How I Got Accepted Into the Disney College Program on the First Try!

If you have clicked on this post then you are interested in the Disney College Program. The Disney College Program is an amazing experience that allows you to spend a semester working in the Walt Disney World Parks! I was very fortunate to be accepted into this program during the Spring 2020 hiring season for the Fall of 2020. This was my very first time applying for the program and I was accepted on my first try. This is quite the anomaly since many students apply serval times before being accepted into the program. Due to this, I wanted to explain what I did and some tips I have for those applying in the future!

Let’s Get Started!
Even though I am a Disney lover at heart I never planned on applying for the Disney College Program or the DCP for short. Since this program goes on for an entire semester, I was never able to find a perfect semester to take off of school to participate. It wasn’t until my senior year of college as I approached graduated that I took interest in actually applying. At the time I was actively applying for real full-time jobs for when I graduated. But for some reason, there was a little voice in the back of my mind that told me to apply as a backup plan. So I listened to that voice and applied 7 DAYS AFTER APPLICATIONS OPENED. Yes, that is right, 7 days after the applications opened. For many that apply, applying that late and being accepted is unheard of due to the number of applications they get in the first few days. Most students are on the site at midnight the night applications open to apply as soon as they open. That leads me to my first tip:

Tip #1: Apply Early

Please do not be like me and wait till applications are closing to apply. The sooner you apply the better. You probably do not need to be on at midnight but I would recommend applying the day it opens. That way your application is closer to the top and you will get through the steps of hiring sooner.

Before we move on I want to go into further detail about the application process and especially your resume. The applying process is very similar to any other job and asks you many of the same questions. But in this application, you will be asked what positions you would be interested in working. You will be asked to rank the roles available based on if you are inserted or not.

There is a lot of debate around this section of the application. Many people believe that by saying you would be interested in all of them makes you look like a better candidate. While some believe that you should only mark those you are actually interested in. I decided to go with the second option and only select those that I wanted. It is important to keep this section in mind since they will ask you about these roles during your phone interview that comes later in the application process. There is no tried and true option that works every-time but I believe that it is important, to be honest. If you don’t want to clean, don’t pick custodial as something you are interested in.

While submitting your application you will need to submit a resume. This part is very important and will help you farther down the line.

Tip #2: Have someone at your university look at your resume and help you with it

Whatever you do, do not submit an outdated resume you made Freshman year in your ordination class that you did not put effort into. You want this resume to be the best it can with good keywords and accomplishments. Almost every university out there has a career development center that focuses on resumes and job applications. Find that department! They will be able to help you make a crappy resume look awesome even if you have very little experience. I am lucky that I went to a large state school with many of these departments and had resume workshops all the time. They helped me make my resume the best I could make it. I would even mention that you are using it to apply to the DCP. Almost every college is going to be familiar with the program and may be able to help you even more. When I mentioned it to the person who helped me, they put me into contact with someone who had done it in the past for more guidance. Take advantage of those services!

So that encompasses the application process, apply early, and have a great resume. After the application, you will receive a link to the Web-Based Interview within a few hours. For some people, like me, it will be within a few minutes. I applied at 4:38 PM and got the link at 4:40 PM. It is important to keep in mind that some people do not make it this far. This is why I stress the resume so much. Due to modern-day hiring methods, many companies have implemented bots that review resumes before sending them to a real person or moving forward with the hiring process. In the DCPs case, this is probably what is happening. A bot reviews your application and resumes before deciding to move forward with a web-based interview. Since there are usually around 20,000 or more applications it would not surprise me if this was true. This is why you need to ensure that your resume is strong and well worded. Obviously, this is my speculation and not official information so take this with a grain of salt.

The web-based interview is a tricky one and is used to weed out many applications. This section is a series of personality questions to see if you can move to the phone interview. This test is not hard but it is very tricky. You are going to be asked different questions about your personality multiple times reworded. You need to answer them the same every time. What the test is doing is seeing how you think and respond to something based on how it is worded and your personality. I will not be going into much detail about how to answer as there is not right or wrong answer but I can give a few tips.

Tip #3: Relax

Everyone freaks out when they get to this part and it’s usually why they fail it. Take a deep breath and calm down before taking it. Everyone wants to take it as soon as they get the email. Stop and take a breath because I know you are excited and the adrenaline is pumping. I waited about an hour before taking mine so I would calm down and relax.

