Make sure you smile lots, answer as many questions as possible and act as a team player if you're asked to do anything.
That goes for any interview, I guess.
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Apple Recruitment Seminar
- Thread starter lurcovq
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Make sure you smile lots, answer as many questions as possible and act as a team player if you're asked to do anything.
That goes for any interview, I guess.
Hey all, just posting some interview experiences for the US (I'm in Florida).
I submitted my resume to jobs.apple.com and received a seminar invitation exactly a week later. The seminar was fun and informal, and everything I read on glassdoor.com was absolutely true.
During the Career Seminar:
- employees applaud when applicants walk in the door as a group
- going around the room introducing ourselves, we played a "what super power would you love to have" game to loosen things up.
- watched some apple videos talking about store stats (revenue, etc).
- the manager freely asked questions regarding the info in the videos (when was the first apple retail store opened? what is the revenue per sq. ft?)
- we broke into groups of 3-4 and created little skits to sell/hype a specific product that was assigned by an employee.
- at the end, the employees go around the room and ask some people to "stay behind to clear up some info on your resume." Then they admit that they really liked you and want to schedule the next interview ASAP. Out of 20 people, only 9 or 10 were chosen.
I was one of the "chosen" ones, so here are my tips:
- Be memorable. Stand out. Ask interesting, detailed questions that can't be satisfied with a yes/no answer.
- Smile, laugh, and make plenty of eye contact.
- Regarding attire - most of the "chosen" people look hip yet comfortable and presentable. The guy who showed up in sweatpants and a hoodie was not asked for a 2nd interview. But the guys who wore a suit and tie AND the guys with the t-shirt and jeans were both asked for 2nd interviews. Best bet for males who are going for a creative/expert/genius role: go business casual - slacks and a nice button down shirt. No tie.
Overall, the experience was actually a lot of fun. The staff seem really cool and down-to-earth. I'm excited to have a 1:1 with the manager tomorrow.
I submitted my resume to jobs.apple.com and received a seminar invitation exactly a week later. The seminar was fun and informal, and everything I read on glassdoor.com was absolutely true.
During the Career Seminar:
- employees applaud when applicants walk in the door as a group
- going around the room introducing ourselves, we played a "what super power would you love to have" game to loosen things up.
- watched some apple videos talking about store stats (revenue, etc).
- the manager freely asked questions regarding the info in the videos (when was the first apple retail store opened? what is the revenue per sq. ft?)
- we broke into groups of 3-4 and created little skits to sell/hype a specific product that was assigned by an employee.
- at the end, the employees go around the room and ask some people to "stay behind to clear up some info on your resume." Then they admit that they really liked you and want to schedule the next interview ASAP. Out of 20 people, only 9 or 10 were chosen.
I was one of the "chosen" ones, so here are my tips:
- Be memorable. Stand out. Ask interesting, detailed questions that can't be satisfied with a yes/no answer.
- Smile, laugh, and make plenty of eye contact.
- Regarding attire - most of the "chosen" people look hip yet comfortable and presentable. The guy who showed up in sweatpants and a hoodie was not asked for a 2nd interview. But the guys who wore a suit and tie AND the guys with the t-shirt and jeans were both asked for 2nd interviews. Best bet for males who are going for a creative/expert/genius role: go business casual - slacks and a nice button down shirt. No tie.
Overall, the experience was actually a lot of fun. The staff seem really cool and down-to-earth. I'm excited to have a 1:1 with the manager tomorrow.
I attended one of these seminars a few weeks ago in Toronto. Everything said above was the same apart from the promoting a new product in groups, instead they broke us off into groups with a Apple employee monitoring us. We had to pass around this cube that had questions such as 'explain a time when you had to work well under pressure' on each of its sides. The Apple employee wrote down all our answers and we did this for 30 minutes. The questions were all 'explain a time when' type questions.
I read up before that you should answer lots of questions and stand out - best bit of advice I could give.
The seminar was at 2pm, finished at 4pm and I got a call back for a 1 on 1 interview the following day 7pm, they said they do things quite fast. The interview was at Starbucks, I asked similar style questions as the group part of the interview as well as questions based on Apple perceptions of how Apple see's and how you think it should treat it's customers, in all fairness they were tough questions that seemed to be asked multiple times in different ways as if the interviewer was searching for a specific answer from me.
They said they would 'email me' (at the end of the interview) by friday. The fact that they said they would email me wasn't very re-assuring. I got no email and by Tuesday evening I emailed them, I got a text-book response saying you have been unsuccessful and that they went for more qualified people - they obviously don't look very closely at Resume's though as they would of seen I was more than qualified.
