Working for Disney

drthlandry · Post by **drthlandry** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:56 pm

I've been toying with the idea of trying to find a job with Walt Disney World. I realize I should have tried the College Program, but at the time I was working for my dad during the summers and wasn't too keen on moving away from home.

I'm currently a computer programmer working on web-sites (doing more than just HTML), but I'm not 100% sure I want to sit in front of a computer for the rest of my life (I've already gained back the 30 pounds I lost while working retail).

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to go about looking into this?

Also, if this should be moved to "Off Topic", feel free to move it.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:22 pm

I'm graduating in May and am currently looking for a job with Disney, too. Have you looked on DisneyCareers.com yet? Definitely look there, and check often- they take down jobs and post new ones pretty frequently.

drthlandry · Post by **drthlandry** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:00 am

I've been on it a couple of times, but I don't get on the computer much at home and I don't feel quite right about browsing that site at work.

I'm looking into a laptop now, so hopefully I'll check into that site more often.

I also should have asked for any thoughts on how "good of a company" Disney is to work from since I know there are a few people on the boards who have experience.

Atlantica · Post by **Atlantica** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:58 pm

I've been searching for such a long time on this, but with no luck; does anyone know if people who live in the UK can get jobs with Disney ? I'm really struggling to find anything

Any help would be so wonderful.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:47 pm

Here's the official website for Disney International Programs:

http://www.disneyinternationalprograms. ... index.html

Hope that helps a bit, atlanticaunderthesea!

Atlantica · Post by **Atlantica** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:05 am

Oh my gosh blackcauldron85! Thank you thank you thank you! You are a star!

Made me so happy today !

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:24 am

Aww, yay! I'm so glad I could help!

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:13 am

I wish I had done the college program when I was in school. Is it from the college program that they get the people who play the characters? I wonder if there is an age limit to those kinds of gigs. I may still try to do it someday. It's probably the only way I will meet the girl of my dreams. Ha, I was looking at online photos people had taken at Disney World the other day and fell absolutely in love with one cast member, but when I complimented her photo (very politely in the comment section) the poster of the pics (the cast member's mother) blocked me from viewing them anymore, ha. Some people are way too touchy. But, wow, she was like perfect!

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:03 am

slave2moonlight wrote: I wish I had done the college program when I was in school. Is it from the college program that they get the people who play the characters? I wonder if there is an age limit to those kinds of gigs.

You don't have to be in the College Program to become a character (you just go to the Casting building)- you just do an audition. I did one back in 2004, but I got waitlisted and never called back. You do dancing and pantomime in the audition- it's really fun. They ask your height and they weigh you. I'm not sure if you're asking about furry characters or face characters- I believe that everyone does the same audition, but I'm not sure if people must be furry characters first or not. I'm not sure the next step to become a face character- you may just have to ask once you get hired, and I'm sure there probably is another, second, audition for that.

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:54 pm

blackcauldron85 wrote:
slave2moonlight wrote: I wish I had done the college program when I was in school. Is it from the college program that they get the people who play the characters? I wonder if there is an age limit to those kinds of gigs.
You don't have to be in the College Program to become a character (you just go to the Casting building)- you just do an audition. I did one back in 2004, but I got waitlisted and never called back. You do dancing and pantomime in the audition- it's really fun. They ask your height and they weigh you. I'm not sure if you're asking about furry characters or face characters- I believe that everyone does the same audition, but I'm not sure if people must be furry characters first or not. I'm not sure the next step to become a face character- you may just have to ask once you get hired, and I'm sure there probably is another, second, audition for that.

I'd like to be the Big Bad Wolf, ha. Actually, I don't know, haven't thought of it much and I'm sure it's more pleasant to be a face character but you probably have to be more careful too since you can talk. Why the heck do they weigh you? Anyways, I'm not sure if I wouldn't rather just be a non-character cast member nowadays. Or, it'd be cool to be one of those atmospheric people at Disney Hollywood Studios, if they still have those. You know, walking around in the early Hollywood clothes and talking to people. Though, I do have a developing career as an illustrator already (well, it's in early stages, still trying to make a stable income out of it, but it's developing), but I don't meet any girls with it and it's frustrating. Plus, I don't know any fellow Disney fanatics. I'd hope that some of the people working at Disney are big Disney fans. I wonder if any sort of housing situation is available for employees. I currently live very far away from both parks and it drives me nuts, but I can't afford to relocate and get an apartment and all that yet.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:54 pm

They weigh you to see if you'll fit in the costumes. And the only housing I know if is for the College Program and International College Program students, but, if you let them take the money out of your check, maybe they'd let you stay there...?

They do still have the atmospheric performers at DHS- that could be fun! And, I'd like to think that many of the people working at the parks are Disney fans! Not everyone is a fanatic, but I'm sure that a lot of people are. When I worked at WDW, I was friends with someone in the College Program, and I know that he at least had the TNBC soundtrack in his truck...so people there have differing interests in Disney there, I guess! And, many UD members have been in the College Program, and they love Disney!!!

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:16 am

blackcauldron85 wrote:They weigh you to see if you'll fit in the costumes. And the only housing I know if is for the College Program and International College Program students, but, if you let them take the money out of your check, maybe they'd let you stay there...?

