Theme parks offer a wide variety of jobs — from waiters and servers and store cashiers to ride attendants to monorail drivers to musical and character performers to just about every "back of house" job you can imagine. Work in auto-repair shop? You could get a job maintaining fleet and ride vehicles for a theme park. Do accounting? Yeah, theme parks need to keep track of their money, too. Work in health care? Theme parks not only have first-aid stations for guests, some of them now even operate health clinics for their employees, too. Heck, several former senior Disney Imagineers have talked about all the former defense industry workers that Disney hired to help design attractions after the big layoffs among defense contractors in the Los Angeles area after the end of the Cold War.
Ultimately, though, it's the pay that keeps many theme park fans from chasing their dreams. Few front-line, in-park jobs pay more than $10 per hour. Plenty of back of house employees earn enough to make a career, but in-park attraction, cashier, server, and entertainment positions typically see high turnover rates, as employees/cast members/team members either move on to school, other careers, or better-paying jobs elsewhere in the company.
Still, wouldn't some of these jobs be fun? Some people do find ways to be able to afford to stay in low-paying jobs. When I worked at Disney World, I saw many positions held by retirees who relied on their pensions for their livelihood and came out to work in the parks just for the joy and satisfaction of it. I even encountered a few younger employees who never seemed to be short of cash, despite their job's low pay. Former lottery winner? Trust-fund baby? Graduate of the Walter White School of Supplementary Income? I never knew.
So let's set aside financial concerns for a moment to ask... if you didn't have to worry about money and could work any job in a theme park, what would that job be?
To make this our Vote of the Week, we'll offer the choice of five categories:
Let's put it to a vote! Please pick the category that includes your particular dream job.
In the comments, tell us the specifics of your theme park dream job. Or, if you do work or have worked in a theme park, tell us about that experience.
Of course the best perk is getting to work with me! (Okay, even *I* now think I'm being a troll!) - Paula
My son is a ride op at Knott's and loving it. He did games his first summer and stayed with it. Just sticking it out and showing up on time got him moving up quickly.
I guess I should get myself motivated again and not give up on that dream...
And, yes, will we accept payment in the form of Thunderbird front-of-line passes.
Basically come to work in a bad mood and you're ready to rock and roll! Lol.
I'm sad that very soon they will no longer piloted like they used to - Automation is soon going to be taking over
Sadly, they are highly selective jobs and most have to pass auditions in several rounds. Pay is only slightly above minimum wage. Bad wages doesn't make a dream job. BUT if you're Johnny Depp, you can do a Disneyland première and get paid millions. That's a dream job. And you get a double in Pirates of the Caribbean. How's that for having it all.
For years and years and years, my ultimate dream was to be an orca trainer at SeaWorld. When most teenage girls had pictures of Duran Duran and Wham on their walls, my bedroom was papered with posters of whales and sharks.
Ultimately, my weakness in math and the upper sciences, my abhorrence of the thought of actually LIVING in Orlando and my preference for hot water over cold derailed my dreams of a marine biology degree and whale training. But it was a dream that sustained me for years.... And that, to this day, leaves my INCREDIBLY conflicted when the issue of orcas in captivity comes up....
After visiting Disneyland my other dream job would be Alice in the Mad T Party :-).
Or ToT operator - they always see to have the most fun!
And by "conflicted", I only mean about the general issues of orcas in captivity. I still love SeaWorld and will defend it to the ends of the earth -- the good work it does in education, research and rehab is so important.
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