Want to work for Apple? Here’s the grueling hiring process

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Photo: Andy/Flickr
Photo: Andy/Flickr CC

Apple can be an incredibly demanding company to work for, but just getting in the door is nearly impossible.

The hiring process for Apple retail is fairly lengthy, but according to UX designer Luis Abreu, landing a job at the mothership in Cupertino is an even longer, more grueling process — which he just suffered through firsthand.

The U.K. designer revealed the steps for Apple’s hiring process in a recent blog post that explains how unrelenting Apple is in its process to screen potential employees. Abreu says Apple reached out to him last year to help improve their developer documentation after seeing an iOS 8 privacy article he published.

Apple’s recruiters subjected him to an unthinkable number of interviews, but in the end was it really worth it? He sums up the entire four-month process in 34 words:

“3 screening calls, 5 FaceTime interviews, a trip to Cupertino for 5 two-person interviews lasting a whole day and a lunch at the newest Café Macs.

In the end, I got a shallow no.”

Abreu says his five FaceTime interviews were 30 minutes long and 1-on-1. After facing the barrage of questions about how he writes articles and the ups and downs of the experience, he was given five minutes of question time at the end of each interview.

The FaceTime interviews took three weeks, with two hours spent talking to possible future team members. Following the FaceTime interviews, candidates are invited to Apple HQ for a round of onsite interviews.

To make traveling to San Francisco easier, Apple sends candidates a link to Apple Travel with the freedom to book a return flight and three nights accommodation at a hotel near Apple HQ.

Once on campus, Abreu says he was interviewed for six hours by a dozen different people. Despite the serious process, the tone was casual and friendly, he says. A team lead even took him in her own car over to the new Café Macs on the upcoming campus.

At the end of the process, though, Abreu was ultimately rejected a few weeks later via email: “We will not be moving forward with your application.”

Despite suffering through the grueling, four-month interview process without a new job to show for it, Abreu came away with a positive outlook on Apple. “I’m pretty happy my work caught someone’s attention and that I had the opportunity to meet all these people,” he said.

Source: Luis Abreu

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