Disney Internship: Odds of getting accepted and in a food-related role?

[julayla]

Hello! I'm pursuing a culinary arts degree at my local community college (still in my first semester), and I really want to get into the Disney internship program by fall of next year. But I'm a little worried about two things: Whether I'll land an internship that's relevant to my degree, and whether I'll be accepted at all.

I have two class mates who applied for the spring 2011 internship, but they were both rejected after taking the web-based interview. That was a bit startling. Is the web interview very difficult? What sort of questions should you expect? In short, how do you up your chances of at least getting a *real person* to interview you?

If I do get accepted, I'm hoping to get a role in Quick Food and Beverage, or perhaps Full Service Food and Beverage. Thing is, I'd like opportunities to work in a kitchen, because it's what my classes are preparing me for. I tried reading up on Disney's culinary program, but the website doesn't tell me a whole lot. Anybody know much about it?

If I didn't get a role in food service, is it still worth putting on my resume? (I'm imagining scenarios like this: "So you worked at Disney World as a housekeeper? That's interesting, but why did you take a semester off to do work that's totally unrelated to your field instead of taking a local job in a kitchen?")

So yes, a bit jittery all the way around. I love Disney World and want this experience, and it's even crossed my mind to move down to Florida and *work* there if I enjoy the internship. I guess I'm just trying to look at it from all practical angles, and would appreciate insight from others who've been there.

 

[Traveliz]

The culinary internships are different from the regular CP quick food and full service ones.

I only know this because my daughter had 5 roommates here first CP that were the culinary ones. I know they applied differently and had different lengths of stay than the regular CPs.

One worked at MGM in the bakery (the park bakery that makes all the baked items for the restaurants)

One at Kona

One at LeCellier

One at Pop

Can't remember on the other but I do know they applied differently than others.

Maybe your school can help you.

Liz

 

[julayla]

Thanks for the info, Liz! I'd like to get into the kind of spots you described, but I still have more digging to do...

Maybe your school can help you.

Liz

That's where I went first. I went to the advising office and was directed to a very nice lady who handles such things, but some of the information she gave me turned out to be incorrect, and she wasn't familiar with Disney's culinary program. My instructors are great, but frankly my overall experience with the community college outside of classes has been... inconsistent at best. The left hand never seems to know what the right hand is doing.

Maybe I'll have better luck speaking to someone else, but it seems like the best I can hope for there is someone who has a very loose idea of how the Disney internship program works.