Preparation for my Alumni Interview - DCP Round Two

This is going to be a short blog post on how I'm preparing for my interview for the DCP spring 2017 as a DCP alumni. Last time I wrote out possible answers for every single possible question, and this time I plan on only writing a few bullet points for the most important/lengthy questions. The following questions are the ones I plan on preparing for (reminder: my top roles are attractions, vacation planning, convention guide, PhotoPass photographer, and character attendant with a moderate interest in merchandise as well).

• Why do you want to do the DCP again/how will it help you professionally?
• Tell me about a magical moment you made for a guest
• Which roles are the best fit for you/are you most qualified for?
• How would you handle an emergency/tell me about an emergency you had to handle
• How do you deal with difficult customers or coworkers?
• What would you do different this program?
• Why did you put no interest in QSFB, your role from your first program?
• How would you tell a child he's too short for a ride?
• What would you do if a guest was violent toward a character?
• What would you tell a guest if they asked why the character wasn't speaking?
• Describe Illuminations.
• What are your favorite things about EPCOT?
• What order would you take care of guests if the following things are all happening at once: you're ringing up a guest, a guest has a question, and the phone is ringing.
• What do you think the duties of a vacation planner are?

I will also have some questions written out. I know it seems like a bunch of questions above but I'm only going to write out a few key words/bullet points, definitely not a script. I want to be able to remember the key points I want to make but also want it to be totally natural. I'll also have my top roles written down and stuff like that I wouldn't want to blank on, but I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm much better at interviewing now than I was back in 2014 when applying for my first program, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic! But also terrified. But I guess it all depends on how many people are applying and who's qualified for what. Stay tuned, next blog post will be about my phone interview on Thursday :) GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE APPLYING!

DCP SPRING 2017 APPLICATION PART TWO: WEB-BASED INTERVIEW

Hello again!!

So I received my invitation to take the web-based interview around 2:30pm today, just over an hour after I got my "thank you for applying" email. I will schedule my phone interview once that email comes through because I passed the WBI! Yay!

The setup looked a little different from the WBI I took back in 2014, but the questions were almost identical. There were fewer situational questions as well, and more questions about you and your personality. The toughest part here was consistency, because sometimes they phrased things kind of funny and you get confused.

For example: I was asked probably about five times whether I liked a mix of being around people and being alone, if I was a people person, if I liked being alone to recharge, if I preferred being around a small group of people at a time, etc. So that was tough because I DO like being alone to recharge, but like being around people all day long, so it was kind of confusing. There was only one situational question I remember about "what would you do if a little boy hit his thumb with a hammer?" that I remember from last time, but that was pretty much it.

All the questions were apparently timed at either 50 seconds a questions or 20 seconds a question, but there was no clock counting down or anything so I don't know what happens if you miss the time. I'm a pretty fast reader/test taker so I didn't have a problem but that seemed a little different and kind of difficult to understand. There were lots of questions about organization, energy levels, being on time, working in a team, helping others, and taking initiative/being an over-achiever. So I guess just prepare for those. It took me about 30 minutes to complete, and it suggests putting 40 minutes aside to do so.

That was pretty much it! There's nothing telling you how many questions you have to go so it's quite a surprise when the end page comes up telling you you're a strong candidate and a phone interview scheduling email will follow. I'd ballpark it at about 50 questions? Who knows. Phone interview is up next, I'll keep y'all updated!!!

Edit: Got the phone interview email, and my phone interview is scheduled for Thursday, September 8, at 12:15pm Mountain Time. Today is Wednesday, August 24, and my options were Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 6-8. Time slots ranged from 6am to 9pm, and everything in between. The first time I applied my phone interview was the same week I applied, so I'm guessing when you don't apply right when apps drop, the phone interview slots fill up faster and your phone interview will be farther away.

Good luck to all those applying :)

IT HAS BEGUN: SPRING 2017 DCP APPLICATIONS - PART ONE

Hello people!! It finally happened, apps dropped for spring 2017. It's SO surreal, I feel like I've been waiting for this moment for the past year and half and now it's here...crazy.

First thing I did before apps dropped was call Casting to make sure I'm in good standing to get rehired (no costumes I forgot to turn in without paying for, or if I self-termed/got termed which I didn't) and that number I'll list because it was a bear to figure out the connections.

Walt Disney World Casting: (844) 559-2278, connections 2-1-7-0 to speak to an actual human at HR.

So applications dropped on Sunday, August 15th, around 6pm PST? Sometime in the evening. I was planning on applying a few days in when the website is less prone to crashing, but got impatient and tried to apply on that Monday or Tuesday. I then realized that I forgot my username, but when I tried to go through "forgot username" it kept freezing on my no matter what computer/browser I was using. So I emailed recruiting (wdw.college.recruiting@disney.com) to try get that figured out. They emailed back two days later saying that the only account I had was my LinkedIn account which I had used to apply for a Disney Store job earlier in the summer, but that account doesn't have any of my info from my previous program on it which freaked me out. So I emailed them a few more times and long story short, here I am a week and a half later with my application all turned in! I'm just using my LinkedIn account, which was fine because there's a spot on the application to put your Perner # as proof you were a previous Cast Member.

Before I got to that spot I was getting an error message when I tried to press continue on my application, but I adjusted some LinkedIn settings and that fixed it. It was set to autofill, but I turned that off and stopped getting the error message.

The application was fairly similar to round one back in spring of 2014, but with a few changes. The roles are a bit different as I'm sure you've already heard, and there's now separate section when listing role preferences for you to put special interest in high volume roles (custodial, housekeeping, QSFB, and lifeguarding). I only put interest in lifeguarding, moderate, and no interest in the others. Following that section you put interest in all the other roles, which I have listed below for what I put.

No Interest:

• Custodial
• Housekeeping
• QSFB
• Monorail
• Bus greeter
• Hopper
• Character Performer

Low Interest:

• Costuming
• Watercraft
• BBB/PL
• Recreation
• Bell Services
• Children's Activities

Moderate Interest:

• Lifeguarding
• Floral
• Seater
• Merchandise

High Interest:

• Attractions
• Convention Guide
• Character Attendant 
• Vacation Planner
• PhotoPass Photographer

I don't remember seeing concierge/front desk roles and if I put interest in them...whoops.

As for my job experience, I chose to put only four of my jobs on (you have a 5 job cap). I really wanted to capitalize on my strongest jobs that tailor to Disney so those are the ones I included. I included lots of works such as customer service, guest service, the four keys (safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency), teamwork/working in a team, and other similar words. I'll include one little blurb I used for skills learned: The ability to work both independently and in a team to execute great customer service.

Public speaking skills gained from performing multiple safety spiels per day.

The ability to work long hours at a high energy job without compromising customer service.

So now I wait. I just received the "Thank you for applying" email, not the WBI yet, but my status is already "In Progress" rather than "Submission" so I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm extremely nervous this time around because I put interest in less roles, and very little interest in the high volume roles. So that terrifies me but I know I wouldn't want to be put in one of those, so I think I did the right thing. 

Brief timeline: Apps drop August 15th

First phone interviews: August 21st

Marin applies: August 24th around 12:30pm
Thank you for applying email: 1:20pm

I'll update you later on what happens! Wish me luck!! Sending everyone lots of pixie dust and positive Disney vibes :)