Kit's Disney CEP Adventure!

This is going to be my blog about my planning, travel, fun, and adventures on Disney's Cultural Exchange Program Summer 2016!

[kit-does-disney]

Sooooooooo..... I finally got around to making my YouTube channel! I figured this would be a really fun way to keep track of everything I get up to this summer, so that when I re-watch them in the future I can remember all the adventures I had! 

It would absolutely make my day if you would watch it and maybe even give me a cheeky like and subscription ;)

But seriously though, any help and comments would be greatly appreciated! I’m very new to this and had no clue what I was doing!

Love Kit xxx

Posted 7th May 2016

[kit-does-disney]

63 days to go!

It’s been ages since I last posted something, and since I’ve already covered the interview process, I figured I’d start talking a bit about everything that comes AFTER that all important acceptance email!

The first 3 things you need to do, you need to make sure you do within 30 days of receiving your acceptance email. They are to:

Accept the offer!

Pay the program fees -  $354.50 (£249.61)

Upload the necessary documents onto Disney’s DOC

Now, the program fees may seem like a lot, but that fee also includes the first two weeks rent. Once you have done all three of these things, you will get an official “Welcome to the team!” email from Disney Recruiting!

Make sure you also log into your Yummy Jobs account and confirm your acceptance on there too!

The next thing I did was booked my flights, as all the airlines were doing their post-Christmas discounts. I booked my flights with Virgin, and they cost just under £550. I fly out from Gatwick on the 19th of June! Super super excited!

Not long after accepting your place with Disney, Yummy Jobs will send you the documents you need to fill out for your background check. It seems a bit complicated at first, but they give you some helpful instructions which should make the whole process a little bit less stressful! Once you have sent your background check back to Yummy Jobs, you will need to log into your Yummy Jobs account and pay the Background Check Fee, which is £75. Mine took a good 3 months to be returned back to me completed, so don’t worry if you send it off and then don’t hear anything for a while! When you do receive your background check, you need to scan this and email it to the address Yummy Jobs give you.

After doing your background check, and while you wait for it to be returned, there isn’t much else to do until you receive the documents that begin your VISA application process. Yummy Jobs will send you your completed DS-2019 form, which you then use to fill out a DS-160 form. Once you have this form completed, you are then able to schedule a VISA appointment with the U.S. Embassy. This DS-160 form is a nightmare to complete, but Yummy Jobs also provide some EXTREMELY helpful instructions! Otherwise I’m pretty sure all of us would have filled this form out wrong!

So yeah, once you have done this form, you can book your embassy appoinmtent. There is a fee of $160 (£112.66), to book this appointment, AND on top of this you must also pay what is called a SEVIS fee, which is $35 (£24.64)

At this stage, I’m going to say that this experience is by no means cheap! I had no idea how much money all this would be costing, but in all honesty, even if I had known, I think I still would have applied! It’s too amazing an opportunity to turn down. It’s just meant that I’ve had to work really hard to earn that £££!

The other thing you need to do, which you can do at anytime in the process once you are accepted, is to buy medical insurance for the duration of your stay there. The one downside is that so they can make sure every one of their participants is insured at the level that is required, you HAVE to get your medical insurance through the company that they tell you to use. This is because it’s so much easier to have everyone on an insurance plan they know fits the requirements, rather than have to check each and every participants’ insurance plans to make sure it’s acceptable! There are two different plans to choose from which differ in price and coverage, but I went with the cheapest one as I get additional medical insurance through my Dad’s work.

Then that’s it! Once all those things are done it’s just a case of waiting for your VISA appointment. Mine is on the 17th May.... here’s hoping my VISA gets approved!!

Until next time!

Kit xxx

Posted 4th April 2016

[kit-does-disney]

The Final Interview!

108 days to go!

So as you can see from the title, today I’m going to go into a bit more detail about the final process in applying for the CEP – the final interview with Disney themselves!

