Originally Posted By SpokkerJones My girlfriend is a state licensed attorney who graduated from UCLA and all she can get is a $12/hour job. The economy is still really bad.
Originally Posted By Bellella Nothing personal. I just prefer D-land over all other places. Although the way things are now, I'll be lucky to get a job anywhere at the resort.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal ^^And if you went in and voiced a preference or request to ONLY work at Disneyland Park you'd probably be dropped from consideration anyway. It's not a very "team player" attitude.
Originally Posted By SuperDry ^^^ Yep. Also, isn't the standard advice given to prospective CMs that have a specific job placement desire to get hired into whatever they have open at the moment and then after 6 months or so, start requesting jobs closer to your ideal position through the internal transfer process?
Originally Posted By Bellella I'm not saying I'd actually TELL them I'd prefer to work at D-land. But boy, would it be amazing!
Originally Posted By pwrof3 I worked at DCA in 2001 and left in 2003. I returned in 2007 because I needed a job. The training that I received in 2001 was much better than in 2007. The first time around, I was given two week's worth of training before even setting foot in the park. In 2007, I went to Tradiations, where they force feed you all of the mandatory CA health and safety requirement stuff, and then immediately sent out into the park as a cashier in the stores with no training whatsoever. No cash handling, no guest service training. Nothing! They expect you to now learn on the job. Now it is 2010 and I've been laid off for a year and can't even got a job as dishwasher in a restaurant! I was even turned down by every major department store, even with my five years of retail experience at Disneyland. I am glad, however, that the turnover rate is slowing down at Disneyland for the time being. There were way too many people who would just not care and only wanted the job long enough to get free passes to Disneyland. And, yes, I can confirm that being shuttled to work, being trapped on property, having to wear a horrible costume (and you're only allowed 3 complete costumes at a time), and dealing with the general public every day are all fast and effective ways to go insane and hate your job. Look at a manager the next time you walk into a store or visit an ODV cart. These people are all lifers who have no sense of humor and they look like someone has stolen their lives from them. You can always tell a new cast member by his or her level of guest service. If he / she is smiling and happy and an awesome CM, he / she hasn't been working there long enough.
Originally Posted By TP2000 pwrof3, thanks for the insight. But none of this stuff sounds like anything exclusive to Disneyland, particularly the "lifers" and front line supervisors. That's something that nearly every industry deals with. Great example: I recently took an airline trip with my outbound flight on Virgin America, and my inbound flight on American Airlines. Virgin America is a brand new, super stylish, hip airline that hires brand new, super stylish, hip employees who were all super-perky and quite honestly very slim and noticeably attractive in their stylish uniforms. The entire experience was fabulous. New, fresh, glad to be of service. Fun! American Airlines is an old legacy carrier, saddled with an aging fleet and aging employees who've been there for decades. The old Douglas jet was crummy looking, and the flight attendants were these big, hulking and charmless older women in shapeless and drab uniforms whose entry-level careers as a cute stewardess had disolved into "stolen lives" a couple decades ago. Yuck! Point is, it happens nearly everywhere, in every industry. Ever heard the backroom chatter of those tenured women working at department stores you applied at? YIKES!
Originally Posted By pwrof3 Very true, TP2000. The Service industry as a whole is lacking these days. However, with the economy tanking, perhaps these people will realize how fortunate they are to be employed and be in a better mood. As for the debate over which park is better to work at: I have worked at both and working at DCA is like you're not really working at Disneyland. However, DCA is less crowded, does not stay open as late, and has newer construction, which means better break areas, better food prep areas, storage, etc. Disneyland was not as fun as I thought it would be. I quickly lost my love for the park after about six months of working until 2 am, fighting through crowds to get to my break area (which means my break is shorter when I finally get to sit), and just the overall decrepid state of Disneyland's Backstage area. It may be whimsical to work at Disneyland, but DCA is actually a nicer work experience.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA The service industry simply is not for everyone. And unfortunately, even in good times, there are people who work in that industry, who should not be.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< The training that I received in 2001 was much better than in 2007. The first time around, I was given two week's worth of training before even setting foot in the park. In 2007, I went to Tradiations, where they force feed you all of the mandatory CA health and safety requirement stuff ... >>> Wow - that's astounding. From what I remember, Traditions used to be a 5-day course that was given to every new hire regardless of position, and dealt with things like the history of the park, how to handle guests, and so on. Then you went on to position-specific training, and then finally got to work. I had heard that they had slowly cut back Traditions such that it's now only a day long. But now with the above information, it sounds like it's been totally gutted, if even that single day consists of mandatory issues dealing with state law. <<< ... and then immediately sent out into the park as a cashier in the stores with no training whatsoever. No cash handling, no guest service training. Nothing! They expect you to now learn on the job. >>> Perhaps this is someone's clever take on the DCA concept: much like the theme of Paradise Pier was originally an unthemed boardwalk, and Screamin's theme was as an unthemed roller coaster, perhaps the concept of having front-line service people being put immediately to work with no training is part of the theme of the way amusement parks used to be operated back in the good ol' days.
