F2F

I didn’t get a hotel this time as there was no Kandi and Vicki plus I only live 40 minutes outside London so I got up super early. The first thing I did? Threw up. I didn’t even realise I was that nervous but I was obviously a lot more anxious than I thought! I couldn’t eat after that so got ready and headed off to the train.  I cannot explain to you how rough I felt on the journey there (especially the tube) but decided to put the bad start behind me and ignore how rubbish I was feeling. I was starting to feel more positive as I reached Waterloo when I was confronted with the worst scene possible- clowns, clowns everywhere. Anyone who knows me knows how ridiculous my phobia is and it was just my luck that the day of our face to face interviews was also comic relief which meant I practically ran to Starbucks to meet the others with my headphones in and my head down. It really wasn’t getting off to a good start.

I met up with the others and it was a lot more relaxed as we all pretty much knew each other quite well at this point from Pre-Screens and Facebook etc. At around half 8 we headed off to the restaurant and after a short wait outside we ushered in to watch another presentation but this time held by Sue the Disney recruiter. This one was much more in depth and went into more detail about housing, fees and the opportunities on the program.  We were then given our time slots for the day and I think mine was 13:45, which I was happy about- not too much waiting around which meant I wouldn’t be by myself waiting to be seen.

Some people had their interviews straight away but the rest of us were taken to the London Eye to have our pictures taken doing the ‘Yummy Jobs Jump’ (see below picture of our 'attempt' haha) which I can assure you is not the easiest thing to in a pencil skirt but I would have happily acted out a routine from Cirque Du Soleil if it meant getting the job! Afterwards we all headed to burger king to grab something to eat before the interviews and anxiously waited our time slot.

Rebecca and me headed down together as our interviews were straight after each other. When we went in Louise from Yummy Jobs was there to fill in our paperwork and check she had the correct documents for us, this was more exciting than you may think as we got to pick what we wanted on our name badges, maybe I’m just easily pleased but this was the moment it all seemed to become real for me! I chose Roisin (but I know some chose nicknames instead) and Benfleet, England as I was hoping it would be a conversation starter as not many people would have heard of my hometown.

Sue called me into my interview and to be honest it was pretty much a blur, I can’t really remember what I was asked and what I answered, all I remember is thinking how quickly it went and that I could not read Sue at all! She was really friendly and always smiling but had the best poker face I’ve ever encountered. After my interview I headed to Las Iguanas, which was just around the corner and we all had cocktails (well everyone who had already had their interviews, the others soon started after theirs were over though!) and we all had the best time! We spoke about what it would be like if we all made it to Florida together, who could room with who, what British items we would have to take with us- naturally I said Yorkshire tea and real chocolate but I also discovered they don’t sell dry shampoo over there so that is now also on my list J. We also spoke about our ‘Disney Bucket Lists’ and before long it felt like we had all known each other for ages and I can honestly say it was one of the best days with the best people <3

Pre-Screen!

I took a half-day from work on the 27^th February and headed to London. I met up with Kandi and Vicki at Waterloo as we had all booked a hotel room together so we could hang out together the night before our interview and try and calm each others nerves ! We had a quick chat about how excited we were and what we had brought as our items to represent the UK. Kandi had brought a Lion because it is very symbolic of the UK and Vicki had a really pretty crystal hot air balloon because she comes from Bristol which hosts a hot air balloon festival every year. I had brought the coat of arms for my hometown but as I come from a small town there was no items I could get with it on so just had a picture, which I wasn’t too happy about.

I had arranged to meet up with my old manager Sharon from the Disney Store. She had done the program before and gave me a Christmas temp job at the Disney Store to get experience for the CRP and we bonded over it straight away. If I’m honest I don’t think I could ever have got this far without her help and I could never thank her enough. I headed off to meet her at the Tower of London and I brought a wooden shield from the gift shop and thought that I could attach the coat of arms to it somehow. Now luckily for me Sharon is an illustrator and drew the coat of arms on the shield for me whilst we had caught up on each other’s lives over a coffee and she spoke all about her experience on the program, which just got me more excited!

