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.