Moving to Orlando from California- WDW 'Stage Tech' job offered (South Bay: living, storage)

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Summer Rose

People only work at Disney to put it on their resume.
Which means you'll have to move far away from Orlando for any one to be impressed. No one here cares.
If you are a guy don't expect to meet any hot chicks at work.
It's a butch line of work. Yucky.
And if you are a chick don't expect to met any hot guys in that line of work.
Just creepy weirdos. Yucky.

Sara without an H, is that you lol

https://youtu.be/FSNasZ5W_8A

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by Summer Rose

People only work at Disney to put it on their resume.
Which means you'll have to move far away from Orlando for any one to be impressed. No one here cares.
If you are a guy don't expect to meet any hot chicks at work.
It's a butch line of work. Yucky.
And if you are a chick don't expect to met any hot guys in that line of work.
Just creepy weirdos. Yucky.

LOL... Far from the truth.
Plenty of people have established careers at Disney, and retire with some pretty good retirement plans from there.

Also, I know quite a few attractive women who work for Disney.

Nevertheless, if you're trying to hook up with "hot chicks at work" you have some SERIOUS growing up to do.

[stablegenius]

If this is a dream of yours I say go for it, but leave yourself an out in case you want to go back. My wife and I moved here a year ago and it looks like we are likely going back. Her job is still in San Diego, so that made it easy. The heat is not as bad as everyone says, but still hard to get used to, unless you really, REALLY like warm weather. I don't mind it during the day so much, but what bothers me is that it doesn't cool off at night. That's something I hadn't considered before moving out.

Less than half is a big jump, but the Bay Area is expensive. I'll say that there are many costs that offset the COL here. Property taxes are higher, rents are actually pretty high compared to just buying, which is weird to me. It ends up that we're not really saving as much as we thought. I miss my family (didn't think I would) I miss my friends (didn't think I would). Part of the issue is that my wife still works out there, so we never made a clean break and she's going back a lot. That means emotionally she hasn't separated from San Diego. Like I said, if it's a dream, try it, but leave yourself an out. And rent a small one bedroom apartment or get a roommate. One of my main regrets was buying more house than we need because now I have yardwork and cooling costs to consider...

[WellShoneMoon]

Disney is a great place to work IF (big IF) you have an advanced degree or a skill set in an area that Disney thinks is important. The employees on the top of the Disney food chain are treated very well, in terms of salary, benefits, and perks.

For everyone else, however, Disney is not considered to be a benevolent employer. If you start in a low-level job at Disney you can expect to stay there for as long as you can stand it. You have to improve your skill set in order to get ahead at Disney.

I have one family member whose life-long dream had always been to work at Disney. After getting his bachelor's degree, he was hired in a low-level position, and has stayed there for years hoping to be promoted. He's finally beginning to realize that that's not going to happen, and he's starting to look around for a better-paying job, but they're few and far between in Orlando.

I have another family member who has advanced degrees and work experience in an area critical to Disney, and she's making quite a good salary, and enjoys wonderful benefits and perks. She's been with Disney for less time than the family member described in the paragraph above.

And I have a third family member who is probably one of Disney's most highly-paid employees. He never did finish his bachelor's degree, but he's got skills and experience that Disney needs, and he's been a dedicated employee for many years. His workaholic Disney-first attitude probably helped break up his marriage, but that's another story.

[Thatsright19]

Originally Posted by WellShoneMoon

Disney is a great place to work IF (big IF) you have an advanced degree or a skill set in an area that Disney thinks is important. The employees on the top of the Disney food chain are treated very well, in terms of salary, benefits, and perks.

For everyone else, however, Disney is not considered to be a benevolent employer. If you start in a low-level job at Disney you can expect to stay there for as long as you can stand it. You have to improve your skill set in order to get ahead at Disney.

I have one family member whose life-long dream had always been to work at Disney. After getting his bachelor's degree, he was hired in a low-level position, and has stayed there for years hoping to be promoted. He's finally beginning to realize that that's not going to happen, and he's starting to look around for a better-paying job, but they're few and far between in Orlando.

I have another family member who has advanced degrees and work experience in an area critical to Disney, and she's making quite a good salary, and enjoys wonderful benefits and perks. She's been with Disney for less time than the family member described in the paragraph above.

And I have a third family member who is probably one of Disney's most highly-paid employees. He never did finish his bachelor's degree, but he's got skills and experience that Disney needs, and he's been a dedicated employee for many years. His workaholic Disney-first attitude probably helped break up his marriage, but that's another story.

You seem to know quite a bit about Disney. Do they treat their employees secondary in celebration compared to Burbank? Let’s say I’m in a high end professional occupation and come in with pretty decent salary and benefits. I’m not entry level. What’s the opportunity like in celebration? What’s the work life balance like?

