How I Applied to My Dream Job

Posted by Yang (Jenny) Zhang


Dec 20

I was a little dejected towards the end of my third semester in my MBA program at Wayne State because I was hoping to get an internship for the summer.  In May 2019, I thought to myself, what company would I love to work for?  Disney came to mind.  I did a quick LinkedIn search and found an old college classmate I could reach out to in my 1st connections that worked with a manager that was possibly on the Disney Data team I was applying for.

Interns Wanted

My classmate was happy to supply me with the manager’s email.  I emailed her thinking there was nothing to lose.  The next day, it was a Tuesday, she emailed me back!  She said she would love to video conference with me to discuss my work experience and about her role!  We talked on video and she said she would pass my resume to the HR admin for her team.  Turns out that HR admin was a University of Michigan fan, which is where I studied for my Bachelor’s, so she was very enthusiastic towards me, based on this shared interest.  She was excited to inform me that a different Data and Reporting team would like me to apply for their internship and they want to interview me on Thursday.  Everything was happening very quickly.

The interview was with five team members that would be on my team.  They asked some technical questions about SQL and some personality questions like my strengths and weaknesses.  They also asked me to describe the team that I wouldn’t like to work with.  I thought back to my days as a Research Analyst where the work slowed, and people were nitpicking about my working habits.  I told them that I wouldn’t like to work for a team that was always on my shoulder, watching everything I did, and micromanaging me.  After a 30-minute interview, I felt that the team was impressed with me and I hoped for good news.

Analytics ConceptThe next week, I got updates from the recruiter, who told me what to expect with the role and some of Disney Corporate’s rules.  The next call I got from the recruiter was an official offer!  I reviewed the role once again and considered my options before I gladly accepted the internship role.

The role I accepted was on the Workforce Management team, under the Labor Systems department at the Walt Disney Corporation. I started my internship on this team working in Workforce Metrics on June 12, 2019.  My team is located in Orlando, FL, and our Feature Animation Building is behind Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  We manage labor data, labor reports, and various databases which warehouse our data.

My internship is scheduled to end on January 4, 2020.  Reflecting the course of events in May of this year, I think that I did my research to land this internship.  I tell myself that there should be nothing to lose when connecting with old classmates or acquaintances in my network.  The worst case is that they can’t help you in time, or they don’t want to help you. I was fortunate to reach the team that I wanted to work for through my old classmate. In the next chapter of my career, I will do the same and reach out to my network.

 

Topics: Data Analytics, internship

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