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thelastmohican

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2010
2
0
I have managed to clear my telephonic interview and been selected for an in-person interview at Apple.

Is there anybody on here that has been through this process and can give me the heads up on what to expect and how to prepare for an onsite interview at Apple?
 

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,721
5,194
Isla Nublar
Wow congrats! I hope everything goes well for you :)

Although I can't help with the interview stuff I will say make sure your facebook/myspace are clean since a lot of places use that as weeding out material.
 

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
37
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
Nobody here will be able to tell you anything interesting/helpful as it's either covered by an NDA, they weren't selected for the position, or they are now working for Apple and thus aren't allowed to visit sites like MR.

If you got as far as getting an interview you should be able to stand on your own merits, experience, and education by now.
 

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium
Jan 28, 2009
15,046
4
Quebec, Canada
If you got as far as getting an interview you should be able to stand on your own merits, experience, and education by now.

Yep, best and only answer really. Be yourself, the rest doesn't matter. Answer the questions using your own personality/experience, not what you think they want to hear. If you match, you're good. If you don't, you're probably better off not getting the job for your own sanity.

Good luck.
 

Bernard SG

macrumors 65816
Jul 3, 2010
1,354
7
Is this a fact?

I wondered the same.
While it makes sense they would not be allowed to join let alone post in a forum like this; I have a hard time imagining they are not allowed to visit. And even if they weren't, that's something impossible to control anyway.
 

87vert

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2008
313
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Nobody here will be able to tell you anything interesting/helpful as it's either covered by an NDA, they weren't selected for the position, or they are now working for Apple and thus aren't allowed to visit sites like MR.

If you got as far as getting an interview you should be able to stand on your own merits, experience, and education by now.

Good Advice


OP:
I can let you know how it was interviewing with Google if you apply there :)
 

nadyne

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2004
992
1
Mountain View, CA USA
Is there anybody on here that has been through this process and can give me the heads up on what to expect and how to prepare for an onsite interview at Apple?

Geek interviews are pretty standard. They're generally all-day affairs, where you will be interviewed by several different members of the team. Some positions will have you do a presentation or group interview to start off the day, and then you go into one-on-one (or, occasionally, two-on-one) interviews for the rest of the day. Each of the interviews will go through a different aspect of what is important in that position. Expect at least one person to do a deep dive into the relevant technical skills. Each interviewer will give you some time to ask questions of them. A couple of interviewers will buy lunch for you, so be ready to do more talking than eating over lunch.

So how to prepare? Sleep well (as well as you can!) the night before. Have breakfast before the day begins, even if it is just a banana because of the butterflies in your stomach. Turn off your cell phone. Remember that an interview is just as much about you deciding whether you want that particular job as it is about the employer deciding whether you're a good fit for that position, so be prepared with some questions that you'd like to ask of your interviewers (what keeps you working here? what does career growth look like? what kinds of challenges do you face?). Read over the job description again, and come up with some answers to how you meet the requirements in that description. Ask your recruiter if s/he can give you any pointers as to skills that the team is particularly interested in, and tailor your answers to highlight those things.

Disclaimer: I'm not an Apple employee. I am a software engineer for another large software company (I'll leave it to you to click through to my profile to see which one), and I live in Silicon Valley so have several Apple friends. The basic outline of the geek interview is the same, but the specifics are more about the position itself and not the company.
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
Nobody here will be able to tell you anything interesting/helpful as it's either covered by an NDA, they weren't selected for the position...
If they weren't selected for the position, doesn't mean they can't shed any light on how the in-person interview process went, even if, ultimately, no offer came of it.
 

thelastmohican

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2010
2
0
Thanks for the replies guys. The attire is supposed to be "Business Casual". I am thinking of wearing a plain dark suit with the option of losing the coat and tie if I feel over dressed. Is this a good idea or should I wear a polo shirt and khakis to begin with?
 

CaoCao

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2010
783
2
I have managed to clear my telephonic interview and been selected for an in-person interview at Apple.

Is there anybody on here that has been through this process and can give me the heads up on what to expect and how to prepare for an onsite interview at Apple?

congratulations

PS if you work in Mac engineering please try to get ExpressCard /34 on the MacBook (Pro/Air)
 

nadyne

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2004
992
1
Mountain View, CA USA
Thanks for the replies guys. The attire is supposed to be "Business Casual". I am thinking of wearing a plain dark suit with the option of losing the coat and tie if I feel over dressed. Is this a good idea or should I wear a polo shirt and khakis to begin with?