So like I said, once you have passed the pre-screen stage, you will be sent an email asking you to choose the date you wish your interview to take place on, and also what time slot you want. Disney carry out these final interviews over the course of about a week, so hopefully one of the days will suit you! You also get asked to fill out a few things on Disney’s DOC website which are:

Some basic contact details

A scan of your passport

Another thing you are required to do is fill out the Proof of Student Status form. This involves getting someone at your university to complete a section on the form too (I just went to see my personal tutor). There was a lot of confusion about whether we had to upload this onto DOCs ourselves, but we got told that Yummy Jobs do this, as we have to take our Proof of Student Status Form to the final interview, where they all get collected in. Don’t worry if you get there and something is filled out slightly wrong (like with me!). They just tell you to go back and correct it, then email them the scan of the new form, which they will then upload to DOCs for you.

In terms of what to take to the interview, you will need to take your passport, as they scan this, as well as the Proof of Student Status Form. I also brought along my CV as there was talk about us needing it, but they never asked to see one. My thoughts was that it was better to err on the side of caution and bring all my documents (e.g. acceptance for the interview…) than end up stuck because I didn’t have anything! Don’t worry though, everything you need to bring will be outlined in an email you get sent about your final interview.

The dress code for the final interview was smarter than for the Yummy Jobs interview (they wanted smart business as opposed to business casual) but as what I wore to the pre-screen interview was quite smart anyway, I just wore the same thing. Don’t worry too much about it though, as long as you look smart and presentable and within the “Disney Look”, you will be fine!

As I said before, the final interview takes place at Disney’s UK Headquarters in Hammersmith, London. As I was at university waaaaaay down in Plymouth at the time, I got a coach up to London the day before my interview. Otherwise I would’ve had to do a 6 hours journey the day of the interview! Luckily I had an old friend who was at university in London, so I was able to stay with her, but I know a lot of people booked hotels for the night before the interview.

The day of the interview it was just a case of waking up, making myself look as presentable as I could, then hopping on the tube to Hammersmith! I met up with a couple of people in a coffee shop near the headquarters while we waited for the time that we were supposed to arrive at. This was really nice as it meant I got to meet some other people who were as nervous as I was! We all left together to go find the offices (which were tucked away behind Hammersmith Bus Station) and when we got there we were issued guest passes and taken to an upstairs room, where our passports were scanned.

One thing I should mention is that, if you get the chance, definitely take a picture in front of the big Mickey statue they have in their lobby! It’s so cute! The whole lobby and upstairs was just filled with amazing Disney artwork and really is worth taking a look around!

Once they had got us upstairs, we got led into a cinema room for a presentation from the two recruiters. This year we had two women, Sue and Lisa, who had come over from the States to do the recruitment for Disney. They were both super nice and really made you feel comfortable and at ease. You get shown some more videos and information about the program, and like the pre-screen, there is also a chance to win some prizes!

After the presentation we were told to leave the offices and come back during out scheduled time slot. Mine was 3-4pm, so I had plenty of time to do some exploring round London! Me and some others ended up going to the Disney Store on Oxford Street (which had a big Cinderella Pumpkin Carriage at the time!) and having a look round there, and then spent the rest of the time in Starbucks!

I made sure I got back to Disney Headquarters about 20 minutes before my interview to make sure I arrived in enough time – I can never trust London’s Underground to get me anywhere on time! I was told to wait in the lobby with some others as we waited for 3 o’clock, and then we were taken back upstairs to wait for our interviews. There was about 5 or 6 people per time slot, and they were running a bit behind so I didn’t end up having my interview until about 3:30pm. While you are waiting to be interviewed, this is the time where your Proof of Student Status Forms are collected in. Eventually it was time for my interview! I had Lisa and she was super lovely. She made me feel really relaxed, and the interview was much more of a sort of structured chat than an interview. I was asked some questions that were quite similar to what I had been asked before (e.g. why do you want to do the program/what are you hoping to get out of this?), but also more in depth questions about what roles I wanted and what experience I had. Then it was done! The whole thing probably lasted no longer than about 5-10 minutes! After the interview I made my way straight to the coach station to make my looooong journey back down to Plymouth.

