Need Cast Members help! and anyone else :)

[Disneylover:)]

Hey all. MY brother is looking to maybe start working at Walt Disney World. He wants me to look for openings for him. The type of work he wants to do is animation and design. An example for design is working with those miniature models. He has a bachelor of Arts in Art and has worked in interior design for four years. I have no clue where to even begin searching for this stuff. I need help.Who else to turn to besides my dis friends? I'd like to know where i can find job listings and what he needs to do to become an imagineer. Thanks!

 

[wilde_oscar]

There are no openings per se... imagineers are usually approached for their passion of what they do and how they do it. Right now there is a hiring freeze.

 

[Vemnox]

WDI recruits it's own people - jobs like the one you're describing are few and far between and the people who are in them were recruited from external areas to fill the spots. Everyone starts out doing some hourly "push the green button" job at WDW - that's just the way it is.

...and even those jobs are all filled and they aren't hiring at the moment.

 

[DVC&CM]

You can go to this website http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/ and see what, if anything is available. We do have a freeze going on and just made some pretty deep cuts.

The job you decribe has a million other people wanting it, but good luck, tell him to follow his dreams. Keep in mind that there are a number of VP's and Directors with the company who started out as a sweeper on Main Street.

 

[DVC&CM]

Oh, and one more thing. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but he should really be the one doing the looking. If he's not a self starter, he won't make it far.

Good Luck.

 

[DuffGT06]

Hi, sorry to bust in on this thread but I have a question along these lines. If you apply for a job that is listed on the Disney Careers site, is there anyway to follow up? I've been looking for a phone number, or even address I could send a note too with no luck.

The ones I applied for right now are in FL, as that's closest to me, but I am also looking at CA. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The Disney Design Group, which designs all pins worldwide as well as the art for almost all merchandise, let go 14 of their 42 artists a few months ago when they had the about 400 cuts at WDW. Based on that I think it may be fairly unlikely that they will be hiring in the art field for a while.

 

[Sandy321]

I hate this stupid economy - I want my CM's working!! I want it all! I want the kiosks open, I want the art department working - I want Disney hiring!

*sniff
stupid economy!

 

[Tomh]

The Disney Design Group, which designs all pins worldwide as well as the art for almost all merchandise, let go 14 of their 42 artists a few months ago when they had the about 400 cuts at WDW. Based on that I think it may be fairly unlikely that they will be hiring in the art field for a while.

Of course, there is ANOTHER way to look at this: They just dumped 1/3 of their art department. When the economy picks back up (and it WILL pick back up), they will likely be doing some hiring to fill at least some of those positions back up, and it is possible that some of the people they just let go won't be available anymore, so that might leave an opening.

 

[WDSearcher]

Hey all. MY brother is looking to maybe start working at Walt Disney World. He wants me to look for openings for him. The type of work he wants to do is animation and design. An example for design is working with those miniature models. He has a bachelor of Arts in Art and has worked in interior design for four years. I have no clue where to even begin searching for this stuff. I need help.Who else to turn to besides my dis friends? I'd like to know where i can find job listings and what he needs to do to become an imagineer. Thanks!

I would have to agree with someone upthread -- if your brother is the one looking for a job, your brother is the one who should actually be looking. You can find all that stuff out if you want to, but he's the one who needs to match his skills to any job openings. I've never known an Imagineer who had his sister / brother track down the job for him.

That said ... animation jobs are almost exclusively in California, and he'll have to have a top-notch portfolio and some on-the-job experience (paid ... unpaid ... whatever) to even get in the door. It's an EXTREMELY competitive business, and a simple BA isn't going to do it. He needs to find someone in the business who can go over his portfolio and make it "Disney / Pixar ready." He's also got a better chance if he can do both hand-drawn and computer animation, since both formats are currently being used at Disney.

Working with miniature models is another California-based job. Not a lot of that happening in Florida right now. And, again ... if he's got no hands-on experience, he'll be starting pretty low in the ranks. He needs to get some contacts in teh business to even attempt.

There are no job openings for Imagineers. They are project-specific and are chosen from people who are prominent in their industries. OR ... they start as an engineer or artist or ride operator at Disney and work their way up, taking classes and internships as they go, to finally land in an Imagineer position. Your brother needs to spend some time figuring out exactly where his areas of interest are as they relate to the Disney company and he needs to start doing some networking to find people who can get him there. That's something you can't do for him, KWIM?

 

[DVC&CM]

Hi, sorry to bust in on this thread but I have a question along these lines. If you apply for a job that is listed on the Disney Careers site, is there anyway to follow up? I've been looking for a phone number, or even address I could send a note too with no luck.

The ones I applied for right now are in FL, as that's closest to me, but I am also looking at CA. Thanks in advance for any help!

It depends. If it's a corporate job, I'm not sure who you would contact. If it's in Parks & Resorts and that sort of thing, contact Casting at DLR or WDW. If you are close, just stop by casting.

Hope that helps.

 

[DuffGT06]

It depends. If it's a corporate job, I'm not sure who you would contact. If it's in Parks & Resorts and that sort of thing, contact Casting at DLR or WDW. If you are close, just stop by casting.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so much, it was with corporate and I just wanted them to know how passionate I was about it but they've made it very difficult to contact them! (On purpose, I'm sure).

I had looked into the casting side but I've read on here that it's virtually impossible to go from there to corporate so I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot.

Thanks again!

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Theme Parks Community board.

 

[Disneylover:)]

Oh, and one more thing. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but he should really be the one doing the looking. If he's not a self starter, he won't make it far.

Good Luck.

Ya well he is looking also. He wanted to know if I wanted to help cause he knows how much I know about Disney. That's what I meant by saying " He wants me to look."

And thanks for all your help! Seems pretty hard to become and imagineer. But that's kinda what I figured!lol. Well, we'll just keep looking and waiting till they start hiring.