Tip #4: When answering the questions think about how a prospective employer would think about your answers.

If you answer that you are always late, that does not stand out as something good to your possible employer. You also want to answer with Strongly Agree or Strongly Disagree almost every time. If you are constantly picking somewhere in between it does not look like you are confident in your answers. This is not confirmed by Disney but after going through many interview trainings and seminars in college, almost everyone will tell you to be confident in your answers. This is what I did in my Wed Based Interview and it ended up working for me.

Tip #5: Be Honest

Keep tip number four in mind but you should always be honest. For example, if you work better alone than in groups you should answer that way. That does not necessarily make you look bad. It could mean that you are better in a more independent job.

Tip #6 Do some research

I watched several different YouTube videos about this step before taking it to see what other people had to say. It is good to see what other people’s experiences were and how they felt about it.

After the Web-Based Interview, you will move onto the phone interview. This is the big one! The chance to shine and show them why you should work at Disney. I received an email right after the Web-Based Interview about the phone interview. Because I applied so late, I had to wait a few weeks for an open spot to interview. Hence why I recommend applying early. But this also gave me a lot of time to prep and prepare.

The phone interview is not that bad and should be something you are excited about. But it is also important to practice interview skills beforehand.

Tip #6: Practice Interviewing

If you aren’t used to interviewing or have only interviewed a few times I highly recommend practicing. Take advantage of the career development center once again! They can teach you interview tricks and do practice runs with you. You do not have to sound rehearsed but you do want to be prepared. Interviewing is a very important skill to work on overtime.

Tip #7: Do some prep work

Before the interview, you will want to do some research about questions that have been asked in the past and other people’s experiences. YouTube is great and so many people have actually recorded their interviews and put it on YouTube. I wish I would have recorded mine but I got so excited when the phone started ringing that I forgot to hit record.

Tip #8: Do Your Interview in a quite place and alone

You think this would be an easy thing to think of but you’d be shocked by the number of people who try to do their interview in the middle of the living room with their entire family around them. That’s only going to make you more nervous and increase the chance of someone saying something in the background that the interviewer could hear. I took my interview alone in my bedroom while my parents were at work. This allowed me to focus on what I was doing and I didn’t have to risk someone opening up the door or yelling in my house. If you can’t get some time alone you could also do it in your car. I’ve seen many people do that because their house was noisy.

Tip #9: Relax

Before the interview, your heart will probably be beating a hundred miles a minute. Take a deep breath and relax. If you have done your prep work you have nothing to worry about.

Overall I felt like I did not have the best interview in the world. The interviewer asked me questions about roles I told them I was not interested in so it made it very difficult to answer. For example, she asked me about lifeguarding. I hate swimming and the idea of lifeguarding was the last thing I wanted but I answered them to the best of my ability. Just because they ask you about it doesn’t mean that you will get that role. They interviewed me for that but I got Attractions.

I also rambled a little too long on my answers and she thought I was done talking when I wasn’t and would accidentally interrupt me. I felt horrible and it made me felt like I was talking too much. I think it may have been a delay in the phone call but I apologized for it and we continued with the interview. I also made the mistake of going too far with one of my answers. She asked me what I would do if a child was not tall enough to ride a ride. This is an easy one. I answered back that I would greet the child and apologize that they were not tall enough to ride the ride (I used Space Mountain as my example) but they could go over to Buzz Lightyears space spin and help Buzz defeat Emperor Zerg and offer them a sticker. A great answer. But my mind took it too far and said to the interviewer that obviously at the end of the day we know that it is not Disney fault that the child is not tall enough to ride the ride but as cast members, we must go above and beyond to try and make the guests experience the best. Not horrible but the “its not Disneys fault that the child is not tall enough” was probably a little too far.

As you can see, my interview experience was definitely was not the best but that does not mean you won’t be accepted. You will probably get into your head after your interview and try to analyze it all. I highly recommend not doing that as you may have thought you did really bad like I did and it was nothing.

I hope that you found these tips and tricks and my experience helpful as you apply for the Disney College program. It is an amazing experience that you will never forget.

Have a Magical Day!

-Magical Montana