Inspiration and the Interview

So I thought a bit of background was in order. Just a quick recap.

The Pepper's Ghost Effect. Creepy, etc.

I was researching illusions for a play, when I stumbled on a website dedicated to the Haunted Mansion. After gleefully jotting down some of the tricks used in there (Pepper's Ghost being particularly cool), I followed a few links to other Disney-related sites. I began idly daydreaming of an American roadtrip with Disney World as a centrepiece. And then I stumbled on a link to information about the international program, and I was hooked.

I applied to be an African Cultural Representative via email. Unlike other countries, we skip straight from the initial email to the face-to-face interviews, so very soon I got my invitation to a presentation in my home town on September 15th.

Interview Day
I got dropped off early - my folks needed the car, so I couldn't drive myself - and wandered around, swotting up and calming nerves. Our presentation was by Sue, who heads the entire Disney International Program. She and her cohorts get to visit African and Asian countries in their quest for cast members, so it's a pretty neat job.

Our presentation consisted of a few clips mixed with Sue doing a slideshow presentation. Mostly stuff I already knew, but cool to see it for real. There were some trivia questions, and for answering 2 of them I won these:

A Disney International Programs bag and an elephant poo notebook. Score! Only one or two people raised their hands to answer questions. On the 2nd question I actually waited for a minute or 2 because I felt a bit guilty answering more than one. But hey, at the end of the day, I nabbed some Disney swag, so the guilt passed.

After the successful presentation, we were signed up for interview times. Mine was pretty early on, so I didn't go far. We had 2 interviewers set up in opposite corners of the room. We filled in our preferred work location (F&B, Savannah Guide, or Park Greeter), answered a few questions about tattoos and availability, then got down to business.

Except, of course, it wasn't much like business. My interviewer was only a couple years older than me, and we just had a bit of a chat. She asked me what I hoped to accomplish at Disney, how I'd cope with living away from home for a year, why I chose my job preference, what I'd tell somebody about my home town, how I'd deal with tricky customers, and a few questions about my CV. We even chatted a bit about her brother who lived in L.A. It was tres relaxed.

It lasted about 15 minutes. Still not sure how it went. Usually I can say I feel good about something or not, but I'm sort of on the fence about this one. Sue said the results should come sometime mid to end October, so I've been waiting for quite a while, hence this blog entry.