Work Experience - Student: a Rant

I hate to make a post to rant about things that are only semi-Disney related on this blog, but this needed to be said. This post is about to become very opinionated very quickly, so if you consider going to school to be a "job," you may not want to read on. (Disclaimer: This post is not about anyone in particular, but rather it is about my generation as a whole. Please do not be offended by this post.)

Being a student does not qualify as work experience. There, I said it. If your LinkedIn profile lists "student" under work experience, you're doing something wrong. (On LinkedIn there is a section for education, which is where being a student would go.) If you fill out a survey about yourself, and answer "My job right now is being a student," to the question, "Where do you work?" you are doing something wrong. (Now, don't get me wrong, if you answered "I don't have a job at the moment," that is fine. I don't know your whole situation, maybe you recently lost your job, or maybe you've been trying to find one but nothing's come along. That answer is reasonable. But if you write that being a student is your job, know that I will judge you.) 

Logistically, being a student is not a job. Dictionary.com defines "job" as "a post of employment." "Employment" is defined as "an occupation by which someone earns a living." How on Earth do you earn a living as a student? Oh wait, you don't. You can't earn a living as a student, because it isn't a job. In fact, most people pay to be a student rather than get paid themselves, so being a student is almost an acronym to having a job.

Now sometimes people who classify their position as students as a "job" will try to defend themselves by saying something along the lines of: "It's basically a job. I'm in school for x hours a week. I have x hours of homework. I'm learning all of these skills that I'll need when I graduate, blah, blah, blah." Let's compare my "work" as a student to my work as a Museum Assistant, shall we? Alright, so I'm in school for 12.5 hours per week. I work for 20.5 hours per week, assuming I work my regular schedule without picking up any extra shifts, and that it is winter hours at the museum, which it currently is. This means that the number of hours I spend at my job is almost double what I spend at school. As for homework? College students are supposed to learn time management. I used to work at Staples (Monday through Friday from 4-9:30 PM) and I had my homework done. I didn't have much of a life, and there were times where I had the bare minimum of homework done, but the point is that I did it. This was all made possible by time management and maturity. If my Thursday went from having class from 8 AM to 2 PM and work from 4 to 9:30 PM, do you know what I would do after class? HOMEWORK. Do you know why? Because that's the responsible thing to do. If my options at 10 PM when I would arrive back at school were go out because that's apparently what college kids do on Thursdays, or do homework so I don't fall behind on my schoolwork, I would chose the latter. I don't think this is so difficult. As for learning the skills needed after you graduate, this is true, but do you know where I learn the most about working in museums? At my job... at a MUSEUM. I can take all of the History classes I want to, and to be honest my Applied History class this semester is extremely helpful in terms of looking for work after graduation. However, the bulk of my experience and knowledge about my future career path I have learned, as been from my work experience. 

Basically what I'm getting at here, is that the term "student" should never be classified as a job and/or work experience. Being a student is something that you pay to do in order to earn a degree which will eventually get you an actual job. Even if you don't have a regularly scheduled job, just put your last internship or volunteer experience, or something on your LinkedIn. I don't care that you're dishing out money for school and not working even though you're in your twenties and have no excuse not to be, and frankly, I would guess that prospective employers feel the same way. 

Now to relate this to Disney, since this is my Disney blog: Thankfully, I've found a bunch of girls I'm very excited about (hopefully) living with assuming I am accepted into the Disney College Program. Without them, I might still be looking through the surveys everyone posts on the DCP Facebook page. When someone writes that being a student is their job, I instantly lose respect for you. That isn't your job, for the reasons I've just gone over, and the fact that you've actually worded this scenario as such in your survey makes me want to forget I ever started reading your post. Perhaps I'm wrong for judging people I don't know, but I can't help it. Being a student is not a job, and if you think it is, then well, we probably won't be friends.

That is all.

-end rant.-

Yellow Shoes PI Update: Submission

As of this morning, my dashboard for the Yellow Shoes internship I applied for is in the submission stage. (The dashboard for those who don't know is a tool that Disney's career website uses to track your progress for jobs you've applied to. Submission is the first stage.)

Oddly enough, with all of the applications I've submitted to Disney, I've never seen the submission stage before. Every other time I've applied for a job with Disney, my dashboard has almost immediately said "in progress." It actually took a couple of days for my dashboard to reach the submission stage too, which I also thought was kind of strange. I submitted the application on January 30th, but it took until today (Feb. 4th) for my dashboard to change. I've skimmed through some of the conversations on the Professional Internships Facebook page, and it seems as though the process simply moves slower for PI's than for other jobs at Disney. I'm not necessarily worried that it took a couple of days for my dashboard to go from nothing to the submission stage, but I think I'm a little bit disappointed considering this is the slowest process I've ever experienced in applying for a job with Disney. 

