What degrees get a corporate job at Disney?

[720L]

DD is trying to decide on a career & really wants to work at Disney. Does anyone have an idea of what types of jobs she should be working towards?

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

On the DisneyCareers.com site, they have a big list of "Career Areas" - it covers everything from sales and marketing to broadcasting and media to creative and technical fields. Whatever it turns out that she wants to do, there's a good chance she can probably do it for Disney.

 

[rastahomie]

I would say Business or, especially, Engineering, if she has an aptitude for math. There need to be more women in STEM fields!

 

[Geoff_M]

Our son just graduated with bachelor's degree in Theater & Entertainment Technology and will be starting soon as a rigger/stage technician at WDW.

 

[js]

My friends dd just graduated a CUNY school, in the honors college, and has been in the Disney college program for two years. She has a Bachlors degree I think in business. Disney hired her and she will be working for Disney in Celebration. I think she will be doing somethting with customer satification surveys but not sure.

 

[low-key]

You must get a degree in "money isnt important to me"

 

[Greenbmw17]

I worked for a Disney owned television station and I was an accountant. We had all business degrees, journalism degrees, and all sorts of engineering degrees throughout the station represented.

 

[JoeA]

Do you think she wants to be on stage? Design ride systems or ride facades? Manage a park? Maybe a hotel or get into food service? Maybe marketing? Disney has medics, too.

Not trying to be mean but there are lots of degrees and lots of jobs!

What ever she decides I wish her the best of luck pursuing her dream!!

 

[720L]

She really doesn't have much of an idea on what she wants to do. She's planning on doing the college program after her 1st year of college. She excels in math so kind of leaning towards finance. She wants to work in the park. (We always see people in suits/professional clothing) She wants to do whatever they are doing LOL. On our next trip I told her she needs to go up to them & ask them what their job is.

 

[ashley0139]

Call me crazy, but I don't think your daughter should be basing her degree choice on what might get her a job at Disney in the future. There are thousands of different jobs throughout all of Disney's properties. She should do something she likes, and hopefully find a place she fits in at Disney in the future in a job she enjoys, not just because it's Disney. She may not want to or be able to work for Disney forever.

 

[disneychrista]

She should get a degree in whatever she is interested in. Then apply for jobs that suite her. Wanting to work for Disney is pretty broad. There are many jobs, in many fields at Disney.

 

[SureAsLiz]

I have a degree in Marketing, though it really isn't related to what I am doing now for the company.



What I would suggest doing is to keep an eye out on the Disney careers website when they post internships and see what looks interesting. If there is a general trend of jobs, then see what they are looking for. What degree do they want, what experience do they want, things like that. It's important to remember that experience is more important than a degree. The reason I was able to get my job with a marketing degree is because of the experience I gained in another internship.

The college program is a great way to be introduced to the company and get frontline experience. CPs also have the opportunity to network with others inside the company to see how they got where they are, what they recommend, and just create important connections. From there, she should look into a PI. I would suggest trying for one following graduation so that she can complete a full year without having to extend school any longer, plus it opens the door for immediate transition into the company should an opportunity arise.


You mention that she is good at math. What is it about math that she is good at? There are many paths that math can take you throughout the company, but if she enjoys the process then maybe look into industrial engineering. It is a very popular degree within Disney and seems to give a pretty good base for a lot of businesses within the company. Otherwise studying something like statistics could be useful as well.

Going the route that you have suggested (finance) will not have her being one of the people walking around the parks - many of those are area managers and probably have a very different path than those that are working in an office. If she does the DCP, then she will get to understand those pathways as well.


(I'm going to say this again because it's not something I was told in high school while choosing my degree) Experience is key. She should look into summer internships, shadow professionals, anything that will expose her to different businesses and professions before she has to pick which she wants to focus on as an adult. On my team, I know that 3 of our degrees are Marking + non-profit operations, information systems, and HR, but now we all are basically data analysts. The reason we were able to get onto our team (through the professional internship program) was because of experience we had prior to applying.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

She really doesn't have much of an idea on what she wants to do. She's planning on doing the college program after her 1st year of college. She excels in math so kind of leaning towards finance. She wants to work in the park. (We always see people in suits/professional clothing) She wants to do whatever they are doing LOL. On our next trip I told her she needs to go up to them & ask them what their job is.

Those are probably members of operations management: could be supervisors, managers or directors of attractions, custodial, quick service, etc. She could look into getting a Hospitality Degree, or Business.

