First Day

After my post on Saturday, I finally finished unpacking. I managed to fit my clothes and personal items in only half the drawers in case a new roomie comes in. I am very proud of myself. I ran to the outlet mall with Corinne to get her shoes since she is Guest Relations and needs a specific kind. During our outing, it started down pouring, ruining fireworks plans for later. Instead, our neighbors came over for an intense game of Disney Scene It.

Most people started work on Sunday, so I had the apartment to myself. I woke up early, went to the gym, caught up on my photo uploads and then became epically bored. As soon as I was about to get up and run to Wal Mart for odds and ends, it again started monsooning, so I popped in Sex and the City. One season and one disc later, I knew I was in bad shape. Luckily, Brandon, who I met during check-in, rescued me with a little Toy Story 2.

So today was my first official day on the job! My first day of orientation was in the morning, located backstage at Hollywood Studios. It was pretty awesome driving next to the Tower of Terror on my way into work. They had a little breakfast for us with coffee, bagels, muffins, fruit etc. The morning stated off with introductions and an ice-breaker with all the interns and the leaders/coaches. Each intern has a leader, coach and mentor. Your leader gives performance evaluations while you work with your coach day to day, and your mentor is from a different department that helps you with your professional career and such.

Throughout the morning we got an overview of the structure of finance in addition to what to expect over the internship, along with business etiquette and how to use our resources. I was really excited to hear about the program - they really take care of us, mold us I guess. They put us through a lot of training classes, including a class which we have to do a group presentation. The overview reminded me of the Finance class I took on my college program. At the end of the program we have to give a presentation on the long term project that we'll be assigned in our department.

Around noon, my coach, Duranne - who I spoke with several times and met on Friday at the Toy Story 3 party, picked me up for lunch. My leader was supposed to join us, but he was held up in a meeting. We ate at Olivia's at Old Key West, and chatted about the department. After lunch, we headed back to the Studio's and I got to sit in on one a talk. Every month this year they have a finance executive speak about a cause they believe in and then have some sort of fundraiser or volunteer event. The speaker was coming from CA, hooked up via video conference.

After the meeting, I followed Duranne back to the office which is right by Animal Kingdom. The office used to be a mall (how appropriate!). Maneuvering through is difficult - it will take me awhile to get used to the turns and such. I was introduced to some of the staff, including my leader Adam. I was led to my cube which had a nice welcome sign and Up! poster. I spent the remainder of my work day (which wasn't much) setting up my computer, and looking out my schedule - making sure I had everything in my calendar.

In addition to all the training classes, they set up meet and greets for me with each of the people in my area. I also have opportunities to do little meet and greets with managers in other finance areas to learn about what they do.

Overall, I am pleased with the program so far. They really want to develop us and that will be really beneficial for whichever career path I choose. Tomorrow I have a couple meet and greets, and then I'll probably work on some of the web based training they have set up for me. My first in class training is on Thursday, and day 2 of orientation is on Monday. During day 2 of orientation, I have lunch with executives and get to go on some attractions!

I was insanely nervous, I mean when I walked in, I felt completely out of place. I started wondering if this is really for me. But then during orientation, I heard the words I needed to hear. I was told that I'm never going to find that class that tells me how to do my job, that they're not expecting me to know what to do right off the bat. They'll show us, train us.

This is going to be a really good test if finance is the route for me. If it's not, then who knows!!

It's only the beginning =)