Since it was a much smaller program there was only one interview event so every applicant went on the same day to Leeds Beckett University. Unlike the Disney interview I just wanted to go there and back in a day so I could spend less time thinking about it so I never booked a hotel, I just got an open ended train ticket which meant leaving Glasgow at 4 in the morning to make it to Leeds for 8:30. I threw all my interview clothes in a bag to get changed at the other end, did my make up on the train and just hoped in a taxi straight from Leeds Train Station. This is where things started going wrong. Leeds Beckett University has tons of campuses all of the city so I ended up getting dropped off on the opposite side of the city to where my interview was. WHICH WAS IN 15 MINUTES! I wondered around aimlessly for 5 minutes with no credit on my phone, no internet absolutely lost all hope until I saw another girl looking just as lost as me. So i figured screw it maybe she's in the same situation I'll just go up and check. Thank god I did cause the same thing had happened to her and she managed to get a taxi number so we split the fair and made it with 2 minutes to spare! Now Yummy Jobs conduct all their interviews at their office in Essex so hopefully no one else has the same issue!
The whole day was set out the same to Disney except the presentation got you excited about Universal and all the hotels and perks of the job. Due to coming in last I never got to sign in so after the presentation they read out everyones interview times minus mine. I went up to ask them and I was giving the very first slot at 9am. So I headed straight upstairs following the presentation which was fantastic rather than spending 5 hours in a Starbucks! One girl in my interview group was actually at my Disney interview and one of the girls I hung out with all day. Due to me being a shy person though I assumed she had completely forgotten all about me!
So our interview was with Louise and there was a few more of us in the interview than Disney so there was more people to go around however Louise never had a scribe so this set my mind at ease rather than a silent person in the back writing down everything we say. I can't stress enough how much less stressed I was during the interview I gave myself deep breaths in-between questions, never stressed about answering first. Here's some of the questions they asked:
How do you feel about sharing a room?
What kind of culture would you like to get into?
What kind of things would you like to experience?
Where would you like to travel to after?
When I applied there was 4 hotels you could be placed at: Hard Rock Hotel, Portofino Bay Hotel, Royal Pacific Hotel & Cabana Bay Resort. Since then Sapphire Falls Resort has opened so the program will take on more people. The closest to the accommodation was Portofino Bay which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Next was Hard Rock which was about a 15/20 minute walk, those at Royal Pacific had to get a boat across to their hotel and the ones at Cabana Bay had to walk 30 minutes to Universal City Walk then take a bus to their hotel!
We had to tell Louise what our preferred role would be. If you want a higher chance, don't limit yourself. Very few people got on the program that only chose food and beverage. At the same time don't put your name down for a job if you know you can't do it. One girl got a job as a lifeguard and couldn't swim so she had to fake it all summer. The choices available were:
Lifeguard
Food and Beverage Busses
Food runner
Pool Attendants
Resort Door Greeters
Line Cooks
Food and Beverage Attendant
The highest paid role was lifeguard HOWEVER lifeguarding isn't a tipped position so those in food and beverage, although were paid less ended up getting a lot more money. Sometimes you can be lucky enough as a lifeguard to get tipped. One day over summer I got tipped $500 for finding a guests diamond from her engagement ring! The majority of jobs available were lifeguarding positions or pool attendants so I would highly recommend put your name down for at least one of these. Below is information on pay, jobs, hours of work etc...
Out of about 10 of us in the group 3 of us got on the program and here's a few tips I picked up on:
1. CHAT! Get chatty with the other applicants when asked questions and say if you agree and add to it. The majority of people in my group were really quiet and only the 3 of us really made conversation.
2. DON'T INSULT THE INTERVIEWER! You would think this would be common knowledge but there was a girl in my group who went on and on about how she's a make up artist and she has to look good on the job so she's perfect for a door greeter as she has a pretty face.. She also asked if she could work as a makeup artist on the side in America which it clearly stated in the presentation that you are only receiving a J1 visa not a working visa! she then went up to Louise and gave her a business card and offered to fix her makeup...
3. RELAX! Just chill everyone that got on the program that I met at the interviews were not stressed in the slightest. All the nervous people never got on.
At the time I didn't know whether there was a second interview or not but we heard back 2/3 days later (again Yummy Jobs had issues with emails so we all got them at different times). But nonetheless I got the job!
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