Disney CRP Application 101: That Bloody Email...
December 11th, 2014
I will never forget this date for the rest of my life.
It was Thursday, sunny, and I woke up early at around 05.00 am. Rolling in my bed, I pictured that morning as a perfect morning because:
1) Waking up early means I can hear the birds singing and breathe fresh cold air, both vanished within an hour from 05.00 am. Thanks, huh, Bekasi?
2) A very important person to me was around to celebrate Christmas here in Jakarta. I still cant believe that person was there. But he was.
3) I will climb Mt. Papandayan with 5 of my friends that night, so far everything seems perfect.
and then there was this.
When finally able to compose myself and regain my ability to speak in a comprehensible language, I told her that I was invited for an interview with Walt Disney World. I'm pretty sure she was teary but she denied that. But I felt her. For the past month I've been struggling choosing between two amazing jobs that were offered to me. I ended up choosing the one I know I love more, but can't help feeling I'm missing something by rejecting the other one, the bigger one. The deal breaker was because they asked me to hand over my Diploma as a guarantee that I will stay with them for at least three years (which is an illegal practice by Indonesia law, by the way. Why on earth would they do that?).
That morning I sat there in our living room with my mom and she reminded me that had I accepted the bigger company's offer then I wouldn't be able to take Disney's offer. I went straight back to my room and prayed. It is amazing how God set the universe in motion and present us with things bigger than we can imagine if only we have a little faith.
That day before I climbed Mount Papandayan, I met up with that very important person and told him the news. I think he was excited too, but he did ask me if it was a legit email since there are a lot of scams using big companies name like Disney. Honestly, I kind of think it was a scam. But there were other emails following the first email, asking me to schedule my interview in the available time slot. So what they did was to send me a link, and I opened it and choose my interview schedule. The date was already set, January 6th 2015, all I had to do was to choose the time for my interview.
I chose 09:45AM-10:05AM EST, which was 08:45PM-09:05PM in Jakarta. I thought it will be the perfect timing, I wont be the first to go into the interview (which hopefully gives me time to do something in case my internet connection, or Abby -- my laptop, in that matter decided to ruin the day) and will not be the last either. I assumed I will be home by that time, perfectly calm and ready for the interview.
So I submitted my chosen time slot and I wait, for what feels like a ten thousand times over and over again, I wait.
I will never forget this date for the rest of my life.
It was Thursday, sunny, and I woke up early at around 05.00 am. Rolling in my bed, I pictured that morning as a perfect morning because:
1) Waking up early means I can hear the birds singing and breathe fresh cold air, both vanished within an hour from 05.00 am. Thanks, huh, Bekasi?
2) A very important person to me was around to celebrate Christmas here in Jakarta. I still cant believe that person was there. But he was.
3) I will climb Mt. Papandayan with 5 of my friends that night, so far everything seems perfect.
and then there was this.
Dear Candidate, thank you for your interest in representing your country at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park in 2015. I am very excited to inform you that you have been selected, from a large number of applicants, to join a Program Overview and an interview for this program. The event will be held on January 6th, 2015 at 7am EST in the USA. Since there are many different time zones in Indonesia, please ensure you know exactly what time this will be in your city. You will need access to a computer with internet capability and a web cam and microphone for this event. Please make sure you have tested your connectivity prior to the event. Very soon you will receive an invitation to select your interview time (will show EST in USA) in a separate email as well as in your dashboard. Please be sure to check your email dan dashboard often for updates. You will only have 6 days to schedule yourself for this event. You may wish to prepare a 2-minute speech talking about some unique cultural or traditional aspect of Indonesia. Telling a short story is always good! Please ensure it is not longer than 2 minutes. In addition, you may wish to visit our website at disneyworld.com to learn all about your program and about various areas and events at Walt Disney World Resort, Florida. I am looking forward to speaking with you on January 6th, 2015.That email took the definition of a "perfect day" to a whole different level. My first reaction was to laugh, are you freaking kidding me?, followed by a prolonged silence, and then BOOM! I exploded, stormed out of my room, running down through the stairs, found my mom downstairs and started talking gibberish.
When finally able to compose myself and regain my ability to speak in a comprehensible language, I told her that I was invited for an interview with Walt Disney World. I'm pretty sure she was teary but she denied that. But I felt her. For the past month I've been struggling choosing between two amazing jobs that were offered to me. I ended up choosing the one I know I love more, but can't help feeling I'm missing something by rejecting the other one, the bigger one. The deal breaker was because they asked me to hand over my Diploma as a guarantee that I will stay with them for at least three years (which is an illegal practice by Indonesia law, by the way. Why on earth would they do that?).
That morning I sat there in our living room with my mom and she reminded me that had I accepted the bigger company's offer then I wouldn't be able to take Disney's offer. I went straight back to my room and prayed. It is amazing how God set the universe in motion and present us with things bigger than we can imagine if only we have a little faith.
That day before I climbed Mount Papandayan, I met up with that very important person and told him the news. I think he was excited too, but he did ask me if it was a legit email since there are a lot of scams using big companies name like Disney. Honestly, I kind of think it was a scam. But there were other emails following the first email, asking me to schedule my interview in the available time slot. So what they did was to send me a link, and I opened it and choose my interview schedule. The date was already set, January 6th 2015, all I had to do was to choose the time for my interview.
I chose 09:45AM-10:05AM EST, which was 08:45PM-09:05PM in Jakarta. I thought it will be the perfect timing, I wont be the first to go into the interview (which hopefully gives me time to do something in case my internet connection, or Abby -- my laptop, in that matter decided to ruin the day) and will not be the last either. I assumed I will be home by that time, perfectly calm and ready for the interview.
So I submitted my chosen time slot and I wait, for what feels like a ten thousand times over and over again, I wait.
