Hiring Story #98

The hiring process has its variabilities--sometimes it's an interview at a coffee shop, and sometimes it more formal, as this story shows.

After applying, I received an email inviting me to a meeting for applicants, so they could get to know each other and the staff of the store, and as the hiring team evaluated us to make final job offers. The e-mail also asked for more of my background information, including any retail and Mac experience, and why I wanted to work for Apple.

The meeting was held at another Apple store after it closed for the day. There were about 20 applicants there. Once we had all arrived, store management performed introductions, and told us they were going to be hiring a some of us to fill various positions, including Mac Specialist and Back of House positions.

We were asked to go around the room, introduce ourselves, tell why we wanted to work for Apple, and something unique or interesting about ourselves. As other people began their introductions, I could already tell the environment was going to be very competitive. It seemed like each person had a better answer and was more passionate about the products.

Next, they surprised us by giving us five minutes to create an "About Me" page in Pages that included a picture of ourselves. At this point I was feeling pretty good because I have quite a bit of experience with Pages and most of the people there, even though they had called themselves Mac fanatics not ten minutes ago, barely even knew what Pages was. A few even asked, "How do you take a picture with this thing?" We all quickly laid out our pages and printed them out.

The next little experiment was a bit of a curveball. They went around the room again but this time they asked us, "If you were in a circus, what role would you play and why?" The catch is that no one could say the same thing that anyone else had already said. It was interesting to hear the responses as it went around the room. The management said that they always asked this question to new applicants and that there was a "secret" to the question but the answer supposedly told a lot about the applicant.

Next we were put into small groups and given half an hour to create "a project that tells us something you all have in common." They gave us free reign on what to use to create the project and gave us no direction at all really. Most people used iMovie to create short little funny videos.

After this experiment they sat us down and talked very briefly about some of the expectations and requirements for the position. They then had us fill out our final applications online, and then there was a short Q&A session for us before the meeting was over.

Overall I thought the event was very nice, and it was very indicative of the way Apple and the Apple stores work as a whole. Everyone was laid-back but passionate about the company. All the employees who introduced themselves and talked about working at the store were just gushing about how wonderful it was. It got me so pumped about wanting to work there and it made me realize how different the place really is from other retailers. Also, I liked the fact that they gave us creative freedom. When we had to do our projects, there weren't many rules and we got to work on any of the Macs we wanted to.

So then comes the fun part. Somewhat later I filled out the forms for the required background check. After that I received a phone call from an assistant manager who gave me a job offer, saying he/she wanted me on the Apple team. I was very excited and I told him that I would love the position. He told me the starting pay was $10.50 an hour, and the position was only part-time at first. I hung up the phone excited and happy.

Overall, the hiring experience was great. It made me realize what a great company Apple really is.