The Face to Face Interview…For Real!

Alright so it’s currently 6:42am and I am on the ferry HOME to visit my family as I mentioned yesterday! I’m weirdly awake after going to bed around 2am and hope that the awakeness will stick around as I have to run 10 miles, cook dinner and participate in a wonderful Oscar Party this evening! Long day…but sooo worth it!

Now to what you’re really interested in..THE INTERVIEW! I will do my best to recall everything..now:

We decided that Sam would wake up and shower first as she had to straighten her hair so I got to snooze a wee bit longer and got up around 6:45am. (It was a long week of waking up well before 7…except for that one sleep in…oops!) I showered, then scrunched my hair, dried it and wore it in a low bun slightly to the right of my neck with my bangs sweeping across my forehead. Natural, neutral makeup topped off with little gold hoop earrings and my swirly Mickey Mouse necklace! (I loveee this necklace…I bought it for myself last Christmas when as a cast member we got 50% off all merchandise! here is a picture!)

I was really anxious about what I was going to wear to the interview and spent many stressful hours shopping and calling for opinions, until my phone died! for the right thing. I ended up in a Jacob skirt suit with an RW& Co white detailed blouse. It may be the prettiest white blouse I’ve ever seen in my life – I love it! The outfit was the first clothing I’ve bought myself (besides a World of Color tshirt from Disneyland which doesn’t count) since March 2010 when I dropped 300$ at Lululemon. It felt very weird being in stores and handing over the credit card! I had mad sticker shock, and still am uneasy about the amount of money spent. However I was reminded that I have a bunch of other important interviews coming up as well, plus will need a nice outfit for Traditions if I do get accepted. So I’m convincing myself it falls under the category of ‘life purchase,’ that every bright young woman needs a go to suit! I finished off the outfit with some killer 2” black pointy toed heels from Wal Mart! You couldn’t even tell, they were nice! Haha.

So we left the hotel around 8:10 with Bri in a cab to the Sutton Place Hotel. We arrived early, but there were other people around that you could tell were interviewing. We went upstairs and waited outside the room. I saw my friend/old roommate Courtney which was super nice! We caught up a bit, and then everyone headed into the room. Sam, Bri and I sat in the front row, and a super nice girl named Tricia sat beside me.

The Disney recruiter’s name was Jeni and the manager interviewing was Shandon, a food and beverage manager from Norway (the pavilion, not the country ;) ). My heart was racing at this point as Jeni started the presentation! I was so excited! Even though I’ve obviously seen the presentation before, both online and at my first interview it was great. As cheesy as the Valerie character is in the video portions, seeing Epcot, the Commons, the costumes, and the whole Disney world, and having Valerie tell us to come and work there was amazing. It was also cool because there were International College Program people interviewing (the go just for the summer in between university years) so we got to see their presentation too with bits about working quick service, custodial, at resorts, and as character performers! It really made me miss the experience and super pumped to have my interview! Then Kristen from Yummy Jobs stepped up and told us our interview times…and mine was 4:15pm. It was currently about 10:30am? Yes, that is a lot of waiting! We headed out the door and a group of girls headed over to Starbucks! There was Danika (who is actually the sister of this guy Adam, who I just missed on my contract but heard all about and was friends with some of his friends. It’s a small world after all!), Shannon, Rodi and Jodey (all from dinner the night before), Tricia (she had some really interesting stories about being in Mexico while there was an earthquake!), Sam, Bri and I. I hope I’m not forgetting someone. We had Starbucks and chatted about lots of random topics, including natural disasters, which was really neat! Rodi had been in the eye of a hurricane on one of her trips to Florida! Hurricane Charlie if I remember correctly. She is really into photography and I’m excited to creep her facebook photos…yes I just admitted that publicly, but she’s been all over Europe, Australia, Fiji etc and takes pretty artistic photos, I bet you’re all wishing you could snoop the pics now too! J Tricia had some great stories about a mission trip she did to Mexico, she said the earthquake felt like the whole world was swaying, and then rumbling, and you couldn’t step off it. Seems like a pretty intense sensation, I’ve only ever felt little quakes.

Rodi’s interview was at 12:15 so she headed off for that and the rest of us went to Joey Burrard for lunch. It’s an upper scale Cactus Club I’d say, and I had a really yummy, yet over priced salad. $20 dollars for some greens, two sliced up strawberries, some pecans and dressing? Yikes! This post is making me realize how insanely cheap I am now. Don’t judge me! The highlight of lunch was when Tricia spotted TOMMY EUROPE!! He’s the trainer on the Slice shows “Bulging Brides” and “The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp!” Kim and I watch these shows often and I was so excited! Probably way too excited haha. I tried to creep a picture, because he was having lunch with his wife and adorable little girl, so I didn’t want to interrupt. However when he left alone and walked right past our table, Bri asked if I could have a photo and he said YES! It’s an awful picture of me, but proof!

