Management - Retail PI

[Lena2012]

Hi!

Has anyone done or has any info on Management - Retail PI?

 

[bopnopper9]

I know that it is extremely competitive. It's not necessarily the hardest PI, but the most people want to do that one most, so it's competitive. The more experience you have, the better. And they look for leadership experience/qualities so try to maximize those in your resume. Networking is also very important when getting these. Try to set up a job shadow or something to help meet people.

I never really applied, mainly because I knew I hardly had a chance and because I'm not really interested in that sort of management. So I don't really have a lot of first hand knowledge, however in my current role I do work a lot with management as well as the PIs. Good luck!

 

[Lena2012]

I know that it is extremely competitive. It's not necessarily the hardest PI, but the most people want to do that one most, so it's competitive. The more experience you have, the better. And they look for leadership experience/qualities so try to maximize those in your resume. Networking is also very important when getting these. Try to set up a job shadow or something to help meet people.

I never really applied, mainly because I knew I hardly had a chance and because I'm not really interested in that sort of management. So I don't really have a lot of first hand knowledge, however in my current role I do work a lot with management as well as the PIs. Good luck!

Hmm, interesting.. why do you think people want to do this one the most?

 

[bopnopper9]

I think there's a lot of reasons for it's popularity. For one thing management is a job that everyone understands the most and it's a very, very popular and necessary job even outside the Disney Company. Every single store, restaurant, gas station, bank, attraction, you name it, needs a good manager. And management is the visible part of working any given store. So everyone knows what managers do, everyone understands the power that they have, everyone understands that it's a position that can lead to higher positions in a company. Also, there is a wide variety of majors and studies that can lead to management. On top of that, most people applying know that the most PIs are given out in Management and so assume that it must be the easiest to get so they just "throw it in there just in case." That's what I did when I first applied for PIs.

A lot of the other PI positions are more vague on what they do. For example, very few of the PIs in Workforce Management Deployment actually knew exactly what they were getting themselves into when they entered the department. And "finance?" What exactly do they do? Paychecks? Pay distribution to the managers? Figure out the lawyers?

Also, some of the PIs require very specific majors or experience such as the Animal Programs or other environmental internships. Not as many people have those specific interests or skill sets. However, no matter what your major is, you can have an interest or skill in Leadership/Management (not that everyone does have that skill, but anyone can).

And still another set of internships may just sound boring to people. "I don't want to sit in front of a computer screen all day" type jobs. That's what drove me away from my first PI. I also think people want to have a job where they can be seen from friends and family members on stage, and can show off the power they have. "I manage this attraction so I'll give my family fastpasses for it for their entire vacation." Okay, so I don't know that people actually necessarily do that, but I'd imagine someone, somewhere might be drawn in by that power.

Anyway, there's some reasons I came up with off the top of my head. To be honest, I'm not positive that the most PIs apply for it, but it certainly seems like the most popular and the most competitive. I hear more people talking about retail PIs than any other PI on Disney property. I don't know exactly how competitive it is, but I know there's an intense panel interview you have to go through as well.

Good luck! And I'm sorry this went so long!