The face-to-face interview would begin on Monday morning at 8:30am. Because of the early start, I believe everyone stayed in a hotel the night before. I had booked a room at the Bond Place Hotel in Toronto. On Sunday, November 11th, I drove to Toronto with my mom and my sister, who goes to school at Humber College. She was on her way back to campus after spending the weekend at home. Once I checked in, I went on a little excursion to find out where exactly Ted Rogers School of Management is located. I asked the front desk for a map of the city and with that I found the place. It was pretty easy to find and not far at all from my hotel. Maybe 5-10 minutes in walking distance. As with any interview, I would recommend knowing exactly where you're going beforehand, especially if you don't know the area. The last thing you want on the day of the interview is to get lost (this is actually a recurring nightmare of mine). When I got back to the hotel, I freshened up and prepared for dinner.
Through Facebook, several of us had planned to have a group dinner the night before the interview. This was a great idea since most of us would be arriving in Toronto the night before anyway, and we could all finally meet in person before the big day. We had a reservation at The Olde Spaghetti Factory on the Esplanade in Toronto.
I opted to take a cab to the restaurant. I could have walked but I just wanted to get there on time without any hassle. I arrived at around 7:00pm. I gave the name of the reservation and found the group. There were maybe a dozen or so people who made it to the dinner. As I said, it was a great way to break the ice and put everyone at ease. It was definitely helpful to know some familiar faces beforehand. What I loved about that dinner and this program in the larger sense is that all of us have love of Disney in common. It's one of those things that bonds people. It can make two strangers become instant friends, and I think that speaks to the magic of Disney (as impossibly cheesy as that sounds). This common passion made making new friends easy, and I hope that's something that carries over when I'm actually in Florida. I know that many of the people I met at the group dinner will be there for sure!
After dinner, Mathew (one of my newly-made friends) and I walked back to the Bond, which is where he was staying too. He was actually offered a role in Food & Beverage beginning on March 5th just like me! I think he's as passionate about the films as I am. We chatted about which ones are our favourites and which DVD versions are the best. This goes to show again how Disney always gives people something to talk about. We decided we would meet in the morning and walk to the interview together.
The night before the interview was a very difficult one to sleep through. No matter what, I just couldn't fall asleep. I was beginning to get anxious about it, and of course that only made it worse. I tend to have trouble sleeping when I'm particularly anxious or stressed. I think I got about two hours of sleep eventually. When I got up to get ready, I wasn't really tired (thankfully). I would be running on adrenaline all day. My mom called me in the morning to make sure I was up. I also had an alarm clock and a wakeup call just in case. Maybe that was overkill, but for that day, I was prepared to pull out all the stops.
We were instructed to wear business/professional attire for the interview. I had chosen my outfit carefully. I wore a pair of black dress pants, a black and red floral print blouse, a black cardigan sweater (left open) and black flats (I knew I wanted to be comfortable). I kept my jewellry and makeup simple, nothing extravagant. My sister had curled my hair the night before as well.
Mathew and I met in the lobby at 8:00am and we made our way to Ted Rogers. Our classroom was located on the ninth floor and when we rounded the corner, we saw a crowd of people already gathered! We signed in with Yummy Jobs (finally meeting Kristen in the flesh!), made small talk and then headed into the classroom for the Disney presentation!
The presentation acted as an overview for the CRP. We met Jill Jacobsen of International Recruitment and Carrie Harbilas of Epcot. They conducted the presentation and would interview all of us as well. At the end of the presentation, we were assigned a time and told that we would hear back either way by November 19th, a week later.
Scheduling was based on how far you had travelled to get to the interview. That's fair, I thought. I was lucky in that I live only about an hour away from Toronto. There were some people who had travelled from BC and the Maritimes, so of course it makes sense to let them go first. My interview was one of the last scheduled, so I had a long day ahead of me.
Some people decided to venture out into the city to kill some time. I considered it, but I thought I should stay just in case something came up. There were plenty of others who opted to stay as well so I wasn't lonely. We had a great time chatting about the Disney experience. Some people even brought Disney-themed games with them e.g. Disney Trivia, which was fun. I also talked to several of the Disney alumni. They had a lot to say because they've already been through this process once before. Chit-chatting all day long really helped to pass the time. Again, Disney love = instant connection.
This is how the interviews were set up - Jill and Carrie each interview someone at the same time but in different rooms. My interview was scheduled with Carrie. She's a manager at Epcot in Food & Beverage. The interview took place just before 6:00pm. I was getting a bit concerned seeing as my tiredness was beginning to get to me. I worried I would have no pep left.
But by the time my name was called, I told myself, this is it. Every step you've taken up until now has come to this. Just go in there and give a good performance.
The interview went quite well. It really did feel more like a friendly chat than an interview. After exchanging some pleasantries, Carrie began. She asked about my hometown of Kitchener. There could be many answers to this question, but I kept it to what interests me. I talked about Kitchener as a sort of hot spot for arts and culture. We have two local theatres where you can catch big name shows. I mentioned how the musical Wicked recently came to town. We have several museums and public art galleries. I also talked about Oktoberfest, which is the largest Bavarian festival in North America and takes place every year in Kitchener. This is a popular occasion even for people not of German descent (like me).
She asked about my experience in food and beverage. I told her I made it my first choice because that's where I have the most experience and probably the most confidence. I went into detail about some of the food service jobs I'd had in high school and University e.g. Wendy's, Tim Horton's, an on-campus deli, etc.
She asked about why I chose to apply for this program. This is the part where I turned into a Disney fan girl. I emphasized how much I love and respect the company and how it would be my first pick of any company to work for. I talked about my experience at Johnson & Johnson and how much I wished to find passion in my work.
She asked how I feel about living and working with people from other cultures. I said that the living arrangement of this program is something that really attracted me. I mentioned how all throughout University I'd always lived at home and never had roommates. This program would allow me to have the dorm experience I'd never had.
When she was finished with her questions, she asked if I had any for her. I asked about opportunities beyond the scope of this program. She said that we would be able to apply for this program again and others like it e.g. Disney Cruise.
And then I decided to do something really gutsy and I left her with this comment - "I really, really want this. I want this more than I've ever wanted any job, and I think I could do it well." In retrospect, maybe it was too gutsy, but I just felt I needed to say something that would leave a lasting impression.
When my interview was over, I waited for Victoria to be finished with hers. She's another one of my new friends. When she was done, we thanked Kristen for the interview and said goodbye to the last few people remaining. I would have liked to wait for everyone, but honestly, I was getting so tired by this point, I could barely think straight anymore.
I said goodbye to Victoria telling her I hoped we would both get the job (we both did!) I then made my way to the Eaton Centre. I got some dinner to revive myself and then walked back to my hotel to pick up my luggage. From there, I took a cab to the Greyhound station and bought a ticket to Kitchener. I rode home feeling very tired and relieved. I even told the person sitting next to me about my day and the prospect of working for Disney.
Once I got to the terminal in Kitchener, my mom was waiting for me. The first thing I said was - "I feel like I've been awake for days!" And it wasn't even much of a stretch. I had only gotten about four hours of sleep over the last two days in my anticipation of this interview. And so much had happened in between.
I decided to have a relaxed attitude about it. At this point, it was done. I was of the mind that if it's meant to be, it will be and if not, I would pursue some other way. Regardless, my mind was at ease. We got home and as you can imagine I crashed into bed, exhausted and relieved that it was all said and done.
