How do you get hired at an Apple Store?

Doctor Q · Oct 6, 2003

I have a friend who has lots of Mac experience and sales experience too. College age. He has applied online to work at three different Apple retail stores and has yet to hear back from any of them. No e-mail, no phone call, no interview appointment, nothing. He's gone to the stores in person, but the managers say "we only take applications online." Is his job application falling into a black hole, or does Apple have so many other qualified applicants that they don't bother contacting him? I'm really baffled how he could hear nothing back while we see new store after new store open.

maelstromr · Oct 6, 2003

apple store job snobs

From what I've experienced/understand it's really tough to get a job at apple stores. The main deal they want is someone who feels like they will be around a while (problem for college kids) and people with sale experience. If he doesn't have experience and is in that high mobility bracket, they may not be too interested.
IMO apple is fairly snooty about the way they do business and sales anyway...great quality company, only starting to get better at interacting with the consumer market.

morlium · Oct 6, 2003

i recently interviewed for a job at the Huntington, NY store, but was denied for obvious reasons -- mainly I'm a full-time reporter/editor with an inflexible schedule who is moving to Rhode Island in a few weeks.

anyway, the process is fairly simple. for one, once you apply for a particular job, your resume stays on file; however, the more that you apply for, the more your name will pop up. personally, i applied for part-time and full-time sales and tech positions, and the person who called me said that she had seen my name several times. so, persistance does work.

once you actually get a call, you will schedule a telephone interview which lasts anout 30 minutes or so. it's fairly straightforward, and is basically so the human resources dept. can get a feel for your personality and ability to intelligently answer questions on the spot without stumbing.

when that portion is done, you then move on to a face-to-face interview with the respective store manger(s). at this stage, it's basically a popularity/coolness test. no real pertinent questions were asked; they basically explained the position, fielded any questions i had, and sent me on my way.

i received an e-mail a few days later informing that i wasn't hired.

LimeLite · Oct 6, 2003

There are thousands of people applying for jobs at any given Apple store, and every time a new job is posted, there are already thousands of people who have their applications on file waiting for a call. It's a very tough job to get, but it isn't impossible.

joeyjojoe · Oct 6, 2003

if its so hard to get one of these jobs, why are most of the salespeople obnoxious idiots who don't help you? they all need to go through product training, and customer relations training.

alset · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by joeyjojoe
if its so hard to get one of these jobs, why are most of the salespeople obnoxious idiots who don't help you? they all need to go through product training, and customer relations training.

I don't know what store you are visiting, but the Bay Area stores are great. I'm very impressed by the staff.

Dan

LimeLite · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by alset
I don't know what store you are visiting, but the Bay Area stores are great. I'm very impressed by the staff.

Dan

I agree 100%.

beefcake · Oct 6, 2003

At the Apple store where I used to live (somewhere in NY- won't say where) some of the staff was very helpful and clearly qualified to do the job, but others had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. Before I bought my powerbook I was at the Apple store once a week and every time I went in the sales rep would contradict half of what the previous sales rep. said. One of them lied about customers that had been in the store, and another one held up a line of customers so she could play with the new bungee cord bags.

mislabeledstar · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by beefcake
one held up a line of customers so she could play with the new bungee cord bags.

can you blame her?

5300cs · Oct 6, 2003

I went to the Apple store in the Cambridge Side Galleria in Boston once, and the sales people all looked like a bunch of hippies. They were standing around in a group talking to each other while the customers were surfing the internet. Then in a span of 5 minutes I had 3 different people ask me if I needed any help.

That's not the best customer service I've ever seen, but then again on the other hand, I didn't ask them any specific questions, so I won't say that they were dumb.

I'd have to go neutral...

Besides, MicroCenter (at least in Boston) or CompUSA are MUCH worse

iJon · Oct 6, 2003

yeah i never liked the apple stores. many of them are just arrogant (imagine that, an arrogant mac user) and never helped you. they were to busy playing with other stuff. and i cant recall how many times ive heard that genious talk to a customer and not know whats wrong, but overhearing him i knew what was wrong, same with my dad knowing what was wrong too. but we never want to make them feel bad so we never say anything. hopefully most of them have been through apple's sales and training course, a very good experience for anyone who wants to work at an apple store.

iJon

ColoJohnBoy · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by joeyjojoe
if its so hard to get one of these jobs, why are most of the salespeople obnoxious idiots who don't help you? they all need to go through product training, and customer relations training.

