Early in the Disney College Program, I was invited to attend a networking meeting with leaders and managers from all over the Walt Disneyworld Resorts. While my College Program role is Front Desk Operations, participants serving many different roles were in attendance as well. At this event, we were randomly seated at approximately twenty tables, with at least one leader or manager present at each table. The tables had about 10 minutes with each leader/manager to discuss our future at Disney. We were able to learn about their past roles in the company and how they were able to move up to where they are now. After those ten minutes were up, the leaders/managers got up and moved to another table. The College Program participants stayed at our tables, only the leaders/managers moved around. Overall, we had the opportunity to speak with about twenty different leaders/managers over a three-hour period. During the meetings we were given business cards, in the hopes of keeping in touch with them as our Disney career progressed. Some of the individuals were quite interesting and I hope to be able to contact them in the future.
While I haven’t been able to actually trail a manager, I have been able to observe them in action. From what I have seen, they have a great deal of responsibilities and their days are action-packed from start to finish. They work on scheduling employees, dealing with guests (some more angry than others), making sure all of the workers are up to date on their training and are aware of the current Disney promotions, and of course making sure the front desk is always running smoothly and efficiently. One thing that I’ve seen in all of the managers is an even-tempered and calm personality. I’m sure that helps them deal effectively deal with both employees and guests alike. After watching them in action, I have gained a great deal of perspective of how hard they work, how difficult their jobs are, and how much I need to learn to get there.
So far, I have not had the opportunity to complete any real managerial tasks. However, I have been assigned to work the front desk alone and dealt with guests without a supervisor, brought items to guest rooms on my own and was even asked to put gasoline in company cars and Pogos (golf carts). My goal for this College Program experience is to learn as much as possible, continue to network with managers and other employees, give the guests the best service possible, and put myself in a position to someday join the Disney Company as a full-time employee on my way up to management.
