7 weeks. 49 days. Panic.
Well, maybe I am panicking a tad but not much. Although I did have a weird dream (if you know me, you'll know that I have weird and memorable dreams bi-monthly, the one with bjork was a real highlight) that they wouldn't let me fly from the airport because I hadn't booked that I was taking bags, which I know would never happen but it still freaked me out. I am starting to worry about the little things, but that's natural right?
So, last week after receiving my visa forms I made a call to the embassy. £1.30 per minute. Then if that wasn't bad enough they took just over £100 from my account (it was $150) arghhh. For those people reading this thinking of applying, take note, it'll cost about £1000 before getting to Florida. Anyway, the phone call was ok, the only thing was that yummy jobs forgot to put in their little visa guide that we'd need to read off some of the numbers from the petition so it took me a while to find them on the page. I've managed to get an appointment for the same day as Tori so hopefully we can do something fun afterwards.
Other than that I've just been making a to do list for before I go, there's actually quite a lot to think about. Luckily I don't think I need to buy very much, and also I'm excited for shopping out there too. I think I'm probably going to try and have a birthday/leaving do at the end of September for some of my home and uni friends, as some of them are going back to uni the week after so it made sense to have it then.
In other news, I went to my cousin's wedding in Alnwick which was fun and I'm still doing very little at home. I'm probably going to do lots of relaxing though as I've heard that Disney will be very manic once I arrive!
x x x x x x x
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
8 weeks to go: meeting the CRPers and it's visa time!
Hello!
Well, I'm all alone in the house so thought it a perfect time to write another blog post. The time is passing quite quickly now and it's starting to hit home that I'm going to Disney- yes, me- and I'm not reading other people's blogs wishing it were me going!
So what's happened since last week? Well, a few of us Disney kids met up in London town for a picnic/ dodgem ride/ pitchers of woo woo. It was AMAZING. And, to name drop, I officially love Kaz, Tori, Sabrina, Lucy and my "flight buddy" Jenna!! Highlight of the day has to be the drunk old guy from "near Manchester" who first called us "school kids" then said that Jenna looked 16 (she nearly had to get her ID out to prove she was 18), then he started claiming that Surrey was in Kent. Oh dear...
Anyway, the fact that it was an amazing day has made me think that Disney is going to be fabulous. Not just because it's Disney World, but because of the people. Hopefully there'll be another meet up at some point...I hope there is cos it was great!
The other exciting piece of news is that my visa forms arrived this morning. Well the paperwork isn't too bad- I just have to phone to book an appointment with a load of details. However, apparently the online form is hideous and really annoying so I'm not looking forward to trying to do it!
Ah well, that's about it for now...apart from me buying some vacuum bags which is highly uninteresting...
x x x
Tuesday 17 August 2010
The interview process (and all that jazz)
Well, I know it’s only been a couple of weeks since my last post, and nothing very significant has happened- apart from me going to Cairo-which was amazing. Didn't get up to much, just getting a bit of sun on me, had a BBQ and spent some time with some people there we know!
Anyway, I know that I said in my first blog I wasn’t going to put anything on here about the application process, however, that’s one of the first things people ask me about it- “how did you get that”? Basically, at the beginning of January I created an account on yummy jobs, uploaded my cover letter/ CV document and some info about myself and then sent it off, expecting to get a rejection letter. However, a few weeks later I got an email from yummy saying to book a slot for my telephone interview, which I arranged for the next day (to get it over and done with). For this, I spoke to a woman named Chloe, and it was more like a structured chat than interview. It’s like a pre-screen test so the Disney Recruiters see people that are suited to the position; according to her she said there were something like 1500 application, of which 300 got telephone interviews, and that I’d been lucky to get that far. She asked me about working in the heat, living with other people, how I’ve dealt with a difficult customer, what motivates me (that was tricky, I think I said something about always being busy). The final question was “which Disney character are you most like?”..I said Dory, as she’s really positive and motivated. Just keep swimming.
So, a couple of weeks later and one of the best emails I ever got came. It was the “you got an interview” email. Woop. Now, whilst I was annoyed that I would have to miss a trip to see my friend Sarah in Germany, I knew that I would regret not going to the interview. So, it was a fairly cold but sunny day in February, a few of us from the forum had arranged to meet up at Waterloo before heading off to Chez Gerard- yes, I know, weird location for an interview. So we rocked up and were some of the first people there. We had to sign in- and I remember having a chat with Hannah the yummy recruiter about my journey etc, and I think that not only the Disney recruiters, but also the yummy people were watching for how we all interacted. After filling in some more forms about job preferences we then went to the presentation room out the back. I remember saying “Good Morning” really cheesily to Jill the recruiter- who was also my interviewer. We were there for at least 20 minutes having a chat before the presentation, but it was great as I chatted to people about their ICP experiences, which made me more excited (thanks Gina !!!). The presentation lasted about an hour, there were some questions but I didn’t get chosen to answer so didn’t win a prize. Gutted. Despite this, I just couldn’t stop smiling throughout the presentation. There’s just something about WDW that gets me excited and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is.