Hope this info helps!
Yep....bottom line its a variable with these things. Ive been invited to 2 of them in the past month...not sure why even though they always send that same ol' templated response.
Someone I know got a job with them and has had zero retail experience and no job experience really. she knows alot about a particular field of study (Music Production). so to me it looks like theyre more looking for peoples personable skills then work experience, they want to know you crafted something together and have something different about you than working at X amount of jobs with X amount of knowledge.
That is what I gather from them...(ironically ive been hired by them before a few years ago and it was a job that i got entirely easy, idk how or why but now its completely complicated to me...
So next time I'd put more information about things youre passionate about ony our resume and things of that nature...kind of showcase something like if youve built computers for yourself or friends, or youre an expert on taking photographs, video editing, etc.
I wanted to gain more Apple experience in retail but, gong in and talking to their managers just leaves me bummed and frustrated and NOT wanting to work for them if they treat me that way as a curious passionate Apple promoter/customer.
I got to the final interview, and the recruitment manager said he liked me, however I needed to find more hours than originally stated on the availability form. The minimum contract is 16 hours, so they had to move to other candidates as I couldn't make it.
Although it wasn't time wasted, it was a shame I hadn't known that in the first place.
Just a warning, the UK minimum seems to be 16 hours, yet the myth of having to be over 18 seems untrue as they were keen to hire me (16).
Although it wasn't time wasted, it was a shame I hadn't known that in the first place.
Just a warning, the UK minimum seems to be 16 hours, yet the myth of having to be over 18 seems untrue as they were keen to hire me (16).
thing is, I actually did everything you said to do... I am a video editor and photographer, that I know how to use aperture, imovie, final cut studio etc, I highlighted this and that I went to art school etc, and that I worked as an IT tech and have built computers from scratch and no how to repair them (even that I have repaired and replaced mac parts myself!)
they are certainly looking for something specific, I can tell you that it isn't highly relevant experience, knowledge in the software they sell and experience working with customers. I thought having an english accent (in Toronto) might even give me an edge as I would stand out. but nope!
if anyone finds apple's niche candidate please share!! haha
Let us know how that goes. That's something I'd like to hear more about.
As for me, I'm still in the hiring process, but it's been a long road.
Oh wow, yeah I dont know i'm in the same position.
I basically copied my friends resume whom got hired. well theyre in the process now.
I summarized my resume from a page and a half to just one. shortening up all myinformation and duties.
and put sections for Objective, Experience, Education, Skills/Qualifications & added one for Passions such as outside non-work experience (volunteer work, hobbies like building and fixing computers, etc) .
So I dontknow its really whos running these things but it seems you have to be less than average to even get noticed.
I think once you move past these seminars and group BS you can really really shine and chances are higher to get through.
let me know how you go about it or if you have other ideas...because yea if you tried what i put after changing my stuff around...im back at square one again.
Might have to pass on it. They emailed me yesterday and it's for Wednesday. I just started a new job and while I could take a vacation day it would just be a little odd so soon. It would be interesting to check out though just because it's supposedly from 10 am to 7 pm.
P.S. Good luck!
I have sort of an off topic question I was hoping someone might be able to answer. I graduate from college in December and plan on moving back home at that time. There are 3 Apple stores near me and I would really love to work at one. I can't figure out if it's best to put my resume on the site now (because it can take weeks/months for them to contact you) or wait until I'm back living at home. Any advice?
honestly? I would wait till your home, I submitted my resume and got invited within the week, if they are serious about you and need people they will contact you.
I would for sure wait, you dont want to get invited, not be able to go, get home re apply and then not get invited again
My advice is to apply now. If you get invited to a seminar before you make the move, reply to the email and simply say you're out of town. When you get back home for good, call up the manager directly at the apple store and ask if you can attend the next Career Seminar - if he/she says to apply online, gently remind them that you've been invited recently, but couldn't make it due to scheduling issues.
I actually emailed the manager for that store and in my initial email I was very polite about it so she responded and basically said they were looking to see how people reacted in group settings. So in my second response I enforced that there was no team work exercise during the session, which is how people typically gauge group dynamic behavior. That the sessions are simply them transposing their bias upon a random group of people, unless of course she had group behavioral studies to back up her assertions. I also told her that it was completely unprofessional to be herding a group of 20 people into a room and wasting 2 hours of their time just to try to glean behavioral attributes based upon personal bias.