I wanted to beg him to let me on the show, however instead I just told him we PVR all his shows. Yup, I was a swooning dork. I saw something like that to him, yet when I peed with Mariah Carey last year I didn’t even flinch until I got out of the bathroom and yelled to my friends “I just peed with Mariah Carey!!!” right in front of Nick Cannon. I’m a special girl J

We headed back to the Sutton Place Hotel and waited downstairs for a few hours as time crept closer to 4pm. The other non-repeat girls had their interviews and our group slowly dwindled. I called my Dad for a quick pep-talk which actually worked great! All day my emotions kept going from excited to anxious to nervous to nervous excitement to anxious. Eventually we went upstairs and met up with Courtney until it was time to give my paperwork to Kristen!

I had to bring 3 copies of my passport, my resume, and my filled out Disney application. She stapled them all together, asked a few questions and then we were ready to go! I waited outside the room for Jeni so nervous excited! We shook hands and went in the room. Let me just say this about Jeni: She is the friendliest lady ever! The exact person you would think of as a Disney cast member. Smiley, welcoming, she puts you at ease right away and the whole interview felt like a casual conversation.

I sat down and she said she was just going to look over my paper work. She commented on the fact that I had other fine dining experience (in a good way) and then asked me how I felt about the restaurant going signature.

*For those of you who don’t know, Le Cellier Steakhouse is becoming a signature restaurant March 1^st, 2011. This means that the entire restaurant is getting an overhaul, new tables, new settings, new menu and new wine/drinks lists! And of course – better service! It’s going to make an already fantastic experience unbelievable. Hopefully!*

So I told her how excited I was and that I thought it would be an incredible change and she asked why and I told her about how I’d been to Artist Point and Victoria and Albert’s (which are signature restaurants) and how the service was there and such. She was interested in Victoria and Alberts because she had never been yet, so I told her it was incredible, especially being a vegetarian, I’d never had the option of a 7 course vegetarian meal before. She said she was also a vegetarian (score 2 for the animals ;) ) and then asked me all about the experience and service level. Then she asked what it was like selling steaks at Le Cellier and I told her I had no problem with it, but that I loved cooking so it was interesting to me how the prepared everything. I honestly never had problems selling steaks, I told my tables all the time how absolutely incredible they were – and no one was ever disappointed by my recommendations. The only thing that got me sometimes was when the prime rib was ordered rare…it looked like it still had a heartbeat…but I digress.

She asked me how my first contract was and if I was okay that it would be a different experience. I told her that my first contract was unbelievable, it was the best year of my life and actually made me switch my entire career path to hospitality from politics and that I was excited for a whole new experience this time, and that there was so much that I wanted to do that I didn’t have the time to the first time. She asked how I felt about a new management team and I said that I loved Christina and learned a lot from her but that I was also excited about a new manager because he would bring a different group of skills so I’d learn even more. She asked if I had tattoos and how my record card was and then that was about it. It was super short and having read Sam’s blog, she asked us totally different questions. I kind of said oh wow that was short, and asked her if she looks at us rehires differently than new applicants. She said that it was a good question and that they are looking for people with serving experience but also that they want to give new applicants the opportunity. She said she kind of just gets a feeling about people and that she loved my enthusiasm and not to worry. Then she said the dates wouldn’t be until the fall/early 2012!!!! SOOO FAR AWAY! And that we won’t find out for 3-4 weeks!

The Toronto interviews are this Tuesday and then the Montreal ones are Friday I think? Then she has to make some decisions, get back to Orlando, start processing everyone into the system, and then they tell us! Such a long wait. After our interviews Courtney told me she told Jeni that she was nervous about going into service and that I really helped her study the menu and such, and that Jeni told her ‘I forgot to tell your friends, but tell them that when you guys get down there you’ll be in quick service for a few days then go right into service.’ It sounds so positive that it’s freaking me out hugely!!! I’m scared of being excited because I’ll be even more disappointed. Plus my interview was first of the rehires so many she thought she liked me, and then is going to interview all the others and realize I wasn’t so special. Or maybe they only have a few spots for rehires and I don’t fit into their plans. I don’t know. I can’t know and won’t know for WEEKS! Gah! I am one of the most impatient people on the planet so it’s going to be really tough.

I also have to make some huge decisions this month which is stressful in itself. I have an interview to work at a luxury resort for the summer on Wednesday, and then I’m going to Toronto the week after for another interview. Then have to decide what to do about university as well! And I can’t make any decisions until I hear back from Disney. I didn’t want to get my hopes up about a second contract so I got a lot of balls rolling and now is the time where I have to juggle all of them! We also have a new family member arriving in the next month or so which is so incredibly exciting, as well as my ½ marathon training and regular working. I also may be starting a new part time job next week. There is so much going on!!!

I also feel like I forgot some of the questions/answers from my interview! I’m sorry! This is what I looked like when I got home from my interview:

I crashed HARD on the couch after a very stress/anxiety filled, early mornings, late nights, week. Originally I was leaning on my sister with the pug curled up on my legs, but I was the sole one left by this time. The sad part is I missed the rest of Say Yes to the Dress!

So please cross your fingers, cross your toes, cross your brother’s, sister’s, boyfriend’s, girlfriend’s, parent’s and pet’s fingers and toes as well that I get good news from Disney, and if not from Disney then from one of my other interviewers, and if not from one of my other interviewers then from the student loan people ;)

26 days and counting…