Anyhoo, at the end of the presentation we all got our interview times, mine was at 2.40. So a small group of us headed off to Covent Garden, where we ended up in Pizza Hut devouring their buffet. It was lush. I really loved all the people I met that day, and I can’t thank them enough for making me so excited about going and helping me decide that this was the right thing for me. Sophie had to leave a bit earlier to go to her interview, but we still had some time to kill so went to Starbucks before heading to my interview.
Now, I thought the interview was horrible. Well, firstly I sat with Hannah and went through all my documents to make sure that I’d be eligible for a visa. Then I sat for ages waiting to go in, and I also chatted to loads of people outside, like Lucie, Emma and Jenny who my interview was with. I guess I found the interview so difficult because it was done in pairs, and I didn’t know whether they wanted us to interact with each other as well as Jill. Anyway, this was what I did and Jenny reciprocated which was good because it meant we bounced ideas off each other. And another good thing was that our experiences were completely different so we weren’t repeating each other’s answers. We thought this was bad and both came out saying “but your answers/experiences are so much better”. Alas, we both made it to the “Opportunity List” a week later, so as they say the rest is history!!!
So, that's basically how the process went for me! Will blog again soon with more pre-disney gossip,
Adios!
Kat x x x
Anyway, I know that I said in my first blog I wasn’t going to put anything on here about the application process, however, that’s one of the first things people ask me about it- “how did you get that”? Basically, at the beginning of January I created an account on yummy jobs, uploaded my cover letter/ CV document and some info about myself and then sent it off, expecting to get a rejection letter. However, a few weeks later I got an email from yummy saying to book a slot for my telephone interview, which I arranged for the next day (to get it over and done with). For this, I spoke to a woman named Chloe, and it was more like a structured chat than interview. It’s like a pre-screen test so the Disney Recruiters see people that are suited to the position; according to her she said there were something like 1500 application, of which 300 got telephone interviews, and that I’d been lucky to get that far. She asked me about working in the heat, living with other people, how I’ve dealt with a difficult customer, what motivates me (that was tricky, I think I said something about always being busy). The final question was “which Disney character are you most like?”..I said Dory, as she’s really positive and motivated. Just keep swimming.
So, a couple of weeks later and one of the best emails I ever got came. It was the “you got an interview” email. Woop. Now, whilst I was annoyed that I would have to miss a trip to see my friend Sarah in Germany, I knew that I would regret not going to the interview. So, it was a fairly cold but sunny day in February, a few of us from the forum had arranged to meet up at Waterloo before heading off to Chez Gerard- yes, I know, weird location for an interview. So we rocked up and were some of the first people there. We had to sign in- and I remember having a chat with Hannah the yummy recruiter about my journey etc, and I think that not only the Disney recruiters, but also the yummy people were watching for how we all interacted. After filling in some more forms about job preferences we then went to the presentation room out the back. I remember saying “Good Morning” really cheesily to Jill the recruiter- who was also my interviewer. We were there for at least 20 minutes having a chat before the presentation, but it was great as I chatted to people about their ICP experiences, which made me more excited (thanks Gina !!!). The presentation lasted about an hour, there were some questions but I didn’t get chosen to answer so didn’t win a prize. Gutted. Despite this, I just couldn’t stop smiling throughout the presentation. There’s just something about WDW that gets me excited and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is.
Anyhoo, at the end of the presentation we all got our interview times, mine was at 2.40. So a small group of us headed off to Covent Garden, where we ended up in Pizza Hut devouring their buffet. It was lush. I really loved all the people I met that day, and I can’t thank them enough for making me so excited about going and helping me decide that this was the right thing for me. Sophie had to leave a bit earlier to go to her interview, but we still had some time to kill so went to Starbucks before heading to my interview.
Now, I thought the interview was horrible. Well, firstly I sat with Hannah and went through all my documents to make sure that I’d be eligible for a visa. Then I sat for ages waiting to go in, and I also chatted to loads of people outside, like Lucie, Emma and Jenny who my interview was with. I guess I found the interview so difficult because it was done in pairs, and I didn’t know whether they wanted us to interact with each other as well as Jill. Anyway, this was what I did and Jenny reciprocated which was good because it meant we bounced ideas off each other. And another good thing was that our experiences were completely different so we weren’t repeating each other’s answers. We thought this was bad and both came out saying “but your answers/experiences are so much better”. Alas, we both made it to the “Opportunity List” a week later, so as they say the rest is history!!!
So, that's basically how the process went for me! Will blog again soon with more pre-disney gossip,
Adios!
Kat x x x
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