So obviously she hasn't responded. Quite frankly though, this attitude that everyone should just stumble over themselves to get in the door is disgusting. And my negative experience at the retail store is making me think twice about attending a corporate recruiting event for them.
Getting pissy with a recruiter isn't going to help you or achieve anything, I assume you did it to feel better. The same recruitment style is used for all 300+ Apple stores worldwide and it seems to be working very well for them.
The problem:
- Apple receive thousands of job applications.
- A resume/CV does not tell you much about an applicant's personality - arguably the most important trait in retail
- Apple needs to meet a lot of applicants very quickly
- A customer might only interact with a retail employee for 5-10mins - first impressions and personality are all that matter - a customer does not care what answer their salesperson would give to the question 'where do you see yourself in 5 years' or 'what will you bring to the role' etc.
You may not like the idea of the recruitment seminars but it's a very effective and efficient way of weeding out the wheat from the chaff, and there's an awful lot of chaff at those seminars.
I agree that it's a great way to narrow down applicants, however they seem very slow to narrow out people by default.
For example, I made it to the final interview and they said they were very interested in hiring me. However when chatting about availability, I was told the minimum contract was 16 hours which I couldn't commit to, yet I had made it clear in my cover letter the maximum number of hours.
It just seems they could do availability a bit sooner to ensure there isn't disappointment; you can imagine how annoyed I was to find I couldn't do the job because of a minimum contract - I wouldn't have even applied in the first place.
I've attended a seminar, now I'm just waiting to hear back about scheduling an interview with a manager. It's been almost three weeks since the seminar, but it seems like the people doing the hiring process are backed up.
I just hope it's going okay and I still have a chance at the job
I just hope it's going okay and I still have a chance at the job
dude, its been three weeks, I would assume that they arn't interested. I was contacted 3 hours after the seminar I attended ended. just don't get your hopes up
I know this looking ahead pretty far, but I just got invited to a seminar in LA at the end of October. I was contacted about a week after I applied online and writing a pretty good Cover Letter, if I must say so myself.
Anyways, I'm assuming that they are looking for people in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. So, would most of these positions be part-time and/or seasonal? I'm guessing this is more of a question for someone that has already been hired.
*edit: Also, I had a concern regarding the event. In the email, it only specifically mentions the Genius and Creative position. However, I'm more of a Windows kind of guy, and, after going into the Apple store today near my house, it seems that you should have extensive knowledge about their products if you were applying for either of these 2 positions. Does anyone know anything more about this, and what would you recommend that I do? Should I email the recruiter back and ask her for an invite to a Specialist Hiring Event?
Anyways, I'm assuming that they are looking for people in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. So, would most of these positions be part-time and/or seasonal? I'm guessing this is more of a question for someone that has already been hired.
*edit: Also, I had a concern regarding the event. In the email, it only specifically mentions the Genius and Creative position. However, I'm more of a Windows kind of guy, and, after going into the Apple store today near my house, it seems that you should have extensive knowledge about their products if you were applying for either of these 2 positions. Does anyone know anything more about this, and what would you recommend that I do? Should I email the recruiter back and ask her for an invite to a Specialist Hiring Event?
Visited the store a couple times, it just seems like they're super busy.
Lucky you, getting contacted 3 hours after the event. It would've been cool if they contacted me 3 hours after the event, which would've been 1 AM.
The idea is to hopefully make these people think for a second that what they are doing is wrong. Part of my problem is that it seemed like there was no preliminary screening whatsoever. So you are right, there is a LOT of "chaff" at those seminars. These events are a complete waste of my time for the benefit of the Apple store. The employer/employee relationship is a two way street, not a revolving door where you bow at Apple's feet.
If you aren't always asking questions about what you are doing then you are doing something wrong.
One of the points I immediately brought up in my email. Why would you sit me down for 2 hours and then have me fill out a sheet with my availability. If my availability didn't mesh with your needs I could have been disqualified before I even stepped foot in the store.
I think it's becoming pretty clear why they have the seminars. They have a massive amount of candidates and instead of having to do due diligence sorting through them all you can just herd the lemmings into the store for 2 hours and see who you like the best. And although the store manager claims they can glean group dynamics and behavior from this, there's no evidence to support the idea that it's anything other than exercising their personal bias as quickly and easily as possible.
What does everyone advise that I wear to a seminar in the US? The email stated Business Casual but going through this forum and others I see a lot of people suggesting jeans...???