The day after my interview I had a mini heart attack as I saw an email from Disney Recruitment, but those sneaky people had just sent emails out to thank us for interviewing! I promise you now, any email you get between having your final interview and finding out if you made it or not, will literally make your heart skip a beat, especially the longer it gets!

We were told that we would hear between mid-December at the earliest and the end of January at the latest. Obviously we were all hoping for sooner rather than later! And, we got lucky! On the 22nd December, whilst sat at my desk at work I got an email saying that I had been accepted onto the program! Literally the best Christmas present ever!

This email contained some information about having to confirm my acceptance, pay the program fee and upload some documents, but you have 30 days to do all this so no rush :)

After this, it’s just a case of booking flights, getting some medical insurance and the VISA documents. Oh. And the wait until you go? Yeah it will feel like forever. When I found out, I had over 170 to wait, and I still have over 100 to go! Time is going so slow! I just want to be there already!

When I next have the time, I’ll talk a bit more about what happens after you get accepted and stuff (and I promise my posts will get shorter!), but until then…

Have a magical day!

Kit xoxo

Posted 2nd March 2016

[kit-does-disney]

The Pre-screen Interview!

I can’t believe it’s only 121 more days until I go! The time is going so quickly!

So carrying on from my last post, this one is going to be all about the pre-screen interview that you attend in the process of applying.

If you made it through the online applications, congratulations! Disney get thousands of applicants for all their programs, so they are really competitive. Getting through the first stage is a big achievement! Next up is the pre-screen interview. As I said before, Disney outsource their initial recruitment in the UK to a company called Yummy Jobs, and the first round of interviews take place at their head offices, which are in Epping, Essex. For me, I live quite a distance from Essex so me and my poor dad (who wonderfully agreed to drive me) had to get up at about 6am to make it to the interviews on time! I know a lot of people who lived further away had to catch planes and book hotels, so I was actually pretty lucky!

Yummy Jobs spread out all the interviews over a number of days, due to interviewing lots of people. Mine was on the 9th of October, and we all had to be at the offices for 9:15 for registration. The dress code is business casual for the pre-screens, so I went with a smart black dress with a peter pan collar, a cream cardigan, black tights and black flats. Anything goes really, just as long as you look smart. NO JEANS!

I arrived about half an hour so my dad and I went to a coffee shop across the road from the offices, where a few other applicants were also waiting, so we got to meet some of each other and have a nice chat about how nervous we all were! We all walked over to the head offices together just before quarter past, and when we got there we were registered straight away, and given a name sticker with a Disney themed interview group on – I was Team Tinkerbell! The sticker also gave our interview time, which was either 10:30am or 12:30pm. Before the interviews however, the Yummy Jobs team gave us a presentation all about the program and what we would be doing if we got accepted, which gets you all pumped up and REALLY wanting to get accepted! This is all really relaxed, and during the presentation there is also a little quiz section where you can win small prizes if you get a question right, so brush up on your Disney knowledge!

After the presentation, those with the earlier time slot were instructed to get into their groups, whilst those with the later time slot were told leave and come back just before their scheduled time. I was in the first time slot so I went straight into my interview! There was 9 people in my group in total and we were interviewed by Adam. The interview overall is really relaxed and chilled, and you get made to feel really at ease.

Our first question was a simple icebreaker, where we all picked out a Starburst sweet from a packet, and the colour we picked corresponded with a short question such as what our favourite food is, or where our favourite holiday was to. When the interview kicked off, a question would be asked and then it just went round the group and we each answered the question. These questions mainly revolved around why we wanted to do the program and what we thought we would get out of it. One particularly fun question though, was that we got asked which Disney character we thought we were most like and why! Make sure you have a think about what you would say before you go! You also get asked if you have any tattoos and piercings.

