Faith, Trust, and Dashboard Updates

My application process for the Disney College Program was just like the rollercoasters that Disney World is known for! It was just emotional ups-and-downs instead of physical ones.

There are three steps to the Disney College Program process: application submission (also called applied), the web-based interview, and the phone interview. There is no guarantee that you’ll get out of the “applied” stage before you received an email informing you that you are no longer in consideration (NLIC).

It all began on Monday, September 10th, 2018.

It was another quiet afternoon a few weeks into the school year. I was, in a word, restless. My sophomore year got off to a bit of a rocky start as I tried to get excited about the upcoming year without success. UNI, which had been the perfect fit for me as a freshman, suddenly seemed alien to me. My major seemed wrong, I felt disconnected from my friends, I wasn’t even content in my usual extracurriculars. I was considering returning home for a semester and taking online classes when my solution arrived in the form of a generic recruitment email.

Applications for the Spring/Spring Advantage Session of the Disney College Program are now open! The email read under a cheery picture of Mickey Mouse waving in front of the fabled Cinderella Castle. Apply today!

I skimmed the email once, then twice. I had submitted a (lackluster) application for the 2018 Fall CP, but had quickly received a rejection email. The thought of reapplying had never crossed my mind. I closed out of the email, but left it sitting in my inbox. Over the next day and a half, I reopened that email several times, my mouse hovering over the embedded “apply” link as I entertained the thought of spending an entire semester in Disney World. I’ve never been to Florida, let alone Disney World! I googled the available roles and began to learn more about the program.

I finally came to the conclusion that there couldn’t be anything to lose. Worst case scenario I get rejected again. On Tuesday, September 11th at precisely 5:45pm, I submitted my application. The waiting game was on.

Despite assuring myself that I wouldn’t become one of “those” applicants, I quickly became addicted to checking my email and hoping for news. I even joined a Facebook page so I would know if there were any waves or news from recruiters. A week went by, then two, then three. I missed multiple waves, and despite being thrilled for my newfound friends that got moved forward to do a web-based interview (WBI) and phone interview (PI), I was honestly kind of crushed. I would go back in and look over my application wondering what I did wrong.

I made myself quit looking at DCP videos and left the Facebook pages. I was determined to completely block DCP out of my mind. I left my iMessage group too. I wished them all the best (several had gotten accepted at this point), but I honestly couldn’t take seeing everyone celebrating and going without mean. The deadline to get pushed forward to the WBI stage was November 2nd, and it was already October 25th.

Then, on Friday, October 26th, my phone buzzed with a text from my friend Alyssa. It was a screenshot of a tweet from one of the recruiters: “How about an applied wave?” At the time I was sitting in my biology class.  I immediately got on and checked my email. Nothing. Class ended at 1:45, so as soon we were released I scurried back to my room to check again. Still nothing. I had an assignment due for my online class, so I decided to work on that instead. I wrapped that up, and worked up the courage to check again.

I was VERY annoyed until my friends kindly explained what the email signified. 😅

I reopened my email and there was a single new item. An email with the subject line “Disney College Program: Thank You for Applying” I was shaking so badly I could barely click on it. When it finally opened, I realized it was a carbon copy of the email I had already received. Confused and annoyed, I fired off a screenshot to my Snapchat groupchat.

The results were instantaneous.

“Did you just get that?!”

“When did that come?!”

“That means you get a WBI!!!”

I was absolutely shocked. I was scared to believe that I had actually gotten moved forward. Sure enough, four minutes later, I received a second email: “Disney College Program: Immediate Action Required Web-Based Interview”. Everything suddenly seemed very, very real. The worst part of it all was that I had to wait to take it. With marching rehearsal at three and a warning in the email it could take up to an hour, I simply didn't have time.

Waiting was absolutely torture. I had rehearsal, grabbed a quick dinner and got cleaned up, and set up my desk for intense concentration. I closed out of every single application on my laptop except for Safari (which was probably a first), and after taking a deep breath, I started.

I don’t know what I really expected the test to be like. It consisted of a good deal of situational questions (for example, what would you do for a guest who was too short to ride Space Mountain?) and habitual questions (would you consider yourself punctual?). The scary thing about the WBI is that there’s no indicator or progress bar, and you only have a set amount of time to answer before you get moved automatically to the next question. The screen could change to a NLIC message at any time.