The current widespread rumor is that DCP applications will be out on February 6th, though this is only a rumor I've seen posted on the Facebook page, so I would take that with a grain of salt. I'm hoping that the DCP application process will move along a little bit faster just because I'm driving myself crazy checking my dashboard every hour or so regarding the PI I applied for. 

I'm also really looking forward to working on my book, so I can't wait for this whole process to really get going. :)

Don't forget to find me on Facebook & Instagram:

Instagram: @bdicologero
Facebook.com/bdicologero

Professional Internship Application -- Associate Copywriter Internship with Yellow Shoes

Before I discuss this internship, I just want to say a quick THANK YOU to all of my readers! This blog has had close to 800 views, which I think is pretty exciting for a simple blogger account with no followers. (I guess if I wanted followers I would have gotten a Tumblr, but that's besides the point.) So thank you so much for following along with my Disney musings, and I especially want to thank the readers I've spoken with personally who have sent along words of encouragement regarding my possible future with the Disney College Program. If you're reading this, and want to have access to more regular updates from me please feel free to follow me on Instagram: @bdicologero . (Note: I am planning on changing my name on Instagram to @BrittanyEarnsHerEars . I am just waiting until I know what my status with the DCP will be before doing so, I don't want to jinx anything! But if you search the first one and it doesn't come up just search for BrittanyEarnsHerEars instead. If you take any pictures related to this blog, the Ears series, or anything else that you'd like me to see on Instagram please feel free to use #brittanyearnsherears . If I am accepted into the program, I am planning on giving away a couple of free copies of my book for followers of my Instagram. I'll have some kind of a contest or something that will obviously be discussed at a later date, so if you're big into Instagram keep a look out for that.

My Twitter is my usual @bdicologero . To be honest though, I don't use Twitter that often. I've noticed a bunch of new followers on there, which I assume is because of this blog, and I don't want to disappoint you by not tweeting so I'm warning you here, I hardly ever tweet! 

At the moment if you want to keep in touch with me you can also friend request my personal Facebook account: facebook.com/bdicologero . If things do get out of hand with my personal account I will make a new one, probably also called BrittanyEarnsHerEars , and I'll invite anyone who is on my personal Facebook so you won't need to do anything. (I just don't want to make a separate page if not many people take me up on this!) 

Again, thank you all so much for reading and for the support! I can't wait to update you on how things are going with my applications and the book I'm writing in the coming months. :)

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Earlier today I submitted an application for the Associate Copywriter Internship with Yellow Shoes through Disney's Career website. I was initially planning on applying to a couple of internships, and I narrowed it down to 4 that I felt I would be qualified for, however the more I looked into them, the more I could really only see myself doing this one. The other ones I considered were very sales oriented, which is something I feel completely comfortable with, but I feel as though they were positions that Disney would prefer to hire from within. I do have a good amount of sales experience, but not with the Disney company, and I assume they would think that an alumni of the DCP would be a better fit for those internships.

The Yellow Shoes internship sounds perfect for me! Yellow Shoes is the in house creative division of the Walt Disney Company. The offices located in Celebration, FL provide the marketing and promotional material for the theme parks, and this internship would basically be writing that sort of material. I really put a lot of effort into the application process in general and would gladly choose this position over the DCP if I were to receive an offer. The more I work on my book, and look into jobs such as this one, the more I have come to realize that I want writing about Disney to be part of my career. Even if I'm just writing small trivia books on the side or something, I want to use my writing abilities to somehow relate to the Disney company. The portion of the application that I found sort of difficult was the portfolio piece. For written material, I chose to upload the first chapter that I've already written of my book, because I felt that the subject matter would be the best to use for this internship application. Now that I think about it though, it is kind of nerve wracking to think that my chapter about my experience applying for a job with the Disney company is in the hands of Disney Recruiting! As of right now, my status for the internship is "In Progress," which I'll gladly take over "No Longer in Consideration." Of course, I will post updates here as this process moves along, and I am still planning on applying for the Disney College Program when applications come out. 

That's all I've got for now. Have a magical day! & Don't forget to find me on Instagram/Facebook ! :)

"Maleficent" Trailer

Anyone else as excited for this movie as I am?

Disney's Professional Internships

Professional Internships were posted on the Disney Careers website today! I'm still debating on whether or not I want to apply for any. If I were to do a PI, I would really like to do it after the College Program. That being said, I may apply for one or two of the ones that have already been posted as I feel that my experience is compatible with what they are looking for and they are jobs that I would actually be interested in pursuing. 

