You Can Intern at Disney?

Throughout the fall 2018 semester, I was on co-op at Disney Parks & Resorts in Orlando, FL, working in the Facilities and Operation Services Department on the Global Strategies & Analysis Team. My team helped to create business strategies based on historical data, standard costs/procedures, and analysis for work on current assets across domestic properties—both Walt Disney World (WDW) and Disneyland resorts. Current assets include all attractions, hotels, restaurants, roadways, and anything else that has been built on-site and is maintained by Disney.

My schooling at Northeastern is centered on a BS in Industrial Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management. Both of my past two co-op experiences were for a contract manufacturing company, but I really wanted to take the leap into a business role at a company that I had only dreamed of working for before. If I could give advice to anyone who wanted to work for Disney, it would be to never stop applying and to apply for a variety of roles. I applied for engineering positions at Disney for my first and second co-ops. Neither stuck. After I gained more experience and understood how my skills could be better applied to the company, I opened my horizons up to business analytics and finally achieved my dream.

Working as an intern at Disney in Florida is amazing. They have a connection for housing that isn’t too expensive when you compare it to housing in Boston, which includes all utilities, a trash service, and a maid service. The best benefit is definitely being able to get into all of the theme parks for free. I definitely took advantage of that and at least went to one theme park per week, making sure to ride all of my favorite attractions and see the shows at least once each before my six months were up.

I grew up in the Central Florida area and had visited WDW multiple times prior, watched almost all the Disney movies ever created, had met some princesses, and memorized a few songs from over the years. Working for a company that had given me so many magical memories made me a better cast member (what Disney calls employees). I knew that the work I was doing in some small way would have an impact on a guest later on.

The coolest thing that I was able to do while working for Disney was definitely take backstage tours of some of the attractions. Part of my role was to help integrate equipment data from attractions into a new database. It doesn’t sound like such an exciting job, but most of the engineering information for attractions was kept under lock-and-key so the best way for me to complete tasks was to walk the rides before park open with the maintenance crews and realize what equipment was important to include in our database. Throughout that project I was able to walk through Spaceship Earth, The American Adventure, Soarin’ Around the World, Pandora’s Flight of Passage, Haunted Mansion, the Parade Barn (where all of the floats are stored for parades), and, my personal favorite, Frozen Ever After.

Seeing the magic behind the scenes only elevated my appreciation when I was a guest in the parks on my days off. I was able to see and do a lot of amazing things while I was on co-op. I highly recommend interning at any of the Disney Parks & Resorts, regardless of your major.

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