I hope you've never had an experience like that. All Apple employees DOgo through product and customer service training. Never at my store did we have a single customer complaint regarding an employee lacking knowledge of a product or treating a customer poorly.

You should probably withold judgment, and not base an opinion on one isolated experience or a few bad days.

ColoJohnBoy · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by ColoJohnBoy
I hope you've never had an experience like that. All Apple employees DO go through product and customer service training. Never at my store did we have a single customer complaint regarding an employee lacking knowledge of a product or treating a customer poorly.

You should probably withold judgment, and not base an opinion on one isolated experience or a few bad days.

LimeLite · Oct 6, 2003

Haha, sorry, but I think we've now discovered something worse than a double post! Qouting yourself without even adding anything to it!

Anyway, good luck to anyone still trying to get a job at an Apple store. It might take a year of being persistent, but it'll pay off.

Steradian · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by alset
I don't know what store you are visiting, but the Bay Area stores are great. I'm very impressed by the staff.

Dan

Eh the Guy at the Mac bar in the valley fair store isn't too nice, he knows his ***** but he certainly isn't a people person. Although some people at the register are rather nice, some are a little "fresh", converts whos had sales experiance and applied for the job, they are a lot less helpful. Esp. for older systems like the ones that my school uses...eh I will have them all up to 10.2 so help me god...</rant> Anyway...yeah gettin a Job there seems rather difficult, however maybe getting a Job at frys as the Mac specialist would be good eh? Sure no apple discount...but frys rebates

LimeLite · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by Steradian
Eh the Guy at the Mac bar in the valley fair store isn't too nice, he knows his ***** but he certainly isn't a people person. Although some people at the register are rather nice, some are a little "fresh", converts whos had sales experiance and applied for the job, they are a lot less helpful. Esp. for older systems like the ones that my school uses...eh I will have them all up to 10.2 so help me god...</rant> Anyway...yeah gettin a Job there seems rather difficult, however maybe getting a Job at frys as the Mac specialist would be good eh? Sure no apple discount...but frys rebates

I've worked at Fry's. My recommendation? Don't work there. Or if you must, avoid the Campbell one, the one on Hamilton Ave. God I hated working there so much.

mnkeybsness · Oct 6, 2003

don't mention ever posting on macrumors or other rumor related sites. that's a big red flag for them.

and it's always better to apply in person and try to speak with a manager and make a good impression...basically, sell yourself to them.

iJon · Oct 6, 2003

Originally posted by mnkeybsness
don't mention ever posting on macrumors or other rumor related sites. that's a big red flag for them.

and it's always better to apply in person and try to speak with a manager and make a good impression...basically, sell yourself to them.

remember that one guy who worked at an apple store, and he had screen shots of internal apple software on his website, and someone got in and posted them. his ass was grass the next day.

iJon

yamabushi · Oct 6, 2003

Mac stores

I have to say I have been generally pleased with the service at Mac stores I have visited. The Mall of America store people were knowledgeable and friendly. They didn't come buy to ask me if I needed help very often, but I think that's a good thing. They weren't too pushy.

The best service I have seen was at several Mac stores in Japan. They were absolutely wonderful. Strangely enough, the competing PC stores in Japan seemed a little disappointing because the sales staff were rarely knowledgeable. I visited several hundred different computer and electronics stores all over Japan.

joeyjojoe · Oct 7, 2003

okay so i guess i'm being a little brash with my comments. still, the apple stores i've been to have nothing compared to even best buy in terms of service (thats pretty bad since all the best buys have 16 year old gamers working there). the apple store in Willowbend Mall (Plano, Tx) was horrible. all the salespeople look totally unkept. i don't have a problem with a casual atmosphere, but scruffy looking doesn't convey a good impression. plus, the guys i dealt with, couldn't even use isync correctly (i could, and i hadn't even switched over by then). then they went on a rant about how the powerbook wasn't going to be replaced until january (this was mid july). i mean seriously, don't display something unless you know what you're doing, and don't answer questions you don't know the answer to. the apple stores in The Grove (Los Angeles, CA) and Santa Monica had people unwilling to even ask questions. i finally found one guy at the grove who was both competent and willing to help ... to bad i forgot his name or i would have called apple service and told them he was the only one doing a good job. the mac genius at the grove was a complete jackass and told me i should never be doing what i was asking him about (transferring email from my pc via thunderbird and then importing into mail.app).

i know people who work for apple, and one of them even went with me once ... he was also outraged at the service. i know apple is trying to get good customer service, but i don't know what was wrong with the people i dealt with.

How do you get hired at an Apple Store?

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