Originally Posted By pwrof3 Yes, SuperDry, it is that bad now. The first time I took Traditions, the first day was HIstory of the Park, Walking Tour, Safety Videos, some random games and activities, and Guest Service Stuff. The rest of the week was Guest Services and Food Operations specific stuff. I was in ODV my first go around, so I got the food training. That week I was trained in cash handling, guest service, food handling, food prep, food safety, etc. All of this included week long intensive training in TDA. We never set foot on stage once. The second week of training was a fewmore videos, followed by the beginning of On the Job Training. OTJ Training lasted four one full week of regular shifts where I was lead around by a trainer and shown how to work every single ODV cart, how to use the registers, how to cook churros, make popcorn, etc. I was given a cart to work on with my trainer watching me the entire time. At the end of the week, I took a test to see if I was Show Ready and appropriately trained, and then I was set free on the third week of employment. In 2007, Traditions was one day long. We took a walking tour of the Resort, watched safety videos, played some games. They hammered in the fact that we work while others play, and you can expect to never have a holiday off for the rest of your life. I recall a brief segment on guest service. After that, the next day I started On the Job Training in Stores at DCA. This consisted of my trainer showing me how the register works and how to count the money at the end of the night. After two OTJ sessions, I was put to work on my own. Not to mention that in Greetings at the Carnation Candy Room, CMs are sent to work there with NO Food Handling training, which I thought was illegal. However, since it is all pre-made elsewhere and brought to the store, I guess it's okay. Still, I was very surprised to learn that I would be serving food to guests without any training. I'd hate to see what they do now in 2010.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "Virgin America is a brand new, super stylish, hip airline that hires brand new, super stylish, hip employees who were all super-perky and quite honestly very slim and noticeably attractive in their stylish uniforms. The entire experience was fabulous." Do they pay more? Better benefits? Also, a more relaxed atmosphere can be a job benefit. If your boss is actually down to Earth and has a sense of humor, your morale can go up. Unfortunately I've only ever had one boss like that.
Originally Posted By TP2000 From what I understand of the airline industry, the legacy carriers like American are saddled with very tenured crews with the highest wages and the most lavish benefits packages. Virgin America's cabin crews (and I've flown them a half dozen times now) appear to have an average age of about 24, and they are all good looking enough to never have to worry about a date in their layover city. A quick Google search says a Virgin America stewardess starts at about $24,000 per year. Quite frankly, I don't care that the Virgin America crews are making less than the highly tenured American Airlines crews. All I know is that the young ladies who served me dinner and a cocktail on my Virgin flights always smile, chat a bit or share a laugh, and check in on me. The women on that American flight looked like death warmed over, acted as if I was a total bother to them asking for a Scotch, and didn't have an ounce of charm left in their polyester sack uniforms.
Originally Posted By mousermerf TP - that's why you try to pick an airline that's a hybrid, old guard that still has standards. Young and pretty is great until things start to go wrong and you need those years of experience. I fly Continental.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<Young and pretty is great until things start to go wrong and you need those years of experience.>> I don't know what the average age or how many hours of flight time Virgin pilots have compared to legacy carriers, but their years of experience is not comparable to the years experience of the cabin crew, because the cabin crew is not flying the plane.
Originally Posted By mousermerf And you don't travel very often, because 99% of what goes wrong has nothing to do with the plane or flying it.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I've flown enough to know what the responsibilities of a flight attendant are, so what are the other things that go wrong that the so-called inexperienced deal with worse than the experienced, to the degree that choosing Virgin is not as smart as choosing Continental?
Originally Posted By mousermerf You've flown "enough?" What status do you hold and with what airlines? Because in the world of frequent flyers no one will take you seriously without some serious wallet-swag to show off.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss And in answer to your question, I've never had enough frequent flier miles to be in any club, but I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles, and certainly dozens and dozens of legs. I think that's enough to know what it's like to fly and what problems there are in the cabin.
