#cultural represenatitive program

[daringdisneydays]

Pre-Program Welcome: Semi-Professional Version

Hello to whoever felt like reading this blog would be interesting 😉 It’s nice to be read by you, nice shirt, really, wow, you should wear this colour more often because wow. Gorgeous.

Like so many other people on tumblr, I’ve applied (and, spoiler alert: have been accepted) to the Disney Cultural Representative Program. In about two weeks I’ll be leaving Germany behind me and fly to Orlando together with my best friend @katiesdisneyadventure. If you want to follow someone who is actually good at blogging and can keep to regular updating schedules, please, go ahead, follow her! She’s a darling.

This post will be dealing with the application process – from writing and handing in my cv and my pictures right till I was accepted. It will be a general overview, but please keep in mind that, as I have applied in Germany, my experience will be based on it.

The application process can easily be divided into four stages:

               Stage One:  The Writing Process (Application,CV,Motivational       Letter, Online Questionaire)

               Stage Two: The Interviews – both in skype as well as in person

               Stage Three: The Waiting Period

               Stage Four:   The Result

Stage One: Writing Can Be Scary AF

First of all, when you apply for the Disney Cultural Representative Programm (CRP in short), you are supposed to hand in your CV and a motivational letter. Please, do not be scared if you don’t have a lot of work experience – neither have I. And Disney is not looking for professionals but rather for enthusiastic people who want to give their all within the program. Especially within the CRP, you are supposed to represent your culture and that is something you cannot learn.  

The online questionnaire is confidential, so I cannot share much with it. I know I was a bit scared when I went through the different questions because, as a non-native speaker, I sometimes had to google a phrase or two. But overall, as long as you are being honest, there is nothing that can go wrong.

A short, probably outdated piece of advice for your motivational letter – tell a personal story. It’s an advice I generally give for whenever you apply for a job, show what connects you to the brand you are applying for. I am sure, Disney means a lot to whoever is reading this and considering to apply as well. How did you meet Disney? What do you connect with it? No, it won’t be boring that you and every second person connect it with movies and childhood – that’s gorgeous! How has it influenced you further? Awesome!

Stage Two: Oh Goodness! I AM TALKING TO PEOPLE!

So here is where the German experience comes in – when I applied and started reading up more about the interviews, I was overwhelmed. Apparently going to the interview stage is not hard (and I can agree with that), but there would be skype-interviews to do a first selection of who should advance further and only then you would be invited to an actual face to face interview with Disney employees.

So, me and Katie where invited right away and so was everyone who attended the interview in Frankfurt, which is pretty far away from Berlin. The dress-code is business casual, no jeans, blouses but no evening gowns as well.

If you are not sure what to wear, go on the Disney website and search for The Disney Look. It’s a guideline you must follow anyway when you are accepted into the program and thus, you can see this as a practise session. In general, I recommend to take a look into this maybe before applying even. There is for example a no-tattoo rule for certain body areas and covering-up with make-up is a not allowed. So, if you have a tattoo on your wrist, for example, that’s it. No Disney Food And Beverage Job for you.

The beginning is easy, you’ll have an introduction, maybe meet people before or during that phase. You can decide for your interview window, if you are fast enough.  I was and got right into the second badge of six.

The part that is hardest to prepare, but, in the end did not need a lot of preparation at all is the actual interview. No one will ask you any trivia questions, like, when Snow White came out in the theatre or how many ears Mickey has ( spoiler alert: two). In general, the questions will be fairly open – so, if you have any special hobbies, talents, if you are doing a lot of social work, be sneaky in your answers to bring that up. “So, how do you think you can stand the heat?” “Oh, that won’t be a problem, I am used to it because I do lava-diving in my freetime”, things like that.

A lot of people say: Don’t forget to smile but I have faith in you, reader. The smile usually comes automatically, maybe even accompanied by an awkward laugh. You got this.

Stage Three: Wanna Play The Waiting Game? No? TOO BAD!

Waiting sucks. You probably know that already but it gets even harder during the application process. Waiting for the interview invitation was bad because it is your first time waiting but I promise you, it won’t be the last. Disney is super busy and there are so many people applying and a lot of other company stuff to be done.

Something I did not even think of, hadn’t it been for my darling  Katie? Going on facebook. There are a lot of facebook groups, some for all CRPs, some just for the interview. I also larped during that time and went to cosplay things, basically adrenalined myself up.

The hardest waiting game however starts after the interview. I am sure there will be one brave soul asking the interviewers how long it will take until you’ll get a reply. Maybe YOU are even that brave soul. That would be cool. I certainly wasn’t. So in our case this was the longest 23 days I had ever experienced. People will start getting their acceptance mails in badges so maybe some people on facebook already tell you that they’ve been accepted while you just do this: ?????. And it will be hard, so hard to see people’s dreams come true while yours is just semi-true.

Even after acceptance don’t think this will be the last time you have to wait for something. In my case I had doctor’s appointments, visa, breakfast, flights, insurance. Grown Up Stuff. And, until recently, Disney Housing. I still have no idea in which housing complex I will live. I am playing the Waiting Game right now. Thank goodness for video games.

Stage Four: THE ANSWER IS LOOOOOOVE

So much for helpful advice. I was accepted which is AMAZING. My friend was accepted. Generally, a lot of people get accepted or put on hold. We even had people switching acceptance dates with each other????? So, head’s up, dear reader, I have faith in you! If a mess like me can do it,  you can do it, to