I haven't met a definition of "business casual" that includes a suit and a tie. You'll be hugely overdressed, and you won't have enough time during your interview to "lose" the coat and tie -- you'll just be stuck carrying them around all day. You could go for the pants and dress shirt, but the khakis and polo is perfectly fine.

Best of luck. Knock 'em dead. :)

thejadedmonkey said:
I always just assumed you were in Washington

But my location is listed in all of my posts!

I'm in Mountain View, which is just up the 101 from Cupertino. Living in Silicon Valley is fantastic, and I don't foresee myself trading it for Seattle any time soon. :)
 

Synchromesh

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2009
619
120
SF
Geek interviews are pretty standard. They're generally all-day affairs, where you will be interviewed by several different members of the team. Some positions will have you do a presentation or group interview to start off the day, and then you go into one-on-one (or, occasionally, two-on-one) interviews for the rest of the day. Each of the interviews will go through a different aspect of what is important in that position. Expect at least one person to do a deep dive into the relevant technical skills. Each interviewer will give you some time to ask questions of them. A couple of interviewers will buy lunch for you, so be ready to do more talking than eating over lunch.

So how to prepare? Sleep well (as well as you can!) the night before. Have breakfast before the day begins, even if it is just a banana because of the butterflies in your stomach. Turn off your cell phone. Remember that an interview is just as much about you deciding whether you want that particular job as it is about the employer deciding whether you're a good fit for that position, so be prepared with some questions that you'd like to ask of your interviewers (what keeps you working here? what does career growth look like? what kinds of challenges do you face?). Read over the job description again, and come up with some answers to how you meet the requirements in that description. Ask your recruiter if s/he can give you any pointers as to skills that the team is particularly interested in, and tailor your answers to highlight those things.

Disclaimer: I'm not an Apple employee. I am a software engineer for another large software company (I'll leave it to you to click through to my profile to see which one), and I live in Silicon Valley so have several Apple friends. The basic outline of the geek interview is the same, but the specifics are more about the position itself and not the company.

I won't argue much about California or Apple specifically but I have been to quite a few interviews for software companies and none of them were all-day affairs. Ever. Because if say I'm looking for a new job while I'm working at another company I'd have to take an entire day off for every interview and that means that not only will it be very suspicious to my current employer but I will also run out of vacation days very quickly.

I once had an offer for a 6 hour interview but they were willing to split it to 2x3 hour sessions. The longest one I've been to was 4 hours. It was very long and boring and the idiots interviewing were far more interested in my knowledge of American Football teams than they were in my actual technical knowledge. Since I'm not a football fan I didn't get the job which just shows that sometimes the most trivial things can make one fail.

Has an interview at ATI (back in the day) and it was 3.5 hours just for the record. And nobody bought me lunch at any of these as far as I can recall. Now Apple *could* be different but I seriously doubt they're *that* different. Chances are they'll split it into several interviews before making an interviewee sit there the whole day. Of course the easiest way is to ask the HR person in contact and they'll gladly tell you how long the actual interview approximately is.

But I do agree about getting enough sleep and a good breakfast. It's good advice.
 

kdarling

macrumors P6
In contrast to the previous poster, I've had some very long interviews, where I've been flown across country and put up for a couple of nights at multi-bedroom suites with a car.

I spent most of the day with the company interviewing me, and vice versa. And I've always been treated to at least lunch.

Interestingly, my best jobs have been at places where I had no interview at all, but was recommended by someone already employed there and all I had to do was simply agree to come onboard. A lot can be said for having contacts.
 

QuarterSwede

macrumors G3
Oct 1, 2005
9,886
2,157
Colorado Springs, CO
I'm surprised no one mentioned Glassdoor.com. Here's the Interview page for Apple. That site has helped me immensely while job hunting. Also, good luck!

I wondered the same.
While it makes sense they would not be allowed to join let alone post in a forum like this; I have a hard time imagining they are not allowed to visit. And even if they weren't, that's something impossible to control anyway.
As far as I understand, reading Apple fan forums is fine. Posting is not.
 

Bootes

macrumors newbie
Jan 27, 2010
14
14
I have managed to clear my telephonic interview and been selected for an in-person interview at Apple.

Is there anybody on here that has been through this process and can give me the heads up on what to expect and how to prepare for an onsite interview at Apple?

Can you tell me about the telephonic interview?
 
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