It felt like it took forever and mere minutes at the same time. I think in actuality my WBI lasted about thirty minutes. My screen suddenly flashed to something other than questions: a bold heading said NEXT STEPS: PHONE INTERVIEW.

Congratulations! The message read. You have been identified as a strong candidate. Your next step is to schedule a phone interview.

I had to reread that page several times to make sure I was reading it correctly. In the span of about four hours, I had gone from absolutely hopeless to the final stage of the interview process. I scheduled my phone interview for the earliest date and time available: October 30th at 9:30am.

The four days between my WBI and phone interview were some of the longest of my entire life. I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday cramming for my interview by pouring over lists of questions other people had gotten. I created flashcards and picked out the perfect interview outfit so I could dress for success!

The morning of October 30th dawned bright and clear. I was up by seven o’clock, but I don’t know that I ever really fell asleep the night before. I did my hair and makeup, and by 9am, I was patiently sitting at my computer with my notecards laid out neatly on my desk. My confirmation email warned me that recruiters could call as early as fifteen minutes before my schedules time or up to fifteen after.

At 9:21am, just as I was reaching How Far I’ll Go on my Disney playlist, my phone began to ring. It was a caller from Lake Buena Vista, Florida, AKA the official location of Disney World and the offices of the recruiters. I slammed my laptop shut and just stared at my phone for a few seconds as if to assure myself it was real. With a last deep breath, I hit the green button to answer the call.

“Good morning, this is Hannah!”

In hindsight, I probably sounded like I had chugged a Red Bull or two and topped it off with Pixie Sticks. My recruiter thankfully was not deterred by my nervous enthusiasm. The actual interview is mostly a blur now.

I remembered to say “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am”, carefully taking time to articulate my thoughts clearly like I had practiced. The first few minutes of the phone call were absolutely nerve-wracking. I was shaking so badly I was worried I would drop my phone. However, as we got into a rhythm, I forgot my worries and focused on answering the questions. Before I knew it, it was done. The call was simultaneously the longest and shortest eighteen minutes of my life!

“Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me, Christine!” “Thank you, Hannah! Have a magical day!” (Yes, she actually told me to have a magical day! How very Disney of her!)

As soon as the call was over, I could only sit in silence for a few minutes. Did that really just happen?

November 5th dawned rainy and dreary. Quite honestly, I love rain, so I wasn’t at all bothered by the gloom. It hadn’t been a full week since my interview when my phone started buzzing with messages from my friends. It featured screenshots of the recruiter’s tweets of the day. Waves were in the forecast!

(A note of clarification: in the world of the DCP, there are what recruiters call “applied tides”, which is where a bunch of people get moved from the applied stage to the WBI stage; and also “offer waves”, which is when a ton of employment offers go out to the DCP applicants that have already completed their WBI and PI)

From then on, it was honestly chaos. I got the messages from my friends on the east coast right around noon, when I was sitting in the dining center eating lunch. I immediately checked my email: nothing.

I quickly finished my lunch and hurried back to my room to check again: still nothing. There was a good deal of confusion on the DCP Spring Applicants Facebook page about the order that they were going in. Some people argued that it was alphabetical starting at the beginning, but then someone with a last name far at the end of the order would post that they had received an offer. I was sick of trying to decipher if my name had already been skipped or if it was still coming, so I shut my phone off, picked up a book, and read until I went to class.

I sat down in my normal seat next to my good friend Sierra, and spent almost the entirety of the biology lecture (ironically enough, it was over the Animal Kingdom) meandering around the Internet. I hopped from website to website, refusing to risk opening my email. What if there wasn’t any news, or worse, an NLIC email? I had iMessage pulled up on my laptop, and one of my friends with a B last name excitedly told the group chat that he had also been accepted. I hadn’t checked my email in forty-five minutes, and despite my firm resolve not to check, my friends convinced me to do so.

I logged back into my email at 1:35pm on November 5th, 2018. There was a single email waiting for me.

Disney College Program: Congratulations!

I managed to not cry, but I did gasp loud enough to get a weird look from my professor. I was officially going to Disney World as a merchandise cast member for Spring 2019!

I’m so excited to see what God has in store for me on this new adventure! Feel free to follow along on my journey on this blog, as well as on my Disney Instagram page @ happilyeverhannah19.