There's a ton of different professions at Disney though. She could also be undeclared for her freshman year and see what she's drawn to.

 

[Lynne M]

She should focus on what she'll enjoy doing with her life. There are many thousands more people who want to work for Disney than there are jobs at Disney - it's highly competitive. She may end up working for Disney, she may not. And those people in suits she sees in the parks probably didn't get those management jobs right out of college - she may have a long career of working her way up to that kind of job, working someplace other than Disney, building her experience.

I'd just hate to see her go through the effort and expense of getting, say, a hospitality degree, just for the purpose of getting a job at Disney, if she doesn't enjoy the work.

Another way to look at it. If she doesn't like hospitality work, she won't like it any better at Disney. You still have to do the job, and if it's a job you hate, it ain't any fun even if you're doing it in WDW. Working at Disney isn't anything at all like being a guest at Disney.

 

[wilkeliza]

Most of the suits have a wide range of degrees. They mostly work their way up. Corporate jobs can vary depending on if it is something that needs a degree (finance/it/etc) or not (design, marketing, etc).

All the suits I know worked up through the company. Even Meg Croton started on the telecom team answering phones.

 

[720L]

Call me crazy, but I don't think your daughter should be basing her degree choice on what might get her a job at Disney in the future. There are thousands of different jobs throughout all of Disney's properties. She should do something she likes, and hopefully find a place she fits in at Disney in the future in a job she enjoys, not just because it's Disney. She may not want to or be able to work for Disney forever.

I realize that, this is just a starting point.

 

[720L]

She should get a degree in whatever she is interested in. Then apply for jobs that suite her. Wanting to work for Disney is pretty broad. There are many jobs, in many fields at Disney.

She says she still isn't sure what she's interested in!! I'm going to lose my mind......

 

[goofy4tink]

My dd has known she wants to be at WDW since she was 12. She just graduated from college, degree in theatre arts (yeah, I know...wonderfully usable degree!!). She is currently working, in character/stage work/improv team, at Six Flags NE. She heads to WDW over Labor Day to start the DCP. She has no idea what she wants to do there. She is currently assigned to attractions. She is going to see what's available, and what she is interested in looking at further. Hopefully, she gets a job there, after she is done with the DCP, and can stay there for awhile. She wants to give it 5-7 yrs, and see where she's at. Then, she will reevaluate.
I would suggest going to college, getting those gen ed classes out of the way. Give the DCP a try and see what you're interested in. That's really the best way to get your foot in the door at Disney. After she does the CP, she may have a much better idea of what she wants to do. She won't be declaring a major until close to the end of her second year at school, most likely anyway. So, no big rush to decide.

 

[LisaR]

Our son just graduated with bachelor's degree in Theater & Entertainment Technology and will be starting soon as a rigger/stage technician at WDW.

OT: Is he happy with his degree of choice? Any regrets? This is something my son wanted to pursue, but it only seems to be offered as an AS in our state. He's still considering it or a BA in Mass Communications: Production. The two seem similar, but the T&E focuses more on theater and Production focuses more on news programming which he is also interested in. Just curious what he thought about it since I haven't been able to find many people with that degree. Congratulations to him for landing a job in his chosen field!

 

[Geoff_M]

OT: Is he happy with his degree of choice? Any regrets? This is something my son wanted to pursue, but it only seems to be offered as an AS in our state. He's still considering it or a BA in Mass Communications: Production. The two seem similar, but the T&E focuses more on theater and Production focuses more on news programming which he is also interested in. Just curious what he thought about it since I haven't been able to find many people with that degree. Congratulations to him for landing a job in his chosen field!

As far as I can tell, he's very happy. He's wanted to work at WDW since he was about 10. Long-term he wants to be an Imagineer, and when he was first thinking about college he wanted to get an engineering degree. However, academically we all thought that might be a real struggle for him. We are friends with the regional recruiter for Michigan Tech and he recommended our son look at the Theater & Entertainment Technology BS program that is a small program they offer and only started a few years ago. The dominoes started to fall for him a couple of summer's ago when he got a gig working with an act that made it to the quarter finals of America's Got Talent (I believe he's flying the dancer that starts left-center). Then last summer he got a dream internship with Cirque du Soleil's "O" in Las Vegas in rigging and automation. This year he had strong job interest from WDW, DCL, the upcoming Disney Marvel Comics arena show European touring company, and "O". His best friend in the same program (who still has a year left because he's also getting an EE degree) will be working at the number one maker of tour sets, Tait Towers, this summer for the second year.