Contacting an Imagineer

[rct247]

I have been searching the web for answer, but haven't found much luck.

I would like to get my resume professionally reviewed by an Imagineer, but I am not sure how to go about doing this. The tough thing is distinguishing that I am just aiming for a professional to just critique my resume vs. submitting a resume in hopes of getting a job.

Does anyone know the best way to contact an Imagineer directly by either email, phone, or snail mail?

I have considered just sending in my resume to Walt Disney Imagineering, but I am afraid that it will get lost in a pile of people looking to apply for a job.

Any quick advice would be great appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

As nice as it would be, I don't think that will be possible unless you have a connections. No one will be willing to share the email address of an Imagineer, and they are also very busy people. I would suggest just taking your resume to a person who is trained to critique it (headhunter, career center if you are a student, etc).

 

[rct247]

I completely understand. I will just look into other ways to get in contact with one.

I am a student in a senior design course where we will get it critiqued by career services, family, friends, etc, but we are also required to get it professionally reviewed by experts in our area of study or in the career path we wish to go into.

Thanks though.

 

[mkt]

Best of luck getting in contact with one, but I doubt you will have any success unless you have pre existing contacts.

 

[Diznee_Dreamer]

Ahhhh yes I know you're frustration in this department! I've tried everything I could possibly ever think of to try and touch base with somebody in imagineering (after all, they're who inspired me to go into engineering!), but they're tricky people to find! Even tried the Casting offices on the Walt Disney World resort one time! Not sure what the trick is other than to try, try, and try again I think though once your resume is reviewed, it can never hurt to submit it should you decide to do so! Good things come to those who wait after all!

 

[ImaYoyo]

Well if you don't know one, you can pay to meet one. You can have lunch with one at the Studios. Get his/her first and last name. Unless it's a common (or fairly common) first and last name, the email address will be first.last@disney.com . And there you have it.

 

[terp79]

Not all disney contact e-mail addresses follow the first.last@disney.com rubric. Some of my contacts at WDI have their middle initial in there as well.

If you do your leg work you can find tons of ways to contact imagineers.

You need to learn to network better and there are many ways to do so in order to reach out and contact an imagineer.

Such sites as Britefuse and Linked In have various imagineers listed. Also check out myspace and facebook. You'd be surprised who's listed on there.

You could do a search via the net on who is working there now (senior engineer of WDI), find his/her name and send your resume via snail mail, WDI's address is posted all over the net, just put ATTN: Mr./Mrs. blah, blah, blah.

You can also do like you said and do the dinner with an imagineer but that might not help if you're an engineering major and your imagineer dinner is with the head of the graphic design department.

You can also join various organizations (which is not only good for networking but also looks killer on your resume). Such as IAAPA and TEA, WDI has representatives that go to these organizations summit meetings and sometimes they even hold special seminars showcasing various WDI talent not to mention they have student membership discounts.

I will also add that you should just send in your resume to WDI no matter what with the attention to the college recruiter.

Most of all: WDI IMAGINATIONS DESIGN CONTEST!!! No other explanation needed!!! This is your number one way to get contacts and meet Imagineers.

Like before most of us who have contacts with Imagineers will not give out their information to others, you know that they're very busy people and that they really don't like to be bothered all that much.

You should also look into your schools Alumni, my university had 2 alum that graduated from the architecture department and went on to work for WDI from the late 70's to the mid 80's. Who knows, maybe your school has someone you could contact that could then put you into contact with others.

All the ways that I have listed are the ways that I got in contact with my friends at WDI. I have known some of my contacts for 4 years and am making new contacts slowly but surely each day. It takes time and a LOT of patience not to mention politeness. Be humble, be nice and be patience.

Good Luck!!!

 

[clarksfan95]

If you want it reviewed by someone in Imagineering...then just send it to them. State in your cover letter that if possible that you would like to have feedback regarding your portfolio.

It's unlikely (though not impossible) that an imagineer would be able to be contacted and take their free time to go over a persons portfolio individually. What may have worked for them to get a job, may be totally different for the person who works beside them.

I sent an animation portfolio to Disney knowing very well that I was going to get rejected and requested feedback. The feedback I got was rather vague, but some did help to steer me in a direction so that I could focus on bettering specific areas. My dad knows a gentleman who worked for Disney Animation during the early 90's before jumping ship to Dreamworks for their first couple films. I contacted him and he gave me pointers, but said that most people in those departments are very busy and wouldn't give individual portfolios a look..since that was the human resources departments job. He was nice enough to review mine and gave me almost the same kind of information that human resources gave me.

Otherwise...post your portfolio online and allow people to take stabs at it.

 

[rct247]

Well, I just went for it. I ended up mailing my resume and cover letter to Mr. Marty Sklar a few months ago in hope that he would review my resume. Now, obviously, I knew that with him being a Disney Legend that my chances would be much less than someone else, but I went for it. Unfortunately, I have not got any response back. I did end up passing my senior design course and did gradate, so no worries there.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Well, I just went for it. I ended up mailing my resume and cover letter to Mr. Marty Sklar a few months ago in hope that he would review my resume. Now, obviously, I knew that with him being a Disney Legend that my chances would be much less than someone else, but I went for it. Unfortunately, I have not got any response back. I did end up passing my senior design course and did gradate, so no worries there.

It is unfortunate, but you probably won't get anything back from him. My Disney contact was an Alum from my school and we had a common mentor from our times there. So I sent him a letter, and he used his pull from Disney to get me in to meeting other people (I won't disclose who my contact is, but it was someone who used to be very high up the ladder). I was just one of the lucky people because of the common things we had. More importantly, congrats on passing the class and graduating. Get out there and make your dreams come true now.

 

[radiohost]

I was in the college program in 2006 and worked in Frontierland Attractions. I asked my manager on the first day of work in April that I wanted to meet an imagineer and network with him, because that was my dream job. She said she knows one very well and she will try her best. In July she said she got me a one hour session with an imagineer at a location I will not say on here, but it was booked, in August!!!

I got to network with him, and it was amazing! That's as far as I got and I was thrilled. I just asked, while a cast member, and it worked...he said he wishes he would have had more time to spend with me, because I graduated the program a few days later....

Radiohost

 

[radiohost]

Let me add somthing to all of you who inspire to be an Imagineer.

I asked him flat out how you get to be an Imagineer, how do you get hired?

He said very plainly, that Walt Disney Imagineering dos not hire anyone who has less than 10 years of professional experience out of college, flat out. No exceptions.


Get some experience, develop a portfolio, and present it to WDI.

They won't even consider you if you have less than 10 years experience elsewhere.....So dream and dream big, do the best you can, and when its time, its time.

 

[mkt]

hmm.. Joe Rohde told it to me a bit more different.

He said if WDI wants you, they'll get you.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

hmm.. Joe Rohde told it to me a bit more different.

He said if WDI wants you, they'll get you.

I have heard the same thing. Whenever I have a friend that wants to be an Imagineer, I tell them that Disney finds people and not the other way around. You gotta work hard and if you are good enough you will get the name tag.