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
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
19 responses to “Want to work for Apple? Here’s the grueling hiring process”
It’s not right to put someone through all that rigor and take so much time for nothing. Apple needs to tighten up the process or pay people for their time.
That’s just not right… and not efficient.
Lol, took Me 6+ years to get into one of the major vfx studios
Am I the only one who think this is normal? Obviously candidate can apply for another job during the process, nothing to stop you there, no time to waste. And the lengthy interview? You are going to work for Apple core team, not just store staff, of course they need to be careful. I would expect they question me plenty of questions, test me, etc… No less.
Agreed, I don’t think there is anything wrong with this at all. I wish I could afford this much time when I’m hiring new team members. Mine only get three to four phone interviews, about four onsite interviews as part of an all expenses paid trip to our HQ in Fort Collins CO, and maybe to one of our site offices, and a VP interview if they’re at a senior Manager level or above.
This thoroughness indicates an intention to hire the very best person they can find. Clearly there is a lot of preparation.
I interviewed once for a CD position at CitiBank. I had three different presentations prepared and ready to go. I appeared, presented my material that directly addressed every point in the very lengthy listing. I had stellar credentials and did a great job.
An interview at this level is usually a half day affair or longer, including lunch, but it was over within a minute of my presentation. It seems that they had three different types of CD positions at the company. The HR person accidentally put up the wrong listing.
Ironically, I had a presentation on hand that was precisely targeted at the type of position they were looking for; in fact my credentials were even greater for that position. When I was told that they had posted the wrong listing, I told them that I was prepared to present for that position and that I had years of top-end experience in that area. I mentioned a number of highly recognizable and very successful campaigns that I had run for Fortune 200 companies. As it turned out, the interviewer was familiar with them. The presentation was right there on my laptop and I was ready to go. (Remember that interviews at this level are close to full-day events, so there was plenty of time.) But the interviewer said no.
It turned out that the interviewer was a random HR person who knew very little about what a CD does. She was subbing for the pro who would have definitely recognized what they had in me). This woman was so left brained that there was no chance. It was their error but she had the mindset of “one person, one interview”. I was out of there in 40 minutes.
And this was an interview in the central headquarters for a position in my city. I had travelled a great distance, blew hundreds of dollars doing so, and the idiot wouldn’t let me interview for the actual position because of this rigid and illogical mindset.
As I had learned the supervisor’s name, I could have done a bit of leg work and contacted him directly to reschedule, but it seemed to me that this was not the best place to work. (After all, who was this guy to bail and send in an unqualified interviewer to pinch hitt for him?)
I moved on to better things, but that BS still rankles me some 7 years later. Since that time I continued my record of winning awards, earning multiple raises, one bonus after another, and generating millions of revenue every year. What an idiot that HR person was! If I was ever looking for a job I would not go anywhere near CitiBank.
At least they let him know that he hadn’t received the job, can’t tell you how many places I have applied and interviewed and never heard from them again..thats just rude in my opinion…Ive applied for Apple retail several times, thats a rigorous process as well, never made it past 3rd interview, but once again they at least let you know that you didn’t get the job
Apple is looking for dedicated employees not just people who want apple in their profile so if u want to work their you have to dive in sea to get the pearl
I’ve heard from several ex-employees that it’s a living hell working there. Zero work life balance. No overview of where what you’re doing fits into the big picture. Very dictatorial management style that leaves little room for creativity from most ICs. Sounds like a sweatshop. Love the end product though. !
If there wasnt room for creativity, would they have made such a good end product? With many innovations?
Coz all the design and vision comes from the exec level. A lot of people in Cupertino don’t even know what they are working on.
I can see that.
Not really any different from the interview process at Microsoft or Google.
Oddly enough, my daughter sailed right through the process. She was hired in the Austin office, and in no time moved up the mid-level management ranks, flying back and forth between Austin and Cupertino.
Well that’s because the Austin office is tech support.
It’s not exactly the same, as UX designer at Apple /in/ Cupertino
I’d be curious to know how much a gig like that would pay?
I can’t speak for Cupertino, but Apple Retail Stores, ARS, are all about affirmative action. Black and female, you’re half way in the door.
Thats BS and that does NOT do ANYTHING to advance the issue of
equality. And everyone knows it. Its BS and you will find out when you
try to get help from one of those “affirmative action” shoe-ins.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! All that and they still cant develop products that work properly anymore. I can no longer search my messages. I read that I had to change languages away from English and then back to English. When I did a new keyboard was added, obviously. When I switched back to English, guess what – the other language keyboard remained my DEFAULT keyboard.
This is pathetic for a billion dollar software company. And no, the jumping through hoops doesnt bring back the suddenly missing message search capability.
So, apparently, your hiring process has become as flawed as your software. One came before the other – cant figure out which.