not to have more than 3 bullet points under a position. People are trying to get a quick grasp of what you did in that job that gives you the experiences to get the position you are applying for and listing too much is hard to look at quickly. Disney gets a lot of applicants and recruiters don't have time to read a novel no matter how cool the job was

-Look at the job description and qualifications and try and figure out what makes you qualified. Try and match similar keywords and connect your experience to the position

-Don't include positions that have nothing to do with what you are applying for if you are just trying to fill space and can't adequately tie it to something related to the position 

-Split your resume into 4 parts by making lines down the center of each direction of the page. Try to have even white space in each part as it makes it easier to read and is more visually appealing 

-Don't include a mission or objective. It is outdated and isn't worth wasting the space to just say you want xxx job at yyy company. This is another outdated practice and literally everyone who has ever given me resume advice says not to include it. You have limited space to prove yourself so don't waste it with something obvious. If you have sometime you want to say that can't fit in your resume, write a cover letter instead!

-Make sure to include key words from the job description. I cannot repeat this enough. Many companies, especially Disney, get a crazy number of applicants for each job positing. Therefore, resumes are often scanned by computers before people look at them so you need to make sure the computer thinks your a good candidate before you can even hope to convince a hiring manager or recruiter. On the flip side, don't just copy and paste entire phrases from the description as that is (obviously) plagiarism

-Look up resume action words and include them in your descriptions. Also, If you have a way to quantify parts of your projects, do it! Saying you were a biology tutor makes far less of an impact then saying that you created problem sets for 4 student peers a semester and anticipated difficult subject material for weekly sessions to aid in raising students' grades an average of an entire letter grade in an introductory biology course

-List your sections of your resume from most important to least important (but remember only important things should be making your resume in the first place). Many people will take a couple of seconds on their initial scan to see if a resume is cleanly put together and if there is something about this candidate that will make them want to read more of the resume. So don't include your most important skills and experiences at the bottom of your second page.

-Give your resume to friends, family, or anyone you trust to give constructive feedback. Other people might notice mistakes you missed or even remember something useful that you may want to add before submitting the final product

-Save your resume as a PDF before submitting it. This will ensure that formatting won't change depending on who is looking at it (don't worry, the computer scanners don't have issues with PDFs)

I had two pages when I was applying for jobs as I had a diverse background and wanted to include both relevant experience and project work without cramming too much in a short space (which I know is ironic given how lengthy my blog posts tend to be 😃)  The important thing to remember is to sell yourself in a clean presentable format. This may mean different things to you or what field you are in, but resumes are perhaps the biggest impact on getting to that pone interview where you can sell yourself even further!

If you made it through this, congrats, you are on your path to start creating a stellar resume!

Update to Intern Park Passes

One of the greatest perks of being an intern with Disney is the free park admission. Can you imagine being able to enjoy the magic whenever you want!?!?! Even after two years with the Company I have to say it doesn't get old. While, I might not go quite as often as I did during my first internship because I wanted to make the most of my unknown amount of time here, I still go quite often. I love being able to just go for a few hours in the evening after the sun goes down in the summer, grab a bit to eat during Food and Wine at EPCOT, enjoy all of the holiday festivities, and more whenever I want. 

As a cast member, you even get to bring guests in to enjoy with you! While I am very fortunate to be statused in a full time position now so my guest passes work differently, interns (College or Professional ones) still get the same unlimited self admission and get some guest passes as well. I made a post last year about the old way that intern guest passes used to work (Old Intern Park Pass Post) but at the beginning of this calendar year Disney shook up the way intern passes work so I figured it was worth doing an update for those who might be itching to know what to expect.

The self admission main entrance pass still works the same, but instead of getting 3x 6 use passes at the beginning of your internship, interns and seasonal cast members now accrue their guest passes based on hours worked.

Need to actually type how the new passes work. I believe that once you have worked 150 hours you will receive three 1 person park hopper tickets. These could all be used on the same day or different days, it's up to you! Then after you work another 150 hours you get three more 1 person park hoppers. Finally you will recieve 3 more after the 450th hour worked. I believe at that point you will stop accruing so during your internship you will likely get nine 1 person park hoppers. 