One of the other questions you will get asked is what roles you particularly want. The key things throughout this process is FLEXIBILITY! The more flexible you are with what start dates and roles you are willing to do, the more likely they are going to place you on the program.

After this, you get asked some questions to the group as a whole, where any one can answer, and these are just scenario questions about things that may happen to you during the program, and asking how you would handle them. At some point as well, we were split into small groups and asked to think about how we would plan an event to show other international cast members all about British culture, as this is a cultural exchange after all!

The whole thing lasted just over an hour in total, and we had a group picture taken in front of a wall painted like Cinderella’s Castle at the end, which was really good fun. Then I had to make the trip back home, and then all the way back to uni, as it was the middle of the semester! I thought I would have to wait a few weeks to find out how I had done, but I ended up hearing the following Monday (the 12th October) that I had passed the pre-screen interviews! If you make it through this stage well done, as this is the point where the biggest cuts are made, with only about 1/3 of applicants making it through to the final interviews.

A few days after getting through to final interviews, you get sent an email asking you to choose the time and date for your final interview, which takes place in Disney’s headquarters in Hammersmith, London. Then it’s just a case of waiting until that date!

If you have any questions about this or any other stage in the process, feel free to ask!

Kit xoxo

Posted 19th February 2016

[kit-does-disney]

The Online Application

Hey everyone, hope you’ve had a magical day!

Today I thought I would finally sit down and write about the application and interview process involved with applying for Disney programs (at least the ones in the UK!) I know the Cultural Exchange Program and the Cultural Representative Program follow the same application process as while I was applying for the CEP, one of my close friends was also applying for the CRP (which I just found out he got onto which is super exciting!), so whether you are applying for the CEP or the CRP, hopefully you will find this helpful. I know that a lot of people who blog about their program talk about the application process, but I found that when I was applying, reading as many different people’s posts really helped in telling me what to expect, so while this may seem really similar to a lot of other posts, I hope you still find it useful! I have also included some links at the end that you may find helpful!

The Online Application

So the first thing you do when wanting to apply for the program is look to see if they are recruiting yet! If not, you may have to wait a few months for applications to open. Once they are open, the first thing you do is fill out the online application. You have to do this both through the Disney Careers website, and on the Yummy Jobs website. Yummy Jobs is the company that Disney outsource their recruitment to in the UK, and they are the people who will be communicating to you throughout your application process.

On the application you must include a headshot. This probably goes without saying but SMILE! You are trying to work in the happiest place in the world, and Disney won’t want to hire you if you look miserable! For my headshot, I had a friend help me. I stood in front of a plain white wall, tried to look as relaxed as possible and gave my biggest smile. Then it’s just a simple case of uploading it to your computer and attaching it to your application on Yummy Jobs.

You also have to upload a CV and cover letter. Make sure that you tailor your cover letter specifically to Disney. Emphasise the cultural aspect and if you are going for the CEP (which only takes university students) try and talk about how the program will help you in your degree and future plans! They just want to get a feel for you as a person and why you want to do the program.

You also have to answer two questions, which is what I personally found the hardest! They are:

1.     Why do you value cultural exchange and interaction?

2.     What is your motivation for the program?

Take your time and really think about what your write in your answers. The great thing is that anytime up until the submission date, you can go back and edit your application, including your answers to the questions and your cover letter/cv, so don’t feel like you have to rush! Another important tip: SPELL CHECK! Disney get a lot of applicants for these programs, and narrowing down the pool of applicants is hard, so a small thing such as spelling may make a big difference!

Lastly, make sure you research the program you want to do and fully understand what it will involve, not only to help you with your application, but also to make sure that it is something you actually really want to do.  Don’t forget that there is more than just one program out there too. Find the one that you think it most suited to you.

