So quite a bit has been going on…

…but sadly no news for me yet!!

So on the 3rd July one of the girls on our opportunity list got a phone call offering her a date starting on August 15th. She turned it down because she thought it wouldnt be feasible to fund it that short notice and she’d applied to uni whilst waiting and got her mind set on starting uni in manchester in september so she turned it down.

Then later that day we found out that someone from the other waitlist had been offered a date for the 3rd Sept. It turned out the next day they turned it down because their head and heart just wasnt in it. Fair enough reason! So this threw up two different dates that were in theory ‘floating’ around and any of us could be getting a phone call anytime!

So the next day another girl from our list got offered the 13th August and she accepted it. It was short notice but im sure the excitement will help with the stressful time ahead!

All of us that are left keep joking around that we felt the need to remind Yummy Jobs and Disney that we existed. At this point it had been 3 months we’d been waiting with very little information from either Disney or Yummy Jobs.

Now on the 9th July it turned out that someone who had been given the 3rd September had decided to turn it down. So yet again we were all wondering when we might hear!

Cut to today and our lovely Emma had a phonecall inviting her to go out in October and we were all over the moon for her! But this wasn’t that 3rd September date that was still floating around so the group all stayed on edge! Every time your phone makes any sort of noise you swear that the magical phonecall could be flying its way to you!! Crossing my fingers!

Our list is getting smaller…

So a couple of days ago, one of the people on the previous opportunity was offered a date but couldn’t accept it for whatever reason and tried to get it pushed back. Anyway today we found that one of the girls on our list was offered the date 23rd July . She has just about 6 weeks till she goes!
You’ve got to keep saving just incase you get one of these short notice offers. It would be terrible if you had to turn down a position because you simply couldn’t afford it! So being prepared is a bonus and even if god forbid you didnt get offered a date you’d have a nice little savings pot to help soften the blow!!

Its great news that our group is getting smaller, which increases our chances but at the back of my mind i keep considering that theres 5 people left on the previous opportunity list. I know ive said this before but i really really hope i dont find myself in their position when the next round of applications open.

It seems unbelievable…

… but some people are offered a job and turn it down for various reasons.

Yummy always tell you not to put your life on hold but thats incredibly difficult when you want the job so much and you don’t really want to make major long term plans like holidays/large purchases like buying a car just in case you get that phonecall to go out to florida in 4 weeks time!

One of the girls on the opportunity list with us was offered a date last week but turned it down. My first reaction was like “WHAT?! is she mental??”
But then she began to tell us the reasoning behind it. She had been on a date a couple of days after our f2f interviews and things were going really well with him (she’d been seeing him for 2 months) and also she’d been offered a perfect grad job for her so she turned down the date she’d been offered but decided to keep herself on the opportunity list so that she may be considered for further dates. And who knows she might be offered a date in the future and her situation might be different.

So we’re all checking our phones madly because theres a date floating about and we’re hoping someone gets offered it soon!!

A glimmer of hope?

So the facebook group has picked up again due to one of the guys that originally was offered a date early next year received a phonecall today offering him a date in July this year. It shows how unpredictable this process is but it also gives us a glimmer of hope. He moved from a date that was early next year which means in theory theres a gap that needs to be filled there! Could one of us be getting a call soon! Here’s hoping that my phone rings!!

A little ray of hope!

So fantastically one of the girls on the opportunity with us, Sammy has been offered a date going out on the 3rd September. The group on facebook has been pretty quiet with no-one really hearing much so its just been filled with us posting little pictures to each other and anecdotes. But when someone gets exciting news like this it cheers us all up!

But the weird thing, theres still people on the previous opportunity list! And in my current position I’m very glad we’re being considered on an even footing with them but I suspect i will be extremely annoyed if I’m in their position when the next round of applications starts!! Hopefully I wont get to that point!

