Working at the Apple Store

[SpyderBite]

I was one of three hired from the initial orientation group interview which about 50 people attended. I too only had two interviews. But the other two later told me they had 4 or 5 interviews before we started training.

Might be different since I was hired for family room and moved in to gyog in a couple of months. The other two were hired as specialists.

 

[AppleGoat]

Get over it, you don't have what Apple wants, that other "loser" did. Not sure what you want to hear.

I guess I didn't but it irks me that Apple is as selective as an Ivy League college and then you walk into the store and find someone who is either disinclined to help you or does knows little about the products. Of course they hire many great people; who are more personable and qualified than I am -- but the past few years I've encountered far too many people who don't deserve to work at a place that is as selective as Apple is.

 

[question fear]

I guess I didn't but it irks me that Apple is as selective as an Ivy League college and then you walk into the store and find someone who is either disinclined to help you or does knows little about the products. Of course they hire many great people; who are more personable and qualified than I am -- but the past few years I've encountered far too many people who don't deserve to work at a place that is as selective as Apple is.

I've never hired for Apple but I've hired for retail before. Sometimes it's as simple as personality-the manager likes one person better, we liked everyone the same and just hired based on who answered the phone/cleared the background check first, one person asked for less money than the other...there's not always a definitive "You did X right and Y wrong" so much as little things you can't control.

BTW, the "we have three slots and four candidates-hire the first three who clear all the hurdles" selection process was the most common reason someone did/did not get hired. It sucks, but sometimes it's just a matter of the timing not working out great.

 

[Felasco]

I wish, not only Apple, but most employers would have the decency to send out rejection letters.

I couldn't agree more, but perhaps without intending to Apple is teaching you something important and of true value?

Big corporations, however glamorous their products may be, will never give a crap about you. You'll always be nothing but a disposable commodity to them, no matter how far up the corporate gulag pecking order you might rise. After all, they even rudely threw Steve Jobs out of Apple, right?

If you're young, be grateful that you still have time to learn this important lesson, before you get permanently locked in to corporate gulag gig by 3 kids and a mortgage etc.

Forget about begging people for a job, people who don't have the decency to spend 30 seconds to email you the outcome of the hours you've invested in them. That lack of decency will not be magically cured the moment you get the job.

If you have to, get a pickup truck and a lawnmower and build your own business, your own reputation, your own customer list. Be free, not a slave begging for crumbs at the feet of your corporate masters.

 

[AppleGoat]

If you have to, get a pickup truck and a lawnmower and build your own business, your own reputation, your own customer list. Be free, not a slave begging for crumbs at the feet of your corporate masters.

Even as a business owner, you must grovel for patronage and customers. You always have to please someone, it's quixotic to think otherwise. You're right that Apple's lack of courtesy to call is just the tip of the iceberg. I love Apple's products and their sense of aesthetic, but it's difficult to reconcile that with the disingenuousness I experienced going through the interview process. When all the job candidates and I walked into the hiring event, they lined up and applauded us. I thought to myself, "Why are they applauding us? What have we done? Applaud us when we get the job." I've spent upwards 7-8 hours interviewing with Apple over the years, and haven't worked a minute in the store. Time to move on.

Perhaps, I was a little out of line for calling them "losers;" I wrote it more for effect than anything else.

 

[Felasco]

Even as a business owner, you must grovel for patronage and customers. You always have to please someone, it's quixotic to think otherwise.

Yes, you're right, this is true.

There is however a fundamental difference between having one customer (a job) and having 100 customers (your own business). The power relationship is different.

You always have to please someone, but you don't have to please any one in particular. As you become more successful with your own business, you have the option to only please the nice people, the people who respect you.

In a corporate environment, you have to please whoever has been placed above you in the pecking order. They'll probably feel as trapped as you will, and they can't vent their frustration up the chain, so...

You're right that Apple's lack of courtesy to call is just the tip of the iceberg. I love Apple's products and their sense of aesthetic, but it's difficult to reconcile that with the disingenuousness I experienced going through the interview process.

To me, Apple's personality as a company is well represented by the pros and cons of Steve Job's personality. Some of it's really cool, and some of it's really not.

 

[gadgetgirl85]

I got to the group interview but didn't make it past that. I thought I said the right things. I probably had more tech knowledge than most of them there but obviously wasn't to be.