Working for Disney

[aristocatz]

Hi guys,

I'm a longtime DISser, but wanting to go incognito for this question. Not sure where to put it, so mods please feel free to move.

I'm being recruited by Disney. I'd rather not reveal the role, but it is on the corporate side and non-parks. My initial impression is that the role has very little interaction with the parks. I've never seriously thought to work for them because I always wanted to separate my happy place from my work place, for fear that if too much of my "work" is wrapped up in Disney, I would never enjoy another trip in the same way I do today. Such a silly reason to drive a career decision, right? I think a lot would depend on other factors: work life balance, comp, benefits, etc and still early in the process, but need to start questioning these things internally.

I saw that other thread on "if you love what you do, it's not work" or whatever the wording was. I'm not a big believer in that - I wish I could believe it, but I just don't. I am very happy where I am today, but nothing is perfect and some things drive me crazy. I imagine some things would (of course) drive me crazy at Disney...so will I not want to go to the parks anymore as a result of getting too wrapped up in work? As I type this out, I see how silly I am being, but I really want to post the question for others.

Have others been in a similar position? Any thoughts on this? Thanks so much!

My brother worked for corporate Disney in LA for 3 years. No interaction with the parks, for work purposes, but he still got access to the free tickets and events. He loved working there, but ended up resigning, because it was during a period where they were doing mass layoffs & he was afraid he would be next. His boss left as well and went to work for Dreamworks.

 

[webcreatrix]

Definitely take the interview. If it's a non-parks job, I don't think it would take the magic away from your vacations. I'd caution against thinking working for Disney could be any kind of dream job. I know a few people who worked for Disney in the LA area, for different divisions, and the corporate culture wasn't that great. None of them would go back. I always thought I'd love a corporate job at Disney until I heard their stories. It's a place to work, like any other, and the division/location/department all factor into what it's actually like to work for the company. It is a business at the end of the day.