I applied for the College Program!

I applied for the College Program at Walt Disney World yesterday! It is something I have been interested in for a while, but never really had an opportune time to just take a semester off and do it. Well, right now I am in my last semester of school at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA. I don't have a job in my field (funeral service) lined up for after graduation, and I think I might finish up my bachelor's degree at another school starting next fall. That leaves me without any real plans this spring semester. I could easily get more hours at work or a second job and just save money, or I could go down to Disney World, live & work there for 5 months and make hopefully enough money to pay for my car and living expenses!

The Walt Disney World College Program is basically a program for college students where you do an internship at Disney for a semester instead of going to school (they do, however, have classes you can take there, which may or may not count as credits from your school...). During that program, you live and work at Disney. They have their own apartments that participants get to live in while they work at WDW and rent comes out of your paycheck, and I hear the rent is between $80-100 a week. You have a roommate and live with up to 7 other people. They also provide transportation to/from work and to places on Disney property, as well as grocery stores and shopping malls etc.

So, I sort of decided to do this on a whim. I read some forums about the program yesterday and it seemed to me like a lot of people had been seriously considering applying for months and months and knew everything they were supposed to do and were freaking out over it. I kind of got the gist of what I was supposed to do. They have this informational video about it on the website, which I watched. After you watch it they give you a code which allows you to fill out the application, which is kind of like a basic job application, but you also fill out information on your college.

The application lets you check off the types of jobs you would be interested in doing while you are working there. There are a bunch to choose from, but these are what I picked...

Concierge-it seems like in this job, you work concierge at a hotel or park, and do concierge things such as helping guests buy tickets, greeting people, etc.

Hospitality-check people in/out of hotels, luggage service, answering phones, etc.

Vacation Planner-your job is basically to sit in a booth at the front of the theme parks and sell tickets

annnnnd last but certainly not least, and the job I want THE MOST if I get picked...

Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique Fairy Godmother in Training-In this job, you get to work at the BBB in either Downtown Disney or inside Cinderella Castle itself (!!!). BBB is like a salon where parents bring their daughters to get all dressed up like either Disney Princesses or Hannah Montana. You do their hair, nails, and makeup, and make them feel like a princess. I really want this job the most, but I'll be happy if I just get into the program! But I am keeping my fingers crossed!

After I finished filling out the application, there was an "online interview" which was like one of those internet personality tests where it asks a question and asks you to rate how you feel about it on a scale of 1-5 if you strongly agree (1) or strongly disagree (5). You only have like 20 seconds to pick an answer for each one, so you don't really have time to think about what the employer wants to hear!

After I finished the "online interview" they gave me a phone number to call to schedule a phone interview*! I got my interview for the next day (Today!!!) at 12:15 pm, which left me with little time to prepare!


*Apparently, you can fail the online interview and they won't even let you do a phone interview. It seems really inefficient! But at least I "passed"