It might be a long way ahead…

A short and sweet entry for once!! So someone from the previous opportunity list found out today that they are heading out next february after being on the opportunity list for 6 months! I’ve currently only been waiting for about 3 weeks and that seems tough! I dont know if im going to last for 6 months and hearing in october! haha

An update from Yummy but nothing cleared up…

So as i said we’ve been coming up with so many theories on when we might hear but nothing has been confirmed until today. Obviously we all sent a reply asking when we might hear or if there would be a timescale and today we all got pretty similar replies all along the following lines:

‘Thanks, for your message. Once Disney make additional offers we will let you know if you are offered a place on the program. I do not have a specific timeline as yet however when we hear back from Disney, James will update you.’

Even though we havent learnt anything new, its positive to be optimistic and get things confirmed officially from Yummy.

We’ve also been chatting to some of the previous rounds applicants who are on/were on their rounds opportunity list. They found out their outcome in October/november 2012 and around 20 people were put on the opportunity list waiting to hear if they got a date. And currently (6months later) only 5 are still waiting for a date. So this fills us with confidence because the chances look good but it also fills us with a small sense of unease. If Yummy/Disney are willing to leave people on the previous opportunity list and give people from our date, job offers first that seems a little unfair. I really hope I dont get into that position where im still waiting and people from the next round of application are being offered jobs. Get in the queue! Haha.

I know i keep saying it but being part of the facebook group and the wdwip forums are fantastic for offering support from people in the exact same position as you!!

Patience is a virtue…

So, before now i would say i was pretty good at being patient. Ok, so i usually get pretty excited over trips and everything but i can usually focus on other stuff and wait it out but when you’ve got something massive in the back of your mind like this process then it almost gets impossible to plan things!

People still keep asking when i’m going to hear and ive got to answer I dont know. I cant even give them a rough answer and that usually means people look at you. Ive been asked if im going to apply for something else in the meantime and when I say not yet people get confused asking how long am I going to wait and i really want to say ‘as long it takes’ which to people who dont want to apply for this opportunity – it makes no sense! Because once you start this application process it reinforces how much you want this!!

I’ve been going through moments where you see all the posts from people who have dates getting all excited and it makes you feel like you’re not quite good enough. Why have they got a date and not me? Did i fail my interview that badly? But you need to get out of that mindset!

Firstly, around 1000 people normally apply for each round of applications. Our round was only a small intake with primarily F&B positions available. Now imagine only somewhere near 60 people were offered prescreens and then that nearly halved for f2f. Roughly 12 people got months and just below 10 people got put on the opportunity list. These figures are only based on what we know from the Facebook groups. It was proved at the interviews that there were some people that weren’t on our group but anyway those figures are fantastic when you look at what we have got through!!

Now reading other blogs, theres very few people that seem to have been opportunity listed that haven’t eventually got dates! But same again that could be because people who haven’t got dates have deleted their blogs or not written them.

So we just continue waiting…

Not quite yet…

So everyone had been really nervous waiting for a result and it came  20 days later in the form of an email. There were rumours going round the facebook groups that people were getting phonecalls offering them months but not exact dates. I waited on my phone to ring but instead found an email.

So this email gave me a lot to take in, Disney weren’t giving me a no, they were giving me a not quite yet. The facebook group got really excited with the people who had got months and we were all happy for them. But then they began to move into the successful applicants group and ours got quieter. At this point the ones who were opportunity listed created out own group to chat about what was going on.

You’ll find that as time goes on, you come up with theories about when you might hear! And this really helps when all you can think of is when you might hear your outcome. This is the toughest position to be in, as its not a No, (which some people did get :-/) and its not a Yes. I wanted to keep it quiet until i knew more but I work with Sarah and she’d told people at work so there was little reason to keep things quiet anymore. So its the toughest question to answer when people around ask if you’ve heard yet and you’ve just got to say you’re waiting till you find out more. People ask how long it will be and you say you dont know which in turn makes them confused. When asked about making long term plans you have to consider, what if I got the phonecall tomorrow. Its crazy how many different areas of your life this can affect but hopefully i’ll hear something soon!