The post you quoted is pretty misinformed. I've dabbled in visual departments for both the big resorts (via internships and shadowing throughout college) and met plenty of people in these creative/design teams that held set design majors. The important thing to remember is that your degree is just a piece of paper--what will get you a job is 1.) background 2.) experience and most of all 3.) passion. If you go and apply for Imagineering or Creative and sell them on you, your experience, and what you bring to the table, you'll have a much better shot at doing what you want to do vs just selling them on the title of your degree. My advice is to get as many connections as possible and INTERN while you can. I didn't do any internships in what my degree was for and it gave me a wide network and lots of good experience. While I'm currently looking at grad schools right now rather than full-time professional jobs, I'm sure that this will come in handy. Don't let anyone tell you no, people who are actually in the industry will tell you it's all about you rather than your diploma, especially in something as varied as Design (I bet some of those people don't even have degrees).
Agreed, I was going to say this as well. It's simply not true that scenic design doesnt have a large impact on theme parks. I know a number of designers who work for Disney and Universal, who work or have worked in Scenic Design, or hold a degree in it. Illustartion is another big field in Theme Park Design, but designing for physical enviroments that people will interact with is a bit different than illustrating it. But as OrlandoGuy says is its about YOU, the people you know, and opprotunities you attack.
Edit- Also CAD skills and 3D modeling is a HUGE plus. Learn as many different programs as you can (including Sketch-Up, its one of the first programs I get asked about when talking to theme park designers), be as good as you can with all of them, but be amazing in atleast one.
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