Top 5 Business and Career Take-Aways From The Disney College Program

With my final few shifts as a Cast Member at Disneyland in sight, I’ve started reflecting on my time here – both participating in the Disney College Program and working at Disneyland.

I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to work for Disney in operations before I begin my internship on the corporate side as a Marketing Strategy Intern for Disney Meetings this Spring. It’s incredible to know I was part of such a large revenue earning portion of the company. Most days, I personally sold around $50,000 in tickets and annual passes! In fact, The Walt Disney Company’s second largest portion of revenue, behind Media Networks, comes from the Parks, Experiences, and Consumer Products business line, which is the new name for Parks and Resorts after a recent reorganization within the company.

With revenue earnings aside, Disney Parks and the attractions and experiences within them is what Disney is best known for – it’s what brings all the stories, characters, and Disney magic to life. Disneyland runs like a well-oiled machine, bringing in over 100 million guests every year. I’m glad I was able to see the amazing, the good, the bad, and the ugly of what it takes to run such a large operation every single day.

Throughout my Disney College Program, I noted the things I was learning and noticing about the company, so I could carry those things with me into my internship with Disney Meetings, and my entire career. I summarized these points into 5 takeaways:

Behind every great business are passionate people

The passion behind the cast members at Disneyland is part of what truly sets Disney aside in terms of excellent customer service. Disney goes above and beyond in the onboarding process to excite and inspire new cast through Traditions, the onboarding class all cast members attend on their first day of work. Disney continues to inspire and involve cast members in the Disney story through things as big as cast member exclusive offerings and events, or as small as company-wide email newsletters with news from all lines of business.

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." - Walt Disney

Guest-facing cast members are an overlooked source for consumer behavior research

Speaking of people, I think cast members are a very under-utilized source of research. During my entire time working for Disneyland, I was never asked for feedback on anything related to my role such as training, the resources I was given, or the products I was selling, and I wish I had been! I would've provided helpful insights about buying behavior- what guests like, what they don’t, or what confuses them.

An example of this is Disney’s MaxPass, a $10 ticket add-on that allows guests to create digital Fast Passes. Guests didn’t understand this system at all. They really wanted it because it sounded like it would reduce wait time, but they didn’t understand how to use it. If given the opportunity to provide feedback, we could help the marketing team understand our guest’s confusion and even recommend marketing support in the pre-arrival communications to explain MaxPass.

Never feel above the role you are given

During my Disney College Program, I was a Vacation Planner, which is a fancy way of saying I worked in the ticket booths selling tickets and annual passes. My role, like all operational roles, wasn’t the most glamorous role, but I was working for a company I love at the Happiest Place on Earth! I had to do a reality check every once in a while to remind myself that what was most important was giving my all in the at the role I was given.

For me, the College Program was an amazing foot in the door with Disney, and I am so glad I had experience working in the operations side of Disney because it allows to go into my marketing internship with a completely different perspective about the company. Everyone has to start somewhere, and wherever you start within the company you want to work for is a chance to network and learn a lot about the company.

Frequent inter-departmental communication is extremely important in a large operation

A frequent problem I noticed while working at Disneyland was cast members answering questions with: “I don’t know, you’ll have to go as them,” referencing a different department at Disneyland as “them”. In such a large operation, its imperative to provide cast members with the tools to involve and communicate with other departments when assisting guests or answering questions you may not know. We are all Disney, and the guest should be able to receive assistance, or at least a point in the right direction, from any cast member.

Nothing will work unless you do

I noticed that lots of participants come into the Disney College Program with expectations based on social media about how the College Program will be. We see lots of YouTube videos and Instagram Stories of how much fun people have on the College Program, but we forget that those things take lots of work to fit into your time.

Working full-time in an operations role undoubtedly leaves you tired after work, but networking, getting to know your leaders, vlogging, building friendships, checking things off your bucket list – these things don’t just happen on their own. It’s so important to prioritize your time and put in the effort to make the most of the experience.

The Disney College Program was a wonderful experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Given my passion for this company, it's great to keep a critical eye for all the things we can improve to keep Disney in the forefront of the entertainment industry. I’m very grateful looking back on all my experiences, and reminding myself of all the things I learned, and will continue to learn from working for such a passionate, visionary company.

"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious … and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney