Welcome to DaringDisneyDays – a “documentation” about working a year at Disney as a CPR by someone who usually just sits at home, plays videogames all day and cries far too easily! It’s such a pleasure to meet you!
The only downside of working with anxiety is you want to cry so hard and work is starting in three hours and I am mentally so done and afraid but ahahahaha it’s day two of work wtf hanna get a grip
Not only did I end up in Chatham but I also was so lucky to find out that the right roomates can make you appreciate the bad apartment a lot. @katiesdisneyadventure and I landed in a 6 person, 2 bedroom apartment, meaning we got bunk beds for a whole year. Bunk beds. UGH.
BUT not only is the amazing @mallorysdisneycrp our roomie as well, we also have two other awesome people with us and are (not really) missing another person. We did a huge and overwhelming walmart trip and still forgot half - whooops?
Pre-Program Welcome: Semi-Professional Version Part 2
It’s not even one week until my dearest Katja and I will fly over to the states so I thought of giving a small overview of things you should do while still at home and have the time to prepare properly. I’m giving you these tips NOT because I am an expert but because I am opposite of that and thus can tell you that I am still waiting for a few of my things to arrive because I was too slow in taking care of it.
1. Online Organisation – Being A Professional While In Your PJs
Disney will send you a lot of mails. In between these mails you will play the waiting game. It’s so not fun but, dear reader, I am sure, you will be a pro at this even before you leave for Florida.
Most emails tell you exactly what to do, but the one that probably interests you the most if the Housing Mail. We got ours about 20 days before our arrival date. Housing is amazing and, if you are a DCRP, you will need to live on Disney grounds. If you’ve networked, you might even have found a few people you’d like to room with!Decide on a complex, watch housing tours, compare advantages and disadvantages so that when the Housing Mail comes in, you are prepared 😊
I also looked at the climate and researched things I should totally bring (like anti-mosquito spray), started preparing a very rough fund plans so I will not run out of money and looked up international plug adapters because the USA are sometimes very extra™. Online stuff is your overall research tool and you should, if you have the time, use it! This way Katja and I found out there are no electronic water boilers and that female necessities are way too expensive.
Also, if you are going by plane, start looking and book a flight! My English Professor, who is from Texas and flies over there regularly,
2. The Essentials – Packing Like A Pro
While most of my suggestions here are optional, I would highly recommend the next two paragraphs. If you are just scan-reading, which is SUPER fine, please ,read these.
GET YOUR GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS ASAP! In my case, I need an international birth certificate which was supposed to arrive yesterday and still isn’t here and I’m mentally on my knees and crying but I’ll spare you the details.
Even more importantly, update your vaccination. Ask what kind of vaccination you are recommended to get. Got to the dentist, basically get all your check-ups ready so you are in good health and won’t get sick often overseas!
Not-so-important: First pack everything you want to bring into the suitcase, weigh it beforehand and see what to take out. Even if you have, like Katja and me, a 20kg limit, make sure to actually leave some room in your suitcase so on the way back you can bring at least a few more things. Plus, airport scales are lying and love to add one or two kg to your total weight.
3. Additionals – Better Than A Sequel Or Prequel
What I did and am still doing is meeting with friends. I know it is only a year but I’d rather give them a proper goodbye and try to see those I can visit. I go to my favourite places, visit family, all of this. Do something relaxing because if there is one thing known about the DCRP it’s, that you are working. Actually working. SO USE YOUR DAYS PRIOR AS VACATION SO YOU ARE BADASS AND RELAXED WHEN YOU ARE ARRIVING.
we all know this is not possible at least when you are European
@stillgrowing wrote: Oh god I was crying the whole time because I couldn't log in and when I was finally able to log in, there was this whole other problem of me having booked a trip to Scotland and the interview was in the middle of the trip. And I had no cancellation insurance! The first and only time...oh god that was awful. But fortunately everything worked out fine. And I am still so eternally thankful that you helped me with all this!!! ♡♡♡
Yep, I remember, I felt so sorry for you! I mean it is a lesson to be learned but couldn’t the no cancellation insurance problem happen in Germany and not for such a big vacation? ._. Unfair! I love you a lot and I am glad it worked out and that we are in this together. Still sad about Scotland ._.
