Yummy Jobs Case Study

Case Studies

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James Rising

I participated in the Walt Disney World International College program for the Summer of 2007 and 2008, in Florida!

I am currently studying at the University of Surrey for a Business and IT degree, outside of Uni I worked for the Merlin Entertainments group at Chessington World of Adventures, working in the car parks and Control department as a senior host, and working within the park's control room, as well as being in charge of car parks and other members of staff. I have also worked in my town's local Woolworths store as a Christmas job in between the operating seasons of Chessington.

I found out about Yummy Jobs purely by luck. I found it completely by myself just searching the Internet for summer programmes, firstly interested in a summer camp based job role, but once I found the Disney jobs available I was instantly interested. I also found out some information about Yummy Jobs from some of the UK cast members working within the UK pavilion at Epcot whilst visiting Disney as a guest!

Finally getting to Florida takes quite a lot of persistence, there is a lot to consider, and a lot of costs involved with the whole process (but it's worth it!). Getting the US visa sounds quite difficult but in fact it's fairly simple! Booking flights to Florida is simple, either via STA (Yummy recommendation) or direct yourself. The only issues personally are being able to afford the experience, and leaving family and friends behind, but with it only being a summer programme it's not really an issue.

I have enjoyed pretty much everything on both programmes, the best part has to be meeting people, I have made some of my best friends from both programmes! Being a Disney cast member is an awesome experience too, I learned added guest service skills, extended from the way it is done back home! I have gained new best friends, a huge group of friends from all over the world and the experience of living and working in another country, which is a lot easier than I expected!

I am currently about to enter my placement year as part of my degree, as well as considering my prospects to continue work for the Disney company! Having Disney on your CV has an amazing effect, it's always a talking point in interviews and something that is easy to talk about, and something that can lift the mood of any interview - always very useful!

The programs have made me reconsider what I want to do with my life, where I want to work and live and the people I want to be around for the rest of my life! The programmes have made me more independent and realise that I can live and work miles away from home and live in another country without any problems.

Professionally i believe it has made me a stronger team player, and has improved my guest service skills considerably! Personally it has made me appreciate different cultures and enabled me to interact with people from all over the world; even if they cannot speak English I have been able to assist guests successfully. It has also made me a much more confident person, especially after having worked the Jungle Cruise and having to learn a 10 minute spiel full of "witty" jokes and actions, I am no longer worried about looking like a fool, I did it every 10 minutes on the Jungle Cruise!