That being said, my main focus is still the College Program. I would love to participate in a PI, but if I apply for one and am denied it won't be the end of the world. There are so many things about the DCP that I am looking forward to, and I know that I can always apply for another PI at the end of my program (assuming I'm accepted, *fingers crossed*) 

February is just around the corner, so applications should be coming out very soon! I can't wait to just submit the application and get this whole process going again. Waiting since the last time I was able to apply in 2011 has felt like forever, and I just can't wait to get going with this!

Submission of the First Two Chapters of "Brittany Earns her Ears"

Last night I submitted the first two chapters of "Brittany Earns her Ears" to the publishing company! I was way too excited about this so I figured I'd make a post on here-- not about what's in those chapters though, because you know, I want you to buy the book! Writing a book is more challenging than I imagined it would be, and I'm thinking that this may be because it's about myself. I don't know how much editing will be done to it, or if I'll be asked to revise any of it, but I can tell you right now that some parts of it were awkward to write. Even things that I've already mentioned on my blog were kind of weird to write about in my book. Blog writing is really just a bunch of quick summaries, so it was really strange letting so much of my emotions out into a book that anyone can pick up and read. 

Applications should be coming out in about two weeks and I cannot wait to apply! That's all I've got for now. 

Don't forget to follow me on instagram! :) @brittanyearnsherears

"Brittany Earns her Ears"

Applications for the Disney College Program should be coming out in about 21 days! I'm really excited to apply again, and I'm really starting to feel less nervous about it. The more I've thought about it, and discussed my plans with some friends, the more confident I'm feeling about getting in.

           

Now for the announcement: I was actually going to wait to see if I got in to the program or not to announce this, but I’ve already told a couple of people so I figured I might as well just come out and say it. As you may already know, the book “Amber Earns her Ears,” which I reviewed on this blog a couple of weeks ago, is going to become a series . I have been chosen to be one of the writers in this series, and “Brittany Earns her Ears,” is expected to come out in 2015! I was hesitant to announce this on my blog (or anywhere really), because obviously my writing the book is dependent upon me being accepted into the program again. Because I’ve already mentioned it to a couple of people I think now it might be better off if I just announced it officially. So there we go! My book will be slightly different from Amber’s because I will be writing it in real time, during the program, if I am accepted. I’ve already written the first couple of chapters, and will be submitting them to the publishing company by the end of this month.

            

I’m really looking forward to writing a book, because it is something that I’ve always wanted to do. I won’t be neglecting this blog though, so feel free to still come on here even if you do plan on buying the books in the series. My book, even with the couple of chapters I’ve worked on so far, is much more detailed and expanded than blog posts will ever be, and sometimes they will be on different topics. This blog is about my experiences with Disney in general, and my book is more specifically going to be about my experiences with the Disney College Program.

           

I know some people are hesitant to buy books like this because they feel that they can find the same information online for free, and without sounding too biased since I’m writing the book I’d like to quickly debunk this. I can see from what I’ve already written in the book that what will be written in the series is different from what you can find on the internet. A couple of things that I’ve mentioned in my early stages of writing have already been discussed in this blog, but the book will present it much differently. I find that many blogs, including my own, are really just a quick run-down of a series of events. Published memoirs on the contrary, take a greater amount of effort and are much more thought provoking to write, which in my opinion enhances the finished product. My book goes into so much more detail and shows the reader much more of my personality than my blog ever will, or really possibly could.

And I’d also just like to point out that these are not books that you buy to answer simple questions or to learn about policies of the program. I’ve heard of people who feel that blogs are a better resource for learning about the program since the internet is more quickly updated than printed books will be. This is completely true, the internet will be more up to date on policies than a book, however I do not even think that blogs are the right place to look for this kind of information. If you are looking for any kind of official policies regarding the program, I would urge you to go directly to the official website or contact Disney’s recruiting team yourself. It’s just too easy to misread someone’s blog post, or there’s always a possibility that the person who wrote it was not correct in the first place, so for official policies I would look only towards official Disney sources. That being said, I have come across some blogs that do a great job of presenting this same information in an organized manner, and that is great, but if you are really looking for something important go to an official Disney website just in case.

Basically what I’m saying is that the books in this series are different from anything you’d read online. Especially towards the beginning of this blog, I’ve assumed that most of my readers know me in person, and therefore do not need to really know anything extra about myself. Through my book I have really opened up more than I would on this blog about myself, so that the reader can really gain better insight into my experiences. I don’t mean to turn you away from my own blog, or other blogs, I just wanted to make it clear that I think all of the books in the series will bring something to readers that can’t be found on the internet. I’m not sure if this post even made much sense, or got across what I wanted it to, but this is also explained in further detail in my book, so maybe you’ll be able to read more about this in 2015. :)

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Also, I'll be vlogging again sometime in the near future, so I'll be posting some more of those soon!