# Disney professional Entertainment tech internship



## genericcomment (Mar 17, 2012)

I am in the pre-screen process of applying for the Disney PI program for the entertainment tech position, and was wondering if anyone has done it before or at least gone through the interview process for it. Also if anyone has any tips that would be awesome.


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## ruinexplorer (Mar 17, 2012)

When I was in college, they were in the phase where they didn't offer the technical internships. What they did is have you work in one of the other positions in the park and transfer into a technical position (which I know some people did). I didn't go for it because I had other obligations come up at that time. But I would ask if they still did transfers (just in case, since they recommended that you apply for multiple internships at the time).


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## What Rigger? (Mar 19, 2012)

Is this for California, Florida, or one of the other worldwide outposts those guys staff?


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## genericcomment (Mar 19, 2012)

This is for WDW Florida.


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## ZDurler88 (Mar 20, 2012)

Just wishing you good luck with that. Both me and my girlfriend are going to apply for that internship next year. Sounds like an interesting program, though I have heard it is very hard to get those tech jobs.


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## beardedbil (Mar 20, 2012)

I'm not sure about the internship but I applied for this tech position a few years ago and was offered it. I had to turn it down. If you don't mind working long hours for little pay (not sure of internship pay) and a difficult system to request time off then go for it! I talked to current and former tech employees of Disney and very few had good things to say. Most use Disney as a jumping off point in their career it seems. I am sure their are techs that love their jobs and speak very highly of it but I just don't know any of them.


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## genericcomment (Mar 20, 2012)

Well I'm doing this for the experience and as a jumping off point, but I felt it would be a good transition right out of college.


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## beardedbil (Mar 20, 2012)

Absolutely! Just out of college, go for it. Best of luck to you.


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## randomtangentsrme (Mar 20, 2012)

A decent tech can get a job straight out of school. I got paid for tech work while I was in high school, both for the school and professionally. never saw the point in an internship, when I got paid to do it while learning.
A Costume shop manager I used to work with had nothing but great things to say about her internship at Disney world


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## genericcomment (Mar 21, 2012)

I do have a decent job actually I'm the LD/department head at a summer playhouse that runs for 8 weeks this summer, I see the Disney internship as a networking op, and to be able to branch out into other theatre related fields.


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## ruinexplorer (Mar 24, 2012)

I applaud your attitude towards the internship. Since this business is about as much of who you know as it is what you know, those industry contacts may become crucial. I had years of experience and was well known in my own market, but it took a colleague who recommended me to change markets and get the job I currently have. I might have done so on my own (though I wasn't looking for a move at the time). Also, time worked at a theme park or cruise ship is often valueable experience if you want to take some of the higher end jobs on a permanent production (Broadway, Cirque, etc.).


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## bbromund1 (Aug 9, 2012)

I did the internship last year and it was an amazing experiance. I worked with several amazing techs and managers. If you have any questions email me at [email protected]


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## chawalang (Aug 26, 2012)

I saw this is an older thread but I thought what the heck may as well throw my 2 cents in as a former employee of the rat in Orlando. So I worked for Disney straight out of college when I graduated and got to interact with a lot of the tech interns. In my opinion I would not do this internship. The interns really just sat around and observed everything they did not really get a chance to do much of anything. Another thing I noticed is that you were pretty much guaranteed an internship there if you were a petite hispanic girl. The individual there who did all the intern hiring at the time had a thing for petite hispanic girls, and I don’t mean this in a racist way, I’m Mexican While there the interns really had little positive things to say about their experience and wished they had taken other opportunities. The thing with Disney is if you are a person who has an opinion and you don't just go with the flow you will fail there. They don't look for people who are thinkers; they look for people who are yes mam yes sir people. As far as networking, there is very little opportunity. Most of the people who work there are lifers for one reason or another. As far as the full time gig there as it was mentioned before you will work your ass off and the pay there for the production personal has gone down as years have gone on. I actually have made more money with every gig I have taken in my post Disney career, some of the companies I have worked for have been in the same league as Disney and some have been smaller, my point being they low ball their production staff. The atmosphere is also super clique, so if your not that type of person then you wont get far. Another thing to think about is if you do work for them you pretty much need to move out of Florida once your done with them. Its pretty well known in Florida the lack of quality people that they have working for them so you almost blacklist yourself from most of the other opportunities you would have in the state. I would say when I was there, there were probably around 600 stage hands who were on property working in entertainment, out of them I would say 100 of them were capable of leaving there and continuing to work professionally. Keep in mind to Orlando is very expensive to live in so if you work there you will either have to live way outside the city, like I did, or have 3 or 4 room mates. You also have to keep in mind that they also hire a lot of full sail grads, mostly from the recording arts dept, so again that’s another negative thing you have to consider, unfortunately full sail doesn't have a very good rep in the industry. If I were you I would look at touring or working on a cruise ship right out of college, you will have a far more opportunities for networking and you will have more chances for the experience you are looking for to get yourself ahead. Especially if you want to get ALOT of hands on experience with a Grand MA or a Hog, get a lot of experience fixing moving lights, understanding how a lighting network works via Ethernet and with AMX systems and getting experience with 3 phase power systems. When Disney got rid of Disney Event Groups %80 of all the big concerts, trade shows and events went to PSAV. That’s another thing to, a big reason I left is because they were getting rid of production jobs. A little bit after I got there they got rid of their event show team and right before I left they shut down the main warehouse and liquidated all those jobs. So really they dumbed down alot of jobs to just working at a stage and paging a curtain all day. I know at SETC a lot of Cruise ship companies and tours go there to look for people. I would look to go there in the spring and putting yourself out there. So like I said that’s my two cents and I don’t mean to sound negative about the whole thing but that my experience of working for them in Orlando for two years.


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## millamber (Sep 2, 2012)

I was a part of this internship in college in the late '90s, so I'm not sure how or if it has changed, but I had a wonderful experience as a technical intern at Disney. I was given a position at the now defunct Pleasure Island, and spend the summer there running several different lighting consoles across 8 different nightclubs from 6pm to 2am. I was treated like a full time employee by everyone there and was welcomed to any conversation the techs had. The hardest thing for me was that once a week we were required to meet somewhere on property to learn different things about the internship. These meetings were always at 8 or 9 in the morning and since I had just worked until 2am, getting there was difficult. I really learned tons of stuff while there and it helped me become the tech I am today. I would recommend the program to anyone just starting out.


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