I’m hoping to gain some knowledge about the Disney management culture and how they perceive outsiders. I’m currently looking to apply from outside of the company (coming from O&G) for a position in Anaheim. How is management treated? How is lay determined? Are bonuses supplied? How easy/hard is it to develop a career path and move up through the company? Thanks in advance.
Everyone with a brain knows Disney is one of the most abusive places to work. I wish this app was restricted to FANG so I didn't have to see such stupid questions
Do you have a big appetite for workplace politics? It’s very hierarchical, with many layers of management and lots of senior people feel the need to jockey for influence to justify their titles. You will spend much of your day in large meetings where people print out 50-page decks and distribute them to all 30 people at the meeting, rather than just rely on people to follow along on the screen. In other words, no-one seems to trust tech and it’s very old school. Bonus awards are division specific. (Parks is doing well right now.)
I am in product management role - I would say mid-senior level regardless of my title. So I see both technology and business sides with some good amount of details. Here are my takeaways: Like most non-Bay Area companies, it’s a mixed bag. On one hand the traditional management style, sluggishly slow pace, huge overhead of governance/management which most call as politics and lots of furniture occupying key roles in tech as well as business side - this can make you throw up few times in your first few weeks. I have seen all of the lateral hires frustrated with this culture, and Bay Area talent can’t even stand it 🤦♂️ understandably. On the other hand it’s a target reach company where you will be able to do so much and make an impact that you can’t even imagine from outside. Imagine how a senior exec will think of your skills in using modern tools like G-suite (yes, it’s considered modern here) who still prints the entire deck, hand writes comments and asks a junior member to make edits because he is not good at Power Point 🙄 but in general people are very good, you get treated with respect and dignity. You do have to learn and practice how to network and socialize the Disney way. Don’t expect any idea to get sponsored without 10+ rounds of sing and dance 💃 to the same executives who relies on printing your deck 🤫 Another good thing is, Disney is making a sincere attempt to disrupt the leadership layer. Obviously they can’t risk losing what is printing cash for them now in attempt to compete with FAANG but slowly there are pockets of groups emerging who are working on shaping the future of the industry and the company. So if you land in one of those pockets- you get best of both the worlds! Good luck!
You’ve provided some incredible information. Seems like it’s the same at any company but I can see some benefits in what you said.
This post is only 3 months old and already so much has changed.
Is this for IT or management?
Management at Anaheim facility with a technology component to it.