If you were to let in the max of 3 people each time you used the old version then technically you got more under the old way (max 18 across 6 days) and could do so from the day you got your main enterence pass was nice. However, the felxibility of when you can use the new passes is nice too! Why did this change happen? Perhaps Disney was trying to avoid people starting a CP/PI using the perks and then quitting and/or trading away shifts as a CP but maintaining their own entrance to the parks. Who knows the exact reason this changed but I haven't heard many complaints about the new system besides when it was first announced, so I assume it has been going well. But let's be honest: who can complain about getting in free to Disney and having the opportunity to intern at such a great company!!!!

Spring 2017 Professional Internship Applications

So I've been behind on this semester, but we are in yet another round of Disney Professional Internship applications. Many of the applications have closed, but there are still some out there for those interested in applying and I bet they'll be additional ones posted here and there. I've been following along on the Facebook pages and this year does seem to be working a bit differently than in the past. I'm not going to pretend to know how the process works, but I will let you know some of my observations from this time around.

1. Phone Screenings: In the past you generally only had one phone screening that counted for all of your applications. Occasionally, someone would get called up to ask a few separate questions, but for the most part you generally only had one screening whether it be for PIs in different departments or for Management Internships as well. This time around people are reporting getting more specific phone screenings and one for different positions. I remember for my second PI I applied to a wide variety of positions, including analytical ones, animal ones, and MIs and had one phone screening that I was told would be used by all.

2. Animal Programs: In the past Animal Programs PIs skipped the phone screen completely (so if you only applied to these positions you never had a phone screen) and move straight to the Animal Programs team who requested the applicant fill out a questionnaire. This year it looks like Animal Programs is acting more like other PIs in having phone screens and skipping the questionnaire. There is still the familiar outreach from the hiring team, but instead of a questionnaire it just wants to ensure people are still interested in being considered. Then people are getting the typical leader interviews for the positions. The questionnaire/phone screen swap is an interesting change, but perhaps will make it more streamlined.

3. Timeline: Overall it looks like they are changing it up to perhaps get the timeline moving faster than the past. Then again every semester everyone thinks it is going faster than previous years, and it normally works out to be the same time (or in some cases later) to hear back for positions. This year does seem to have more of a drastic shift in how the process is running, but people have been told to hear back as early as the first week of October to early December (some of these people being in the same department!). I guess only time will tell how the changes earlier in the process will influence things down the line.

As always, the current semester's Facebook page is one of the best sources of information and to unite with other applicants going through the process. Disney Professional Internship | Spring 2017

If you applied for this round, good luck and if you have any questions always feel free to comment on a post or reach out to the Facebook group as the people on the pages are great resources.

Fall has arrived in Orlando!

Well maybe Florida hasn't gotten the fall temperature memo, but fall events are in full swing at the Orlando theme parks. 

Night of Joy (Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports)

The first weekend after labor day marks both Disney and Universal's Christian music festivals. This year they both took place on Friday 9th/Saturday 10th. This was the first year Disney moved the music festival to ESPN Wide World of Sports. I didn't attend but there was a good line-up this year and I might go next year.

Rock the Universe (Universal Studios Florida)

Because I have a special Universal pass I was able to attend this year's event for free. It was the same dates as Disney's Night of Joy. I really wanted to attend Friday nights line-up but hadn't been feeling well, but my roommates and I decided to go for a little bit on Saturday. It was definitely crowded, but it wasn't as hectic as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the end of Family Force 5's concert and all of TobyMac's concert. It was fun, but I don't think my roommates were prepared for the type of music they heard. It was fun and I might go again next year if there are some bands that I like, but I would probably never go if I had to pay for it. 

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (Disney's Magic Kingdom)

This hard ticket event runs for a bunch of nights in Septmeber and October. This year the parties started on Sept 2nd. I went two years ago and had tons of fun! Costumes, trick-or-treating, rare character meet and greats, an awesome parade and fireworks so and so much more! What more can you ask for? I have my ticket purchased for this Tuesday with some explorer buddies that will be in town to visit. I'm so excited to see them and see the Hocus Pocus show!

