Pre- Selection Event

After bouncing about the house after finding out that I had got to the next stage in the application process, I had a proper google search to find out what that meant! This year for the first time, Yummy Jobs had decided to do away with the telephone interviews and do a pre-selection event instead. Mines was in London at Chez Gerard on the 26th January. I spoke to some people on WDWIP, got invited into the *secret/private* facebook group and then got invited into another group of girls who were all planning to meet up before the event. 


This is where all my un-prepared stuff went out the window and mega-prepared Jen came into play. Within a couple hours of the email, I had booked flights from Glasgow to Gatwick, two nights stay at a hotel and Gatwick Express tickets. As well as googling the area a million times to make sure I knew where everything would be! Fortunately I was doing not bad financially and so I could book myself a cushy British Airways flight there and back, setting me back about £160. Two nights at the nearest Premier Inn then set me back another £254! Working out to be an expensive process already!


I then went back to the lecturer who had originally told me about the Disney programs and all I said was “I have an interview for Disney..” and he cut me off, plonked me down in a chair and started firing questions at me. All of my answers he deemed “WRONG!” He then spent some time prepping me with questions and giving advice. Feel free to pay attention to this bit lol… These are people who meet thousands of people from all over the world and can tell in about the first 4 seconds of meeting you if they are interested or not. Appearance to these events is important. I did lots of reading up on the Disney look, etc and decided to wear a suit and shirt. I wear suits every day at work, so I feel pretty comfortable and confident in them. I’m not fond of plain black suits, mines are normally grey and a hounds tooth pattern or pinstriped. My shirts, while professional were bright in colour - the shirt for the pre-selection was bright red. Thinking of everything, I even cleverly pinned my shirt in all the right places. Disney does not need to see your boobies. I wore smart black court shoes with a slight heel, knowing that the day would involve lots of walking around. Hair was naturally coloured, pulled back from the face neatly and natural make up. I’m an all or nothing girl when it comes to make up, I friggen love to pile it on with big smokey eyes, etc. But again - not the time or place! I cut my nails to a suitable length and didn’t polish them, I filed and spent time buffing them so they looked clean and shiny. 


My lecturer would bump into me in the college halls and demand a handshake. Imagine, hundreds of students wandering around and a slightly crazed man is over enthusiastically shaking your hand, while I squeal with pain. Yup, this went on for MONTHS! He has a point though - no one likes a limp, sweaty handshake! You need to set yourself apart from everyone else, and just the smallest detail could do that, something as simple as a professional handshake. He also spent time correcting how I answered questions, and to wait a few seconds before opening my mouth and talking crap!


The time came quickly round for me to head to London so my mum took me to the airport and I bummed about with the executive types and then had a painless, quick flight to Gatwick and then got the Gatwick Express to Victoria and then got a taxi (could of taken the tube but it was getting pretty late and I just wanted to get settled). Checked into my massive room, unpacked my stuff and got settled then went to bed with my prompt cards with questions and answers on them. The next day I got up and everything was ok, but the fire alarm went off like 6 times while I was getting ready. Very stressful! Headed in the direction of Waterloo station to meet the girls and ended up being really early so went and grabbed a quick coffee to calm the nerves! Met everyone eventually and headed to Pizza Express (next door to Chez Gerard) for some lunch. Best thing we could have done! It was so much better walking into the event with a group of 9 of us than feeling awkward by myself.


Everyone watched a presentation, Nick and the team did some quick Q&A for chocolate prizes and then they split us into groups of 8, and the yummy team split so they could do two groups at a time. My group was first and I was amazed that out of the 8, there was 5 Scots in it. I’ve heard that Scottish people are much rarer on the program but there seemed to be a huge abundance of us that day. All my prep really paid off and I walked out the room feeling that I had done really well and wasn’t in doubt about anything I had said or wished I had. Becky would ask questions and then each person would have a chance to answer. A couple people seemed pretty stand-off-ish or moody and I really did wonder why the hell they came all that way??! I happened to mention that my lecturer had told me about the program and they all knew him and the head of my department! My college is a well known place of education for hospitality management so it shouldn’t have been such a surprise that their paths had crossed.


Once my interview group had finished, I waited with everyone in Chez Gerard till everyone was done. Then 5 of us decided to go for dinner and headed to The Rainforest Cafe to unwind a bit, and then have a bit of a wander about before calling it a day and heading back to the hotel.


That night was extremely random and highly entertaining… I decided to take my Kindle down to the bar as I was a bit bored in the room after all the excitement that day. Kinda started chatting to people, befriending the Portugese barman, watching a big blonde woman with a BAD mustache try to impress some drunken businessmen all while keeping up with my Kindle… and then got kind of propositioned by some small middle aged ginger drunk dude! Awkwardddd….. ick!


The next day I had time to kill between checking out and flying home so I had a bit of a wander then went and checked out the London Aquarium which was another good move. Headed to the airport, had another easy journey and then within minutes of leaving the airport, some asshole crashed his massive Mitsubishi truck into the back of my mums brand new compact car. Not good!