Applying for the Disney Cultural Exchange Program as an Alumni

In the summer of 2017, I took part in my first Disney Cultural Exchange Program and had the most magical, crazy, challenging, wonderful three months. In just a couple days time, I'll be beginning my second program of this kind, and now seemed as good a time as any to reflect on how this was a slightly different application process.

Applications typically open in mid-July for this program through Yummy Jobs, and after initially deciding against reapplying due to how exhausted I felt following an extensive training and assessment period, punishing hours and the joys of Transtar buses, I somehow found myself cutting pieces from my previous cover letter together and starting this journey all over again.

I submitted my application in August 8th (don't ask me how I found the time to do so) and received an email inviting me to the pre-screen interview just ten days later. In this sense, my process was just like that of any other applicant, and upon returning to the UK, I had around a week to collect my thoughts and throw myself back into the interview cycle.

My second interview took place on September 27th amidst much controversy surrounding alumni in general. It was revealed that they were capping how many they would allow through to this interview process, rejecting applications outright once this number had been reached; despite the fact they were still advertising the program.

However fortunately my application was early enough to avoid this, so I sat bizarrely watching photos of my friends and me flash up on the presentation screens as the recruiters discussed experiences I had just been going through the previous month.

Just as before, we were divided off into smaller groups for our interviews, using starbust sweets to dictate ice breaker questions. The only real difference I noticed was that there were a few questions we had to discuss with the person next to us and then feedback together, and generally I just found we had less chance to speak individually. I'd guess they were more looking at teamwork and cooperation skills here, but everyone in my group seemed really good and I believe most of them were successful in gaining a place!

On October 9th, a little earlier than we expected, emails were sent out on whether or not we had made it through to the final interview, and then non-alumni were invited to schedule their face to face interviews with Disney later that month/early November. Meanwhile, the other alumni and I had to wait to receive information about a phone interview once these had taken place.

This email came on November 3rd once the original applicants had been interviewed, and there was just one day for all of us which confirmed that they were definitely capping alumni numbers this year.

However before we'd even been interviewed, some first-timers received offers from Disney! This definitely complicated things in everyone's minds (did someone's place depend on us messing up? Were we being treated as separate from first timers?) but I tried to stay calm as my interview day rolled around.

Confusion was the theme of this whole application cycle, being notified just a couple days before that it would take the form of a phone call as opposed to skype as we were originally told, and that the times were supposed to have been listed as EST rather than GMT, meaning we were all shifted back 5 hours.

Despite this, my interview started on time and lasted just under 20 minutes. It did feel bizarre having such an important phone call sitting in my pyjamas at my university room desk, looking out the window and resting my cold feet on the radiator.

However it passed quickly as I tried to 'smile through the phone', and after the initial 'why do you want to come back?' was answered, it was just a lot of yes/no questions and a couple scenarios; much like last year.

Just two days later, on December 7th, I received my acceptance email in creative writing class at university, as did the rest of the applicants who had been nervously waiting after seeing some of those they'd interviewed with already receive places.

Despite the slight mess that was *the whole thing*, the interviews themselves went smoothly and I felt so much calmer about it all knowing what to expect and that I was good enough before, so surely I should only be more so now having done the job previously!

That all seems a long time ago now, and yet it has all come around very quickly. 2 days to go until I'm on my flight to Orlando, and it cannot come soon enough!