This struck a cord with me. I’m a managing attorney at a relatively small government agency and we have 80 lawyers. We have a great mix of ethnic diversity in our office (Latinx, old school Latinos, lawyers who identify as black and others who identify as African-American, Chinese, Japanese, API, LGBTQ, and even lu-Mien, to name a few), and we’re always looking to expand our diversity.
And we have two problems at attracting diverse talent. First, we're in Sacramento. I love Sacramento, but if you’re a new law school grad, the allure of Sacramento doesn’t compare to Southern California or San Francisco. So our hires tend to reflect the community we’re in—primarily white and Latin descent. Second, we’re a niche group of drafting attorneys. We don’t set policy, we don’t go to court. We research, draft, review, and edit documents all day long. I absolutely adore my job. But lawyers don’t generally jump out of bed with excitement to do what we do.
We constantly make job offers to People of Color, and for every one that says yes we have three or four who say no because they’re going to a big firm in San Francisco, they’re going to be a DA or Public Defender, they’re going to clerk for a judge, they’re going to work at a more “glamorous” state agency, etc.
Everyone on the podcast works for
Dreams Unlimited in some capacity (with the DVC Show being the outlier). Some work behind the scenes at Dreams. Some are travel agents. So the podcast isn’t just a bunch of Disney fans sitting around filming themselves for fun. They are part of the marketing arm of a
travel agency to get you excited to go to Orlando or to book a cruise through Dreams. Add to that the desire to be on camera, and to spend time filming podcasts in Pete’s house, you also have a niche field.
But
@Queen2PrincessG brings up a great point—is there anyone at Dreams who wants to do this and would add to the diversity?
None of us can really answer that question. Maybe the podcast is drawing the most diverse group it can from the talent it has available. Maybe they aren’t. But they said Dreams is hiring. It all starts there.