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival (Disney's Epcot)

This year Food and Wine is longer than ever! It started Wednesday Sept 14th. I went for my first of many visits Friday night. It stormed for a while causing the booths to be closed down, but I still had a good walk around the world showcase to see the great offerings this year. I started off with the Brazilian cheese bread an the Apple Pie drink from Poland which were some favorites from last year. The books this year have stickers instead of having to find who has the stamps for each country and I can't want to taste my way around the world for my third year!

Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios Florida)

Now for the very scary HHN! This year's event started yesterday (Friday), but my roommate is a team member and so I was lucky enough to attend the team member preview on Wednesday. We even had express passes so we were able to go to every house! I think I'll have to go back a few more times to make any final conclusions, but last year was pretty awesome, so I think it will be hard to top! Here's to another month and a half of getting scared!

Some of the other Central Parks have fun fall events coming up (SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular and Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream) that haven't started yet, but I have annual passes to both so I am definitely go to try and go check them out later this year. However, I think with Horror Nights and Food and Wine starting this past week, we can say that fall is back and as good as ever!

Celebrating our 240th Independence

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the year and of course is especially made better with a 3 day weekend! After a week of not sleeping very well I enjoyed some extra time of relaxation, but also had a great time celebrating in the parks!

Saturday 2nd

My roommate rented a room at the Hard Rock Hotel so we had a ball at Universal! I'd been inside to go to the Velvet lounge during Mardi Gras (Thank you Mardi Gras Universal app for free drinks! What what?!?!) The rooms were even more amazing and we could even see CityWalk and the parks from our room! We had planned to spend the afternoon at the pool but when we first checked in it was pouring rain so we headed to CityWalk to go to one of the best places ever: Red Oven Pizza! It is seriously soooo good. Instead of heading back to the pool we decided to just hang out at the parks. We saw so of the cars cycling at the Hulk so hopefully it means that it will be back up and smoother than ever! I even got to watch part of the 100 years of movies nighttime show that I've never seen before. I'll definitely have to go back and see the whole thing. Before heading in for a relatively early night in we headed back to CityWalk to grab a bite to eat at Hot Dog Hall of Fame (where I of course got the Detroit option!)

Sunday 3rd 

We had such a great night sleep. Those beds at Hard Rock are COMFY! Today is the day that the holiday celebrations really began. Disney knows how to do fireworks so of course they do special ones for the holiday where they come hand and hand at both EPCOT and MK. This might seem to be a torn decision on what to attend, but luckily Magic Kingdom perimeter ones are on the 3rd and 4th, so I of course wanted to get the best of both worlds. My roommates and I met up with my roommate Sam's friends from out of town right before the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, which were amazing. I do have to say the best spot to see them is in the Hub. Afterwards we decided to go show our visitors Animal Kingdom at night. We were only there for about an hour, but we got a ton done including dinosaur twice, Everest, and a great safari where we saw the Hyenas!!!! I was pretty much jumping up and down because I've been waiting forever to see them! After a great night, Sam and her friends went back to MK for extra magic hours until 3am, but Corey, Scott, and I headed over to the new Applebees for some half price apps.

Monday 4th

Finally was the actual holiday! I celebrated by the all american decisions to go to Starbucks for their frappuccino deal and Five Guys for a great American cheeseburger. Then Corey, Scott, and I met up with Sam and her friends again for an evening of fun at EPCOT. We were lucky enough to be able to go on Test Track and the new Soarin', which I do think it is an improvement over the old one. Then we made our way around the world showcase before playing some Heads Up waiting for the fireworks. 

Overall, while we definitely know that summer has hit us with some crazy heat and humidity, it was a fantastic weekend with a good balance of relaxation, friends, parks, and celebrations. I have to say if you are ever in town for the Independence Day fireworks they are totally worth the crowds to watch! Like I said, Disney knows how to do fireworks. :) After such a great weekend, it was definitely hard to get up to go to work on Tuesday! lol