The Making of Harry Potter is a great attraction with an insight into the creation of the Harry Potter films and the entire universe. I have visited many times and have loved every moment, drinking it all in and aiming to go back every time, a new area or set had been added.
Read the full attraction review here – Warner Bros. Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter Review
Coming to the end of my Masters, I wanted to look for jobs that gave me a new challenge but nurtured a love for my creativity and a passion of mine. I had been searching for a few weeks when I saw on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour’s Facebook page that they were hiring for an interactor tour guide position. I considered my previous experience and capabilities, and couldn’t have imagined a better role for myself. I then tailored my CV and application accordingly, shortlisting my past experiences that related most to the position, these were previous roles such as; my role as a student ambassador at both Bournville College and De Montfort University, my role on the fundraising committee at Birmingham PHAB Camp, and my job as a producer on Demon FM.
After four weeks of no responses from the company, neither through my email or mobile, I assumed I was unsuccessful in the position. I checked my email another time and saw I had received an email saying that I had been shortlisted. I felt absolutely stunned by the change and looked at what to do next.
They had asked me to do a video interview, and after previous roles being a face to face interview, I was nervous to see that it was the next step of my application. I asked for advice from friends who had done video interviews before, and they made me feel at ease and helped me with practice questions. I was anxious to see at first that there was limited time to answer the questions during the interview, but then noticed that there was an option for disabilities and thankfully gave me more time to answer the questions. During the video interview I was allowed three attempts in total to answer the question before submitting and I was grateful for this chance. I have a tendency to stumble over my words but I overcame this with the practice questions. During the interview, I tried to remember all of the duties and expectations required of the role while trying to relate it back to my previous job experiences. I tried throughout the whole interview to add personal touches while expressing my own love for the tour, and showcasing how I could share my passion with other hardcore fans like me. Not long after submitting my video interview, I got email confirmation saying that the video interview alongside the rest of the information I had to fill out, such as my availability and wage expectations had been added alongside my application. All I had to do now was to wait. As I anxiously doubted my answers to the interview questions, I received an email from that and dreaded opening it. Beyond my surprise, I was speechless to see they invited me to an assessment day.
Leading up to the assessment day I was very very nervous and hardly slept. Warner Bros Studio Tour called me and reviewed what I needed to prepare for the assessment day. They sent me a script to memorise to perform that day with eagerness while also remembering to give as much eye contact as I could. I had never been very good at memorising monologues for English at school but I was actually quite surprised how quickly I picked up on the script. I guess it just shows how my previous visits to the tour and hearing the script performed out loud became helpful in learning it. I also made sure to brush up on my Harry Potter knowledge and just prepare for the day as best as I could.
On the assessment day I had to get up very early to be able to get there on time. It was weird to be there on the tour but not as a visitor this time. Other applicants were there, all friendly and Harry Potter enthusiasts like myself which was a great chance to geek out with fellow fans. They were also really good support when performing the script. I liked how we performed to each other and all in the same boat and we bantered with each other through the day. It took a lot of the pressure off and I was just able to enjoy the day. During one of the exercises, we had to draw a random item out of a bag and unfortunately I grabbed a deluxe tour ticket and was completely off guard by it. I tried to draw on as much as I knew about the tour and my own media knowledge while expressing my appreciation for the tour itself. The overall structure of the day involved a number of exercises and assessments for the company to gauge our personalities and skill sets before offering individuals an interview. I prepared myself for the worse, thinking I’d be going home at lunchtime and not continuing on to the interview process.
I was offered an interview and was over the moon. I was one of the first to be called and became super nervous. I can’t say for sure how the interview went as it was such a blur but I think I answered all of the questions to the best of my abilities. However I will say that as the interview went on, I began to realise the questions weren’t tailored to the interactor role. On this assessment day, they were hiring two positions; the interactor role and an admission host role. Halfway through the interview, they finally informed me that they were in fact interviewing me for the admission host position despite that it was not the job I had applied for. I could have done with knowing this information before the interview started, as my answers were not catered to the admission host role. This unfortunately is one of the reasons my interview was not successful, as I showed more enthusiasm towards the interactor role.
Three weeks later, I received a phone call from them. They had informed me that I was not successful in securing the role. I was then provided with feedback from the assessment day and interview. The feedback I received was that I had repeated myself and had a tendency to go off on a tangent, but I feel that this was related to my nerves on the day. For future roles I want to work on my interview preparation now that I know the expectation of the company, and then may consider applying to Warner Bros in six months time. I am very upset I didn’t get the role but I have learnt how to complete a video interview and absolutely thrived on the assessment day.
The Life of Sophie 