For the past ten years, I've wanted to work at a Disney theme park. The story of my high school years and afterwards is a long one that has a lot to do with me being a lazy, procrastinating slug and being dissatisfied with SoCal's costs and culture as well as Disneyland's hiring crisis. WDW only appeared on the horizon for me last year and for a while I had been egging myself to stop procrastinating and get into the internships to see if (A) I really wanted to work in a theme park, and (B) if I really wanted to live in Florida while doing that.
I was lucky to have gone to WDW a couple weeks ago and unlike my first visit which was mostly magic and mouth-agape wonder, I looked at it from a "could I work here" angle, not only paying particular attention to the cast members around me but meeting with some I have had the fortune of meeting online.
All I can say from this research, info-gathering mission, is that folks who really are nutso like I am about Uncle Walt's parks should really weigh the question a lot more heavily than I did. Because talking to cast about their jobs paved the way to a lot of eye-openers that I simply didn't expect.
"Oh, I can't stand to go near (attraction) because (name) works there and s/he is an annoying twit."
"Well all the people I know who do (job) at (park) are unhappy."
"I'd avoid (attraction) because that's where everyone throws up. Sit in those vehicles if you dare. Well, don't say I didn't warn you."
"You don't what to know what gets cleaned out of the back of (restaurant)."
None of these are completely verbatim, one or two I just made up out of my head, but they're very representative of the rolling commentary I got from cast members. None of them, btw, grew up loving the parks or the company like I did. Most of them joined WDW because it was in the area or it happened to be an open oppertunity that they figured fit the bill. While they all used Disneyspeak like nobody's business and all of them seemed to appreciate their jobs, there was such an underlying cynicism and negative associations to attractions, places, and other things.
The simple fact is that if Disneyland/World were to become one big negative association in my life, I don't think I could stand it because I would have one less thing to enjoy as a hobby. So I thankful for the people who were willing to help me out because I think I've been "set straight," and although it took a decade to realize I've found out that what I thought was a dream job was simply just teenage fantasy. :shrug:
I thought I'd basically just post my research findings for any other park nuts who think it would be great to work at Disney because you'd basically be at the park all the time. Even if you were like me and accepting that it's not all fun and that you would have to do some work, the simple problem is that when you pick something you really like for a job, it seems after a while you could easily stop liking it. Some people might be willing to risk that, and it may pay off well for them, but I'm going to look for a new path.
*steps off soapbox*
I was lucky to have gone to WDW a couple weeks ago and unlike my first visit which was mostly magic and mouth-agape wonder, I looked at it from a "could I work here" angle, not only paying particular attention to the cast members around me but meeting with some I have had the fortune of meeting online.
All I can say from this research, info-gathering mission, is that folks who really are nutso like I am about Uncle Walt's parks should really weigh the question a lot more heavily than I did. Because talking to cast about their jobs paved the way to a lot of eye-openers that I simply didn't expect.
"Oh, I can't stand to go near (attraction) because (name) works there and s/he is an annoying twit."
"Well all the people I know who do (job) at (park) are unhappy."
"I'd avoid (attraction) because that's where everyone throws up. Sit in those vehicles if you dare. Well, don't say I didn't warn you."
"You don't what to know what gets cleaned out of the back of (restaurant)."
None of these are completely verbatim, one or two I just made up out of my head, but they're very representative of the rolling commentary I got from cast members. None of them, btw, grew up loving the parks or the company like I did. Most of them joined WDW because it was in the area or it happened to be an open oppertunity that they figured fit the bill. While they all used Disneyspeak like nobody's business and all of them seemed to appreciate their jobs, there was such an underlying cynicism and negative associations to attractions, places, and other things.
The simple fact is that if Disneyland/World were to become one big negative association in my life, I don't think I could stand it because I would have one less thing to enjoy as a hobby. So I thankful for the people who were willing to help me out because I think I've been "set straight," and although it took a decade to realize I've found out that what I thought was a dream job was simply just teenage fantasy. :shrug:
I thought I'd basically just post my research findings for any other park nuts who think it would be great to work at Disney because you'd basically be at the park all the time. Even if you were like me and accepting that it's not all fun and that you would have to do some work, the simple problem is that when you pick something you really like for a job, it seems after a while you could easily stop liking it. Some people might be willing to risk that, and it may pay off well for them, but I'm going to look for a new path.
*steps off soapbox*