Hmm, doubtful, but it'd be cool if they did. Sucks that there is only housing for the college program since I certainly don't know Florida (or California) well enough or have the means to pack up and move there anytime soon without a guaranteed place to stay. As for the weight thing, I would think taking measurements would make more sense. For example, while my shape has been all over the place, even when very "normal" I weigh much more than I look like I weigh, ha. I must just have denser molecules or something.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:25 am

They might measure you- I either don't remember or they don't do that until you get the job.

You could call WDW or DL and ask them if they have any housing available for non-CPs. They might...?

drthlandry · Post by **drthlandry** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:59 pm

I thought I had read that any Professional Internships also have a housing option similar to the College Internships.

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:45 pm

I need to look into this sort of thing again. Before I started college I was looking into how you get into Disney animation, and they were very open to newcomers at the time (they were still riding high on the Renaissance stuff), but I believe I was always getting that there was only housing for the college program, not even internships. I don't know if it makes a difference what kind of internship you are after. There were also certain colleges that had "Disney programs". Unfortunately, they were especially pricey colleges, but I probably should have tried to work it out anyway. Then again, when I got out of college they were firing, not hiring, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered much and just caused me to have an even bigger loan to pay off. I have no idea what the situation with animation is now over there, but I suppose they have a lot of experienced artists to hire back before looking for new ones, and I still have no training in animation and am not in my 20s anymore (which would probably discourage them from hiring me or giving me an internship, especially with no training/experience).

By the way, I found footage (fuzzy as it is) of that Alice/Wendy I'm totally in love with on YouTube! Ha. It doesn't do her justice though. Unfortunately, I was hoping she was at least 20 or 21, ha. Not that I care much, but odds are she would.

As if I was anywhere near Florida to ask her out anyway. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZmforJ0YCm8

JEANYLASER · Post by **JEANYLASER** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:05 am

thanks for the info!

Jeffel · Post by **Jeffel** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 3:04 pm

I've been meaning to look into this for ages, I love the idea of being one of the character actors but never really thought how feasible it would be considering I live in the UK. I applied to Disneyland Paris to do work experience there but they said you have to be at least 18 to work there but I am 18 now so I might give them another shot, but considering my French speaking skills are poor at best I'd much rather go to America.

Oh, and surely the good-looking people get to be face characters and everyone else is shoved into the furry category?

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:13 pm

Jeffel wrote:I've been meaning to look into this for ages, I love the idea of being one of the character actors but never really thought how feasible it would be considering I live in the UK. I applied to Disneyland Paris to do work experience there but they said you have to be at least 18 to work there but I am 18 now so I might give them another shot, but considering my French speaking skills are poor at best I'd much rather go to America.

Oh, and surely the good-looking people get to be face characters and everyone else is shoved into the furry category?

That seems logical, but I know that girl whose video link I posted who plays Alice and Wendy also has played Donald and Mickey, which I was quite surprised about. I don't know if that was only in shows though. I find myself wondering, do you have to have a musical theater type training to get any of these character roles? I always figured playing one of the furry characters would be hard, uncomfortable work that probably was much easier to get than a job playing a face character. Now I wonder, knowing that face characters play furry characters too. I never knew you would be assigned more than one character to play.

As to playing a character if you're from the UK, you probably would have to travel to whichever park and audition yourself, I really don't know, but you might have an edge when it comes to playing face characters with English accents. I don't know if they would hire someone who wasn't a citizen though. But something you could do is work at EPCOT in the UK section. They always used to have some sort of exchange program for those employees to get people from around the world to work in their home-themed areas of the park, and I imagine they still do that.

Escapay · Post by **Escapay** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:53 pm

Jeffel wrote:I'd much rather go to America.

Which is better since WDW has the International Program. Well, I'm sure all the parks have an International Program, but since WDW has more parks and opportunities, most choose that one. Plus, as s2m pointed out, you can easily work at the UK pavilion in Epcot.

Jeffel wrote:Oh, and surely the good-looking people get to be face characters and everyone else is shoved into the furry category?

Even good-looking people play fur characters (I had such a crush on a girl who played Chip, of Chip'n'Dale, not BATB). Also, most fur character castmembers do more than one character, and even take on generic characters in parades (you know, the ones that just walk around looking pretty).

s2m wrote:do you have to have a musical theater type training to get any of these character roles?

The audition process is basically a song&dance workshop. You don't necessarily need to have any professional experience, though your chances are better if you actually know how to sing and dance (and look pretty).

s2m wrote:As to playing a character if you're from the UK, you probably would have to travel to whichever park and audition yourself,

For WDW, auditions are held at the Team Disney building, near Downtown Disney, as well as within the parks themselves (I think, I'm basing this all on what I know from character castmembers).

s2m wrote:I really don't know, but you might have an edge when it comes to playing face characters with English accents.

Like Bert!

s2m wrote:They always used to have some sort of exchange program for those employees to get people from around the world to work in their home-themed areas of the park, and I imagine they still do that.

The International Program is still active, and castmembers don't always work at Epcot (though that's where the majority do work). From 2004 to 2005, we had a lot of Hong Kong castmembers in every park/resort, as they were training for the opening of HKDL. But yeah, international castmembers work everywhere, though more of them work in Epcot than anywhere else.

Albert

slave2moonlight · Post by **slave2moonlight** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:42 am

Escapay, do you still work at WDW?

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