Apple is one of the most respected and admired companies in the world as it has changed the way that many people live through its technology and innovative products. This is why so many people would give anything to work for the company, but what does it take to land a job in Cupertino?
CEO Tim Cook spoke with Charlie Rose during a “60 Minutes” interview (via Business Insider), saying that Apple looks for people who want to change the world.
“People who work with a passion and idealism,” said Cook. “People who see things and they know it should be different, and they sit and they focus on it until they find an answer.”
Cook revealed that they don’t test people who are looking to get a job at Apple. Instead, they have 10 to 12 people do an interview and look at the candidate from different points of view to see if he would be a good fit for the job.
This is exactly what Luis Abreu, a user-experience designer based in the United Kingdom, experienced when he tried to get a job at Apple. Abreu detailed his experience on his blog, saying that he went through three screenings, five FaceTime interviews, and a trip to Cupertino for in-person interviews.
Abreu prepared himself to apply at Apple by watching 17 hours of videos from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and compiling all of the company’s privacy and security-related news into a reference article on his blog.
He invested about two weeks of his time working on the article, and the post turned out to be very popular with the developer community. Soon after, an Apple internal recruiter got in touch with Abreu asking him if he wanted to be a member of their Developer Publications team.
After saying yes, he had three 30-minute screening calls, with each caller explaining how the process works and what to expect next. Abreu also had five FaceTime interviews, each going on for about 30 minutes, with the tail end of each interview devoted to a “5-minute question time.”
Three weeks after his initial interviews, Abreu was invited for a new round of interviews at the Apple Headquarters. He was given a free return flight, plus 3 nights’ accommodation at a hotel near the headquarters.
At Cupertino, he was subjected to interviews which went on for six hours with 12 different people. Though Abreu said the questions were not hard, there were questions on how he would deal with orders that conflicted with his values and the like.
After a week, Abreu was told that Apple “will not be moving forward with your application.”
“The interviews seemed based on indirect questioning,” said Abreu. “This leaves too much room for bad judgements and assumptions in my opinion.”
Though getting through Apple’s interview rounds may seem like going through the eye of a needle, the experience is all worth it as you’ll get some of the best perks ever once you’ve been hired by the company. Apart from a high starting salary and various benefits, employees get as much as 25 percent off on an iPod, iPad, or computer. While the food isn’t free, a former employee told Quora that all the food is “pretty much restaurant grade” and that all the main dishes are $8 or less.
“I remember extreme happiness, and overall excellent memories,” said another former employee. “Your life will never dip because of Apple.”
For more, check out Jobs & Hire’s report on what it takes to land a job at Facebook.
