If you're not up for a long read... stop right here. I've been lurking on here for a while, but since this is my first post on here I'll just introduce myself briefly. I'm Heidi, 21, from Holland/The Netherlands (whatever you prefer to call it) Soooo... here goes nothing... I initially contacted Yummy Jobs 2 months ago or so, when I first heard about the opportunity to work/learn at WDW, I asked them about the programs I would qualify for being from Holland. The next morning I received an email telling me people from Holland could not qualify unless they were already enrolled at a College in the US. I was gutted, I was so excited about it all and thought my dream had come to an end after just one day. A few hours later, that afternoon, I received an email from someone else at Yummy Jobs, telling me people from Holland could get into the J1 Academic program. That person asked me to send my CV and cover letter asap. I sent them my CV and cover letter and got a reply the following day, a positive one at that, they were very enthusiastic about my CV and letter since apparently not a lot of Dutch people apply for the program. I was way happy when they told me I just had to get my placement/internship coordinator to contact them and they would see if they could set up an interview or something. The next day I got food poisoning, which kinda sucked since I had to pay my placement coordinator a visit before he would contact Yummy Jobs. I was not able to leave home at all for 4 weeks due to getting an infection following the food poisoning situation. I was finally able to visit my placement coordinator a few weeks ago, he was really excited and thought the program would be an amazing opportunity for me to improve my English and get totally comfortable speaking in English. (I'm studying to become an English teacher, so speaking English fluently would come in pretty handy.) Anyway, on with the story... he promised to contact Yummy Jobs and speak to them about whether my Uni would fully support me going there and whatever else Yummy Jobs wanted to speak to him about. About a week after he promised to contact Yummy Jobs I still hadn't received an email from either him or Yummy Jobs.. I was getting real impatient and decided to email both him and Yummy Jobs to see if maybe something had gone wrong when my placement coordinator tried to contact Yummy Jobs. As it turned out... he never even contacted Yummy Jobs, I was furious, thank God I wasn't anywhere near him or I swear he would have gotten seriously injured.. ok maybe not really, but still, I was soooo mad and disappointed at the same time. He was all like "Why would I need to contact them? If you need a letter of recommendation you could just write one yourself and I'll sign it for you..." So much for my amazing support system... As if I'm going to write a letter and send it through the mail... it'll take several days to even get from Holland to London. I told him Yummy Jobs never told me why my placement coordinator had to contact them... they just asked me to pass on the message... I never heard anything about needing a recommendation letter, but I told him it would be just fine if he sent Yummy Jobs an email telling them how both he and the school supported me. I figured whatever Yummy Jobs needed to talk to him about they would just ask him after he'd contacted them. So I finally persuaded him to contact yummy jobs last week, on Thursday if I remember correctly, he sent an email on Friday after working hours... so that meant Yummy Jobs wouldn't read it until Monday, but still, he did finally contact them, so I was starting to get some of my hope back. It is now Wednesday and I still hadn't heard anything this afternoon, I emailed Yummy Jobs and they told me they never received an email from my placement coordinator... I know he sent it, he send me a copy, both my email addy and Yummy Jobs' are there. I have no idea what went wrong, but I'm losing hope again. I did sent Yummy Jobs a copy of the email again, so I hope they'll contact my placement coordinator tomorrow. *crosses fingers* Yummy Jobs told me it wasn't too late yet to get accepted into the August or September date for the J1 Academic, but still... losing hope. Rant over. So anyway, the point of all this... I just had to get this off my chest. And also, someone, anyone, please tell me I'm not the only one who's having this much trouble before even getting as far as an interview. It would be great to hear from someone who had this much trouble (or possibly even more) and still got to WDW eventually.
To be honest..i'd been waiting from december to get my interview..i just contacted them and sent my CV and then they said that they'd get in touch with me early in the new year when the interviews were taking place.. 2 months later and i still hadn't heard anything..I contacted them and they said they still hadn't heard about the interviews yet.. They didn't even know at this point whether there was going to be anymore interviews.. Anyway..about 2 n a half weeks after this..i found out that there was interviews..i was so excited.. Forgot to mention that ive already worked at disney before..but this doesn't really advantage you that much..apart from the fact that you don't need references from other people, they give you your reference.. Anyway..the build up to the interview seemed to take forever..then the interview came and i thought it went pretty well..it was really friendly and informal like my original one.. They told me i'd wait 2-3 weeks not even that..The first day i waited was sooo long and it dragged for ages... BUT..unbelieveably..they contacted me within 2 days to say that i'd got the job and i was starting work at WDW on August 19th.. Guess the morale of the story is..its worth the wait..if you do your best to get the job when it matters the most.. EDIT:- Also just to add..i hope my mate rob posts his story on here..because we went 2 disney over summer and he applied in september when we got back for the seasonal program.. Its now April 4th and he had his interview 2 months ago..and he still hasn't heard yet..So basically he's been waiting 7 months to find out whether he's goin back or not.. Thats what you call harsh..and if he gets the job he'll be leavin in 5 weeks..but they still haven't heard about the visa's for that program yet..
Thanks for the reply, your story does make me feel like maybe it really isn't too late yet. I wanted to go August 19th too, but I'll be just as happy going September 2nd... Most peoples experiences I've read about on this forum sound so amazing... What you said about Rob does sound harsh, 5 weeks is so soon, I can't believe they haven't even heard about the visa's yet.
Ik begrijp hoe je je voelt! I did the international cultural rep program but there were a few ups and downs and it took me a long time to get in, but don't worry and don't lose faith that you'll make it to Disney someday So hang in there and try again if it's necessary, just stick around if that's what you'd like to do
Ooh you speak Dutch, awesome! Thanks for the reply, I'm hanging in there... I feel like an idiot for checking my email inbox every 30 seconds to see if I've had a reply from Yummy Jobs yet. 8)
Don't worry..everyone does it! Also..you need to read the anxiously waiting posts and the waiting list post! Those people either have been waiting ages to find out..or there on a waiting list to find out whether they've got the job or not... Some people on this forum have even been turned down..You've just gotta look on the positive side of things really.. There's also people on the forum who've been turned down, then they've kept applying and finally got the job
I read some of the posts in the waiting threads... It's good to know I'm not alone in this, I don't know how I would cope with waiting for 5 more months or something like some people have to do. ahhh. I'll definately keep applying if I don't get accepted this time though.
At first I was in contact with Michele, then one day Alexa (I think) emailed me, and the past month it's been Jason.
Alleen en betje Nederlands!!! hehe, but it'd be cool to practice so fingers crossed to see you over there. Best wishes!!