Why do i continue to hear it’s so hard to move up there? I see that over and over. But then they ranted and raved about how they only bring in the best from around the country and do what it takes to keep those people? They let them fly. So, which is it?

[bmw335xi]

Professional skilled positions are treated well, entry level are not treated well... thst is what I’ve heard.

[Good Red Road]

In Orlando the in-house gigs will never pay, be that hotel or theme park or anything else. It’s not like Vegas where a monitor mix position at Cirque or similar are almost tenured and pay really well.

Working at Disney would be fine for a period but eventually you’ll probably want to go freelance. A good A1 in Orlando can easily make six figures but you’ll need to market yourself well. Since IATSE has very little presence in Orlando seniority doesn’t matter, and that’s a good thing, because if you’re good you will rise to the top of call lists quickly. Good Luck.

[caracine]

I appreciate everybody taking the time to post their replies. You all gave me wise insight to living/working for WDW there.

This forum has been a valuable tool regarding my moving to Florida or not (from California).

To be honest, I haven't made up my mind yet but will do so soon.

Have a great day. Stay cool. 72 F here in the South Bay Area. I'm afraid to ask what the temp is in central Florida.

Thanks,
Chris

[WellShoneMoon]

Originally Posted by Thatsright19

You seem to know quite a bit about Disney. Do they treat their employees secondary in celebration compared to Burbank? Let’s say I’m in a high end professional occupation and come in with pretty decent salary and benefits. I’m not entry level. What’s the opportunity like in celebration? What’s the work life balance like?

Why do i continue to hear it’s so hard to move up there? I see that over and over. But then they ranted and raved about how they only bring in the best from around the country and do what it takes to keep those people? They let them fly. So, which is it?

Sorry, I don't know anything about what goes on in California. (And BTW, Disney in Florida is not in Celebration.) All I know is what my family members who are employed by Disney in Florida have told me.

As far as work-life balance is concerned, it depends on your Disney occupation. Most Disney employees, I would imagine, have pretty decent work-life balance. However, one of my family members has to do a lot of traveling for his Disney job -- to California pretty frequently, and also to other Disney properties in foreign countries.

As to your second paragraph, there is a marked difference between how Disney treats its lower-level employees and its upper-level employees. For the lower-level employees, it is very difficult to move up in the organization. But as to the upper-level employees, yes, Disney does bring in the best from around the country and treat them well. They tend to be loyal Disney employees, and stay in their jobs a long time.

[ngrome]

Originally Posted by WellShoneMoon

Disney is a great place to work IF (big IF) you have an advanced degree or a skill set in an area that Disney thinks is important. The employees on the top of the Disney food chain are treated very well, in terms of salary, benefits, and perks.

For everyone else, however, Disney is not considered to be a benevolent employer. If you start in a low-level job at Disney you can expect to stay there for as long as you can stand it. You have to improve your skill set in order to get ahead at Disney.

I have one family member whose life-long dream had always been to work at Disney. After getting his bachelor's degree, he was hired in a low-level position, and has stayed there for years hoping to be promoted. He's finally beginning to realize that that's not going to happen, and he's starting to look around for a better-paying job, but they're few and far between in Orlando.

I have another family member who has advanced degrees and work experience in an area critical to Disney, and she's making quite a good salary, and enjoys wonderful benefits and perks. She's been with Disney for less time than the family member described in the paragraph above.

And I have a third family member who is probably one of Disney's most highly-paid employees. He never did finish his bachelor's degree, but he's got skills and experience that Disney needs, and he's been a dedicated employee for many years. His workaholic Disney-first attitude probably helped break up his marriage, but that's another story.

Originally Posted by Thatsright19

You seem to know quite a bit about Disney. Do they treat their employees secondary in celebration compared to Burbank? Let’s say I’m in a high end professional occupation and come in with pretty decent salary and benefits. I’m not entry level. What’s the opportunity like in celebration? What’s the work life balance like?

Why do i continue to hear it’s so hard to move up there? I see that over and over. But then they ranted and raved about how they only bring in the best from around the country and do what it takes to keep those people? They let them fly. So, which is it?

I worked at Disney short of a year. Although I enjoyed the free passes for my family, there were long hours, I was getting paged a lot after hours, there's a lot of stress involved in making that "magic" for our guests. If you like chaos and non-stop action, Disney is the place to work. I did not work in an office, I supported IT operations in the theme parks and resorts, maybe it's the nature of my job, but it wasn't something I wanted to do for the long term, at least the pace of it over there, otherwise I'd still be there. Like WellShone said, if you have a valued skill or established yourself as having one, you'll be taken care of, but otherwise you're just another number in the crowd, that's my perspective working there.