{An Interview With Erin Snyder}

Erin Snyder is a sophomore at Illinois State University. During the summer, she took an internship position at Disney World. While she was there, she got behind the scenes of an amusement park and found out how it works. In this iF interview, she tells about her experiences.

Q: Describe some of Disney's employee rules that you had to follow and the consequences of breaking them.
A: There were a few rules that we had to follow. The women's earrings could not be larger than a quarter, and our fingernails could be no longer than an earser. We had to have natural-looking hair color and make-up. Men had to have natural-looking hair color as well. They could have no long side burns and, of course, no makeup. Men could not have long fingernails and they had to have clean fingernails. If we broke one of these rules, we were asked to change our behavior. The more strict rules that we had involved calling in sick. Every three call-ins at work were worth 3 points. You could only have 3 points in 30 days or 6 points in 90 days, etc. If you went over these points then you were terminated or fired. We also had to point a certain way. We had to use either two fingers or our full hand. If we broke this rule we were just asked to change our hand position.

Q: How did you get this internship position at Disney?
A: College recruits for Walt Disney came to Illinois State University. I got involved through signs and flyers all around the campus. The first night there was a meeting, and that night they told us there would be a formal interview the next day. That night I had to fill out an application. After all the meetings, forms, and interviews were complete they were going to inform me of the outcome.

Q: What career did this experience help you prepare for?
A: This really didn't help me with teaching, the career I am going in to. I did this to see if I wanted to do something besides teaching.

Q: What did you learn about the amusement park business that surprised you? What were some of the jobs or tasks that you did every day?
A: Working with Disney I learned that there are not as many people that work for the company as people think. I also learned that Walt Disney World is very defined and that is what I love about the company. The one thing that I learned working for an amusement park was that you encounter so many different kinds of people. I learned so many languages that I never would have heard before if I hadn't worked for Disney. The task that I did every day was that I sold soft serve ice cream, soft pretzels, etc. I worked in a little stationary building that sold soda and snacks. I sometimes had to open the building and was normally scheduled to close the building that I worked at that day. I did not cook anything, I just sold it. The only thing that I had to prepare was the ice cream and soda.

Walt Disney's famous characters dance on a
boat in the live show 'Fantasmic' in Disney World.

Q: What are some of the most interesting or unique jobs that someone could have at Disney or in an amusement park?
A: At Disney one of the most interesting jobs would be dressing as one of the characters. I think that would be really fun. I think the people who work with food have one of the most interesting jobs. They deal with people who get mad if you make one little mistake, and they do most of the hard work at the park but get the least amount of credit. They get the people who are hungry, thirsty, and tired all at the same time, but if you are a character then you always get the happy people. Characters also put in the least amount of time.

Q: Did you get college credit for this? If so, what did you have to do in order to get this credit?
A: I got three college credit hours for this. I have to write four papers to a professor through the recreation department at ISU in order to get them. They are on my experience down in Florida when I first arrived, how I have grown since the internship, how I liked working at Disney, and then on my experience as a whole.

Q: Is there anything else that we have not addressed that you would like to add?
A: I would just like to say that if you get a chance to do this please do. You meet so many awesome people. While I was living there I met 12 wonderful people that I can now call my close friends. I loved every minute of it and if I had to do it all over again with the exact same people I would do it in a heartbeat!!

Snyder, Erin. <> "Disney Interview" 8th of June, 2000. Personal email.