For millions around the world, Disney conjures up childhood memories that lend a sense of enchantment and wonderment, and that’s what draws so many people to seek employment with the multi-billion dollar entertainment giant. Now much more than just cartoons and films, the Walt Disney Company is the world’s second-largest media conglomerate and owns the ABC network, A+E Networks, ESPN, and more. It also owns and operates 14 theme parks around the world and has business divisions in merchandising, music, publishing, theatre, and more. In order to operate such a massive enterprise, Disney is constantly hiring, and many of its employees began working there as students. Here’s how to get an internship at Disney.
Visiting the Disney Careers page is your first step. Here, you can find out what options are available to you. Today, we will focus on internships and co-ops, which are the best fit for students currently enrolled in college or university as well as recent graduates. According to the website, Disney’s “summer internships will give you valuable on-the-job training while you work on challenging projects and present findings to our senior management team. You can participate in our paid summer internship opportunities if you’re pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree.” Also offered are year-round programs and semester-long programs, so make sure to focus on the kind that best fits your schedule. If these sounds like the right fit for you, you can easily search the available opportunities and filter those by location, industry, job category, and job type. The last bit is the most important for prospective interns, so make sure to check the box next to “internships” to best ascertain what’s available to you. As of now, there are 84 internships available in Burbank and Glendale, California (where the company’s headquarters are located); Culver City in Los Angeles, California (where some of the studios are located); Orlando, Florida (where Walt Disney World is located); Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York, New York; and a handful of other locations across the country. But don’t forget, Disney has offices all over the world, so if you’re looking to venture outside of the United States, that’s a totally viable option, too.
Once you’ve found an internship that interests you, applying for it is relatively straightforward. Each internship features a job description, a list of job duties, basic qualifications applicants must have, and preferred qualifications that are not required but certainly appreciated. Internships also require a certain amount of education experience, both required and preferred. Basically, most of the internships are offered in exchange for college credit, so being enrolled in school will be a major component to your being a viable candidate. As far as preferred education experience, many of the internships would like to work with students enrolled in a particular major, one that makes sense with the internship in question. After reading through all of this information thoroughly, you can begin the application process by registering for an account and uploading all of the relevant documents which, at the very least, will include a cover letter, resume, and school documents.
There are also opportunities for recent graduates who are not quite ready for full-time employment but who are looking for something more challenging and rewarding than a basic internship. If that’s you, a co-op or paid internship program may be a good fit. According to the website, “with a paid Disney Professional Internship, or paid co-op or rotational program within a Disney Professional Internship, you’ll have a unique opportunity” to “be challenged, mentored, and supported while you work on the latest innovations and help contribute to Disney’s long and rich history in family entertainment.” The co-ops last six months and are a bit different, as they’re only available from January to June or July to December, so it’s very important to pay special attention to the dates listed in your search results, as looking for available co-ops is also done by marking the “internships” box in the search function.
Disney has provided interested applicants with an FAQ page that answers the most important questions about the application process, so make sure to browse through the information provided before submitting any documents.