Why am I writing two versions? Basically, because I know that sometimes, when I am looking for information, I want just that. If I want to hear personal anecdotes, I go on your tumblr, not on your recipe blog. Still, I love reading personal stories and I love telling stories, so here we go talking about what happened all before acceptance.
I was born in the beautiful year of 1994, yeah alright, just kidding. A lot of things have happened just from the day I applied till the interview acceptance. I’ll stay with one story per post and, as we go chronologically, I will start with the first big thing that happened. So, let’s all get some popcorn and enjoy…
How I Tried to Contact My Bestie About Our Interview And Cried
Okay, so this blog exists about what…three hours and it’s like full of me fangirling over @katiesdisneyadventure who is actually good at blogging. But this is the story where I was a heroine. Well, not really, I just was there at the right time. When Katja and I applied for the Disney CRP it was late spring, early summer I think. Naturally we both had booked vacations with our families for the midsummer period, she went to Dublin while I went to Mallorca like all the German’s do.
Seriously, if you are not German, let me tell you, we are obsessed with Mallorca. We go there to eat and drink and not move. I went for the first and the last. I love food. I love not moving. I also love the ocean but during the last three years it has become so polluted like I saw the most disgusting things swimming in there and I am not talking about other humans.
So, Katie is on vacation, I will leave the very next day, when I get THE EMAIL. Yep, THE Interview Acceptance email. As in “Hey, guess what, we want to get to know YOU more, Johanna!” The email telling me there will be no skype interview, they want us to go to Frankfurt by October 4th. They also want us to reply in about four days. Katie will still be in fricking Dublin then.
So, I try to call her with my cellphone but I am not getting through. As in, not even a connection tone. Silence. I am playing worst case scenarios in my head, I have to leave for Mallorca where I won’t have any wifi and thus can’t contact her. I want her to go with me to the States, I want this Disney CRP thing with my bestie. So, I decide to ensure this myself – I don’t know the contact info of her aunt but I know where she lives, so I write a note in case the aunt is not home and hurry over to her aunt’s house. The thing is, I have only met her aunt before and thus was super nervous at the thought of meeting her uncle. I am half-way praying that no one is home so that I can just drop the note.
Of course her uncle IS there so I lash into a whole explanation, “Hello, Sir, well, you know, your niece, Katie, she got like A SUPER IMPORTANT MAIL and I won’t be here to help her and can your wife contact her please because I won’t be able to and this is HER DREAM HER DREAM HER DREAM”. All he could say was, “But you know Katja does not actually live here?”.
Like, yes, dude, I now my bestie doesn’t actually live here but thanks for reminding me. Anyway I just awkwardly make it home and am still anxious and I just start crying because what if this doesn’t make it to Katie?
She calls me about an hour before midnight, I actually wanted to go to bed because my trip to the airport would begin at 3 a.m! But, Katie called, so I am taking the call because she is my best friend – it turns out she can’t even access the effin mail because due to her trying to log into her email account from another country, her provider just blocked her and sent her mail to a different account. Thing is, it is super hard to switch between several accounts on mobile, so we started coordinating on the phone while trying not to panic together. Didn’t work, we panicked like pros.
Eventually, at 1 a.m, we were able to reset her password and she could log into her account and I talked with her a little so we could both calm down and Katja is like “wait, didn’t you say your flight was leaving in the morning?”
2 hours of sleep. I had effin two hours of sleep and one long flight ahead. Whoops.
But really, I think it’s a nice story to tell and I know that she would do the same for me. It’s the most reassuring feeling to have since this evening just showed how much we wanted to be in this program together and how willing we were to fight for it. And now we are just waiting to receive information on us living together in the same apartment or not. If that works out, we hope to be in the same room – so, all in all, we had one super small practise adventure before the big adventure began.
Next story – Semi-Professional Advice – Back To Overview
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
baratheonpilled
amandla
andulkaphoto
2087
theartofmadeline
