Last Thursday, Mom and I got on a train and travelled to Toronto. We arrived in the evening, and headed to my Aunt's, where we were going to stay for a few days. We ate dinner, and then went to bed. It wasn't too exciting. The next morning, I went to the grade school where my Aunt runs the lunch program and helped out for a bit, before heading back to get ready to go apartment hunting with Mom.
We figured our way through the transportation systems, and ended up at York University, where we walked over to "The Village" to look at some places. The first place on my list, I couldn't understand the landlord. We checked out two of the houses he rents out, and they were both awful awful places. I could never live in housing like this - people live behind closed/locked bedroom doors, they don't speak to their roommates, it's really weird and anti-social and I didn't like it. Plus, the bathroom we looked at was FILTHY.
Basically, we bailed on the rest of those apartments and went to some little old lady's house to look at her basement. I LOVED it on first sight. Had its own separate entrance, own bathroom, there's a pool in the backyard i can use. It's right on the line of the TTC and YRT systems, which is super convenient, and its only a 40 minute bus ride to work. I told her I wanted it and she said she had to call some guy who had said HE wanted it but then she had never heard from him. I heard from her the next morning while waiting for orientation to start and she said it was mine if I wanted it!
So after the stressful night at my aunt's, waiting to hear about the apartment, I got up and on a Subway at 6:15am, to travel the two hour ride to Wonderland. I got there about 7:30, so hung out in the Tim Horton's across the street before heading into Wonderland for work!
Having been through theme park orientation before, I expected something a BIT more than what I got. I went in, waited some more, got my ID badge, name tag and uniform, and then sat in a locker room as they packed twenty people in, waiting for orientation to start. We walked from Human Resources to a medical centre in the park, and sat at one of three tables. We were showed clips on Workplace Safety (lots of people with no arms in that one), and on the park's "cornerstones" or values. It was pretty standard, and I was a little put off by how unsocial the rest of the "team" was. I'd ask if people were from Toronto and they'd say "yes" and then that was the end of the conversation.
Basically, the whole theme of being a Wonderland employee is to be "engaging" because we're helpful, polite, something else, and because it's "our pleasure" to assist you as a guest. It's an interesting way to motivate employees, but it seems to work - Wonderland is the busiest seasonal amusement park in North America, (yes, higher than Cedar Point).
Mom met me at the little old lady's place, and we explored the area a bit, and then gave her my first month's rent. We travelled back to my aunt's, and shortly after that I got on a train to come home, where I slept most of the way. The Boyfriend picked me up at the train station to drive me home, where I promptly passed out from sheer exhaustion.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
How It All Began
I had jumped ship and applied to go back and work for Disney, as I had in summer 2008 (that adventure is blogged elsewhere). Looking for backups, I applied to a variety of other theme parks, as I knew not working in the industry would drive me crazy. Canada's Wonderland, located four hours north of me in Toronto, Ontario, was a good start.
A week after submitting my online application, which took place just before my knee surgery (that adventure is blogged elsewhere), I received a phone call from Lisa, the recruiter for Wonderland. She asked me a series of questions and then invited me to another interview AT Wonderland for that weekend. I asked for an extension of sorts, since I wasn't moving so well then, and bumped the interview back a couple weeks, to the weekend after my interview for Disney's ICP.
The interview was an interesting process. They packed too many people into a too-small room and we waited to be called in for our group interviews. I interviewed in a group of four. There were 16 flashcards on the table, and we took turns asking the person next to us a question (basically we only answered four questions). I was three people who I will now describe:
The Eager Beaver: This young man couldn't have been 18 years old yet, dressed up nicely and stuttering his way through every answer. He asked questions directly and confidently and asked after every answer: "was that okay?"
The Young Thug: This boy was only 15, and it was his first job. He wore jeans and sneakers with an open dress shirt overtop a white tee. His iPod dangled from his chest pocket and his answers weren't very explanatory. I get the feeling his reading level was not at par with his age group either.
Disdainful Damsel: This girl was probably about 15 or 16. The first thing the recruiters did was show us a photo of the female uniform - which I will post later. Immediately out of her mouth she said "Do I have to wear that?" and went downhill from there. Her answers were not good, and she barely spoke loud enough to be heard. At the end, we were given the opportunity to ask the recruiters any questions we had and she was very keen to find out if there were other uniform options. There weren't.
We were asked to wait in the waiting room again, and they would call us in and inform us if we were hired or not. About ten minutes later they called DD in and she left shortly after. Then they called in the other three (myself included), and we were hired on the spot. We went to a desk and were given a day and time to return for orientation and a welcome package which included our employee manual, etc.
Grandma had driven me to Toronto the night before, and she had waited in the parking lot for me while I did the interview. I went back out to her, and we went on an adventure through Toronto looking for a flea market (which turned out to be a waste of time) and then we were on the road home again. I was to return on March 27th at 8:45 am for Park Orientation.
A week after submitting my online application, which took place just before my knee surgery (that adventure is blogged elsewhere), I received a phone call from Lisa, the recruiter for Wonderland. She asked me a series of questions and then invited me to another interview AT Wonderland for that weekend. I asked for an extension of sorts, since I wasn't moving so well then, and bumped the interview back a couple weeks, to the weekend after my interview for Disney's ICP.
The interview was an interesting process. They packed too many people into a too-small room and we waited to be called in for our group interviews. I interviewed in a group of four. There were 16 flashcards on the table, and we took turns asking the person next to us a question (basically we only answered four questions). I was three people who I will now describe:
The Eager Beaver: This young man couldn't have been 18 years old yet, dressed up nicely and stuttering his way through every answer. He asked questions directly and confidently and asked after every answer: "was that okay?"
The Young Thug: This boy was only 15, and it was his first job. He wore jeans and sneakers with an open dress shirt overtop a white tee. His iPod dangled from his chest pocket and his answers weren't very explanatory. I get the feeling his reading level was not at par with his age group either.
Disdainful Damsel: This girl was probably about 15 or 16. The first thing the recruiters did was show us a photo of the female uniform - which I will post later. Immediately out of her mouth she said "Do I have to wear that?" and went downhill from there. Her answers were not good, and she barely spoke loud enough to be heard. At the end, we were given the opportunity to ask the recruiters any questions we had and she was very keen to find out if there were other uniform options. There weren't.
We were asked to wait in the waiting room again, and they would call us in and inform us if we were hired or not. About ten minutes later they called DD in and she left shortly after. Then they called in the other three (myself included), and we were hired on the spot. We went to a desk and were given a day and time to return for orientation and a welcome package which included our employee manual, etc.
Grandma had driven me to Toronto the night before, and she had waited in the parking lot for me while I did the interview. I went back out to her, and we went on an adventure through Toronto looking for a flea market (which turned out to be a waste of time) and then we were on the road home again. I was to return on March 27th at 8:45 am for Park Orientation.
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