Disney Management Intern Application Process
Guess what? I recently accepted an offer for a Food and Beverage Management Internship this spring at WDW! Since the application process and dashboard has DRASTICALLY changed in the last six months or so, I thought I’d share my experience applying and interviewing for this position. All the MI position applications run very similarly. (Park ops, lodging, etc) So. First off, I applied to about nine internships for the Spring 2018 season. Most were alumni-only positions. The first step after submitting the application is...waiting. That hasn’t changed. However, parts of the status bar on the dashboard has. “NLIC” is the same. Submission now reads “Applied.” (This season, no PI/MI application went to the Applied stage, everyone either moved to Under Review immediately or went straight to NLIC. My Guest Relations app suffered this fate.) In-progress is now “Under Review.” This is super vague and is incredibly frustrating. Everything up to screenings will be in this stage. The next few steps are (I think) interview, and offer. Mine stayed in interview even after I accepted my offer. Some departments still don’t use the dashboard anyway. “Drop downs” are no longer a thing. In the past, one phone screen covered every position you applied to. Your responses were sent to recruiters and leaders in the lines of business you applied to. Now, however, you can potentially get a phone screening for every position. The new dashboard will tell you what position you’re being considered for in the top right corner when you schedule the call. Sometimes it only lists one (or says nothing!) but covers more than one role. Your recruiter will tell you at the beginning of the call. I received only one screening invitation, which was a bit disheartening at first because I knew MIs were incredibly competitive. My call was brief, and easy. My recruiter even gave me some pointers on better ways to improve my answers in case I got a panel interview! I sent him a genuinely grateful email the next day. Panel invites went out a few weeks later. I was not one of the first people selected to do a Bluejeans interview. (Bluejeans is similar to Skype, and usually has two or more leaders on the other end. Thus “panel.”) I actually stopped checking my dashboard and Facebook groups because I didn’t think I’d get a panel. And yet, another week and a half or so later, I GOT A PANEL INVITATION VIA EMAIL. I was shocked as I felt super under-qualified compared to some of the other applicants I chatted with on Facebook. I set it up for 9:00 AM Florida time, which was 6:00 AM local time. Boo. Thanks college. I am very fortunate to have a supportive work environment here and I was invited to use a department laptop and conference room even before the buildings opened. I strongly suggest using a laptop over a phone for a video interview, AND check the internet connection before the call. During the call: I talked to two food and beverage proprietors from WDW at the same time, they took turns asking me questions. I smiled, answered the best I could, and tried to hide my nervous fidgeting. I felt good about most of the interview at first. Here’s the funny thing, my interview was supposed to last 30+ minutes. I thought I tanked it when the call ended and I had only been sitting there for 13. The proprietors seemed to be in a hurry, I think I was the first call of the day. I flubbed an answer that seemed important, so that and the how quick the call was told me I didn’t get it. I moved on with life. A few days later, offers started going out. I wasn’t one of them. A few people I met on my first CP got theirs. They did not call unsolicited, the recruitment team sent a personal email asking for a good time for a “follow up” chat, and that call almost always results in an offer. This now seems to be the norm for most departments, including MIs. 8 days after my seriously short panel, I got a “follow up” email. I freaked. The next day, I got my offer! She even told me what restaurant I was placed at right away. It still feels unreal, it’s a great one! Something that seems unusual is that at the end of the panel, I was asked what type of food and beverage location I’d be most comfortable in, and not everyone was asked this. I told them I would be most comfortable in full-service character dining as that was what environment my first CP was in, and my second was in entertainment. And that is what I was placed in. I won’t share my location here since I want to see it in writing before getting too excited, but I feel very lucky that my request was taken into consideration. Good luck future applicants! I hope this was somewhat helpful. I start in two months and I am STOKED.
