Disney Direct Plush Intern Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Placement year at The Walt Disney Company. I feel I have learn't a lot about business and how to develop a design. I have had the chance to ork alongside factories, creating plush toys. I have learn't about costings and ammending design to suit distributors needs. I hae attended distributor meetings, toy fairs and hae had the chance to design and develop products, including research into the market and materials. However, I have also had to complete general day to day tasks, answering emails, sending parcels and uploading images and documents to the approval system. In periods it has been very quiet with not much to do. Which is why I have only given a 7.

I have felt ery valued as a team member and have been relied upon to keep the business going. I got along very well with my colleagues in a professional but friendly manner. The offie has been laid back but proffesional. I will keep in contact with some of my colleagues.

I have always been able to ask questions and seek help if unsure. However, there have been some quiet periods where I haven't had much to do and have felt I wasn't being given much guidance. Then I would have to occupy myself and find things to do. However, for most of the year I have been given different tasks and responisbilities. I have had help if unsure on a task.

There have been many quiet periods during my time in the Plush department, I have had to occupy myself and find tasks to do. There have also been extremely busy periods which I preffered. Leading up to distributor meetings there was a lot of preparation. Only occasionally did I feel it was a perfect balance.

Our team during my placement became extremely small, people left to go on maternity leave or to pursue other careers. Through all these changes I was given a big amount of responsiblity and treated more like an associate rather than an intern. It has been a great challenge for me and given me a chance to prove myself. I was also tasked with training the maternity cover person when they started which felt like a big responsibilty.

I am a Product Design student. Throughout this Placement I have been undergoing a development role which has been useful for my final year, showing me what happens when the design goes to manufacture and teaching me more about production, costing and materials/processes. I haven't been doing much design but have dabbled in it and done lots of market research. I have had leson from the designers in photoshop and illustrator which will be useful for final year. I have a better knowledge of how business applies to product design.

The office has been very laid back but also very proffessional. We have general chats, but never messed around. Occasionally, it would be dull if my manager was very busy but I wasn't. We had the radio on but occasionally I would but my headphones in to keep myself entertained through the boring tasks.

This internship post has been going for many years, there was plenty of handover documents and notes to inform me on the role. I only had a few issues at the beginning with waiting for different software to be set up. This was only because of a backlog of requests due to many interns starting at the same time. That is the only reason it isn't a 10.

I have attended many talks from industry proffessionals. I have had illustartion and photoshop lessons. I have done plenty of online training courses and learn't a lot of industry tips from my colleagues. I have been fortunate to attend a company who host a lot of different guest speakers in lecture style presentations about tech and industry and business.

Many people who work at Disney have informed me that they used to be interns. I would love to return to the company after I graduate and now that I have my foot in the door I will keep my ear to the ground and listen out for jobs going when I graduate.

There were many social events withing the consumer products floor including a Chistmas Team Day. There were many after work socials, Halloween parties etc. There was also a Winter Ball for all Disney Interns.

Living in London meant that rent, food and drink prices were very high. I didn't have much of my wages left over every month. Over half would go on rent and the rest on food, drink and tourism as I wanted to make the most of my year in London.

I am not one for nightlife but In london there is a whole host of bars, clubs and pubs.

I attended many volunteering events both within and outside of the company. All hosted by Disney. I volunteered at the Ideal Home Show for two days, collecting money for a chirty called Maggies. I also volunteered within the company for the young enterprise charity where shcool children set up a business. I also occasionally went out for meals with my team, team building exercises.