The closing date for submitting was 27th September, with applications opening around the middle of the summer I believe. You tend to hear back pretty quickly about your online application. I submitted mine on 16th September and found out I had made it through to the pre-screen interviews on the 18th!

Now I had been planning to do just one post about the application process, but this has got so long I think I’ll leave it here and discuss the next part another time!

Hope this is helpful to anyone wanting to know a bit more about applying for the CEP/CRP!

Much love, Kit xx

Helpful Links

Disney International Careers website: http://ip.disneycareers.com/en/default/ Yummy Jobs website: http://www.yummyjobs.com/work/disney-international-programs

Posted 11th January 2016

[kit-does-disney]

A Very Disney Christmas!

Hey guys, hope you all had an amazing Christmas!

I had such a lovely day just chilling with my family and eating lots and lots of food - I think even one more potato would have made my stomach explode! 

As can be expected, I received quite a few Disney related presents this year! This may have been a bit awkward if I hadn’t been accepted onto the program! I think my mum had a feeling all along that I was going to get in though :)

First of all I got these absolutely ADORABLE socks, with some of my favourite Disney Princesses on:

Aren’t they just the cutest?!

We have a lot of Christmas traditions in my family and one of my favourites is that we (me and my brother and sister) always get a calendar as one of our presents. This year my mum got me this absolutely gorgeous calendar full of loads of amazing artwork by a man called Thomas Kinkade. If you haven’t seen any of his artwork before, definitely look it up because it’s stunning! These pictures don’t do them justice.

What makes this calendar even more amazing is that the picture for April (my birthday month) is Beauty and the Beast! I’ve always identified so much with Belle so this was a lovely coincidence.

I also received this very cute little piggy bank, to put all my coins in to save up for my Disney adventure this summer. Isn’t he so cute?! I can’t wait to see how much I’m able to save up between now and June, hopefully quite a lot if I’m able to resist the temptation to empty it early!

And lastly, whilst I didn’t receive this for Christmas exactly, it was given to me by my mum very recently and it’s just so so sweet that I have to share it with you.

Little vintage Mickey and Minnie salt and pepper shakers! They are so adorable part of me just wants to keep them in my room and not use them for the purpose they were designed for!

I had such a wonderful Christmas and I’m so grateful for everything I received, but the thing I’m most thankful for is being able to spend it with my wonderful family. It’s going to be a super stressful next few months back at uni and preparing for my trip to Florida in the summer so it’s so nice to just spend this relaxed time with them before I’m back working!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Lots of love,

Kit xx

Posted 26th December 2015

[kit-does-disney]

I got accepted!

So two days ago I got probably the best email I’ve ever received in my life, telling me that I had been accepted onto Disney’s Cultural Exchange Program for next summer! I couldn’t believe it as the chances of getting on it are so small, and it’s been a dream for so long to work for one of my favourite companies in the whole world.

Like most children, I was obsessed with Disney (my parents have very embarrassing stories of little me singing my heart out to Disney songs in the back of the car!) but I think this obsession has only gotten stronger as I’ve got older. So when I heard about this program I knew I just had to apply! Even though I was pretty confident I wasn’t even going to get past the initial application stage, I would have regretted it forever if I didn’t at least give it a shot, and it looks like it worked!

I’m so excited to be flying out to Walt Disney World in Florida next summer, 20th June just can’t come quick enough! I’ve been given the role of Quick Service Food and Beverage, and while I’m not 100% sure what this role will entail (there is such a wide range of possibilities) I’m just so happy to have been given this opportunity that quite frankly I would have done any job just to get over there!

Now begins a very stressful time of organising all the things I need to do to prepare for my trip. Passport, visa appointment, FLIGHTS! So many things to get done, that I’m hoping the time will fly by until I’m there!

Hopefully this blog will help my friends and family keep up to date with everything I’m getting up to while I’m out there, and will also help any of you out there who are considering applying to the program!

Lots of love!

Kit xx

Posted 24th December 2015