After saying goodbye to Sharon I went to the hotel to meet up with Kandi and Vicki and drop off my stuff before heading back out to meet up with some other applicants who we had met through the Facebook group. We met with David, George and Rebecca at McDonalds where we discussed stories of Disney trips and why we’ve applied to the program etc. it was really lovely and calmed all our nerves :) We then went back to the hotel and had a girly sleepover style night practising talking about our items and running over questions asked in previous applications rounds which we found on blogs etc.

The morning of the Pre-Screen came and we all got ready, making sure we looked ‘Disney’ enough- minimal make up, tidy hairstyles and smart interview clothing. I wore a pencil dress that came down to my knees and my ted baker pumps with a glittery bow for a Disney touch :) We made our way over to the Starbucks at waterloo to meet up with everyone from the Facebook group. There was a 9am group and a 2pm group. Kandi and Rebecca were in the 2pm group so stayed behind at Starbucks whilst the rest of us headed to Brasserie Blanc.

When we arrived we were all quite surprised to find so many others who weren’t on the Facebook group or WDWIP forums- we really thought we were pretty much the only ones haha ! We were shown ushered into a room where the Yummy team introduced themselves to us and showed us a presentation on the program which made me want it so much more (something I didn’t think was possible !) and were given opportunities to answer questions and win small prizes, I put my hand up for every question but only answered one about how many cast members worked at Disney World, it wasn’t a prize worthy question but at least I got it correct :) We were given our interview times and headed back to Starbucks to await our turn.

My pre-screen was with Nick and 5 other applicants and we had to take it in turns to answer questions like:

What’s your realistic and unrealistic dream?

What would you find challenging about living in America?

How would you find living with people from all over the world?

What qualities can you take from your current role into the crp?

Name one cultural experience you would like to take part in whilst on your program?

We also had to introduce the person next to us and say their name, where they are from and an interesting fact about that person before we started the interview properly which was pretty scary- I was so worried I would forget something or mess up but the girl I had was called Jenny and she had done the program before. I actually really liked doing this at the start because it gave us the chance to learn something about each other and relax a bit :)

Towards the end of the interview Nick asked us to take turns to describe our items so we all individually stood up and spoke about our items which luckily I had prepared myself for ! I spoke about how each part of the coat of arms represented different places and the history of my home town, whilst trying to look and include everyone in the group not just Nick !

I left not feeling overly confident with my performance and met up with the others in Pizza Express next door where everyone was talking about their interviews, which worried me because everyone else seemed so confident. I stayed until I Kandi and the rest of the 2pmers headed into their interview slot to say good luck and then headed home because I already felt sick about finding out the results.

The next day dragged so much and I was at work until 6pm so was checking my phone constantly until I saw an email pop up from James from Yummy Jobs- I was so nervous I ran round the corner to open it on my own to read:

Dear Roisin,

Greetings from the Yummy Jobs Team!

We would like to thank you for your participation in our recent pre-screen sessions for the Disney International Programs – Disney Cultural Representative Program.

We very much enjoyed our interactions with you and would are delighted to invite you to the final recruitment stage.

·         Your interview will be held on Friday 15^th March 2013 at Brasserie Blanc Restaurant

·         We kindly ask you to arrive at the venue for 08:45am

·         The Disney International Program Presentation will commence at 09:00am

After the presentation your interview will be scheduled and we kindly ask that you are available until 18:00 for interview.

In order to confirm your place at the final interview stage, please reply directly to this email by no later than Wednesday the 6^th March 2013.

In preparation for your interview please complete the following steps:

·         Apply online for the Disney International programs 

Please complete the full application and print the entire document.  Please bring the entire document with you to your interview

·         Please photocopy your passport page and bring two copies with you to your interview

·         Please bring a copy of your most up to date CV

·         Please bring a valid photo id and proof of address

The Yummy Jobs Team would like to congratulate you on reaching this stage of the interview process and very much look forward to seeing you at the final interview stage.

Kind regards,
The Yummy Jobs Team

I was so happy and called my mum and sisters from work straight away to tell them- they were so excited ! :D It was really bittersweet for me though because of everyone who didn’t get through who I was close to :( especially Kandi, Vicki, George and David but they were happy for me and are going to reapply again.