To those of you who were promised another post ‘soon’, I apologize for the massive one year wait. For those of you who are reading this for the first time, I encourage you to read my original posting on ‘How To Get Hired At The Apple Retail Store‘.
I started this blog (without any real theme or direction other than to share my knowledge or opinions that I thought were useful to others), and the original post generates a lot of interest, so I wanted to follow up with another to answer a lot of the questions that were posed to me via e-mail or comments.
Keep in mind this will be extremely lengthy (and at points a little redundant); I want to answer as many questions as possible, and I hammer the important points home.
I want to make it clear that Apple retail is just glorified sales & support, nothing revolutionary going on, nothing spectacular that you’ll be contributing to apart from a sophisticated retail team. It’s a foot in the door if you ever want to work for corporate, or maybe move to California, but keep your expectations low, working for the Apple store isn’t glamorous, at all. Apple retail has been well trained and imposed upon by corporate that makes it one of the best retail experiences in the world, but in my opinion it’s the bare minimum that all retail operations should abide by. It is a lot of fun, and a really easy job for the pay, so if you get hired, have fun with it .
The first thing you need to do is just disconnect yourself from everything you know about Apple’s culture. Don’t put so much weight into it – you don’t need to be a good “Apple” candidate, you just need to be a good candidate. Don’t be a fanboy – be genuine.
Questions have been SLIGHTLY edited where necessary just to be more clear, most of them have been left as is – so if you see some awful english or stupid questions (I removed most of them), my apologies! In no particular order, here we go:
#1“I’m applying for the Specialist position. I would like to ‘work my way up’ perhaps into management in time, maybe even corporate way down the road. Is Apple the type of corporate culture to develop from within and promote?”
Apple recently released their latest version of the iOS operating system – at the same time they released iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage/computing service that succeeds MobileMe. To use iCloud, you must first transfer your MobileMe account to iCloud by use of their automated system located at www.me.com/move.
To use iCloud, you’ll need an up to date version of Safari, iTunes 10.5 or later. You’ll also need an iOS device running iOS5, a Mac running OS X Lion 10.7.2, or a PC with Microsoft Windows Vista (at least SP2) or 7 (with Outlook 2007+ for mail & calendar, Safari/IE for bookmarks). Enough text, you can read all you need to know about iCloud at www.apple.com/icloud. Enjoy this short video of me transferring my MobileMe account to iCloud after having installed OS X 10.7.2.
According to MacRumors and my own iPhone 3GS that’s currently updating (I’m picking up a 4S in two days), Apple has released the anticipated iOS 5 update which is now available through iTunes.
iTunes iOS 5 release prompt
If you’re curious about the changes, I’ve posted the change log that accompanies the update when you’re running the update. It is as follows:
iOS 5 featured update icons
This update contains over 200 new features, including the following:
• Notifications
◦ Swipe from the top of any screen to view notifications in one place with Notification Center
◦ New notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen
◦ View notifications from lock screen
◦ Slide the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen to go directly to the app
Every good Apple fanboy needs a small collection of Apple themed high-definition desktop backgrounds, so here you go. I’ve included a zip file at the bottom of the page with all of the following images. With the exception of 3 or 4 of them, they’re all 1920×1080+ resolutions, so they should fit nicely (and look great) on any high resolution display (a lot of them are 2560×1600, so a little larger than the max resolution on a 27″ iMac display).
If you like what you see, read this guide on how to change your desktop picture every 15 minutes, and you can rotate between all 70 of these images, without needing to lift a finger!
Note: they all look square as a result of the automated gallery that WordPress has imposed on me (or graced me with, rather), but if you view them individually or download them you’ll see that they’re the proper proportions.
Apple’s Mac OS X has had this cool feature integrated for many versions that allows you to rotate your desktop’s wallpaper between several pictures.
If you’ve downloaded the 70 high-resolution desktop wallpaper images that I’ve provided here, you may also want to set this up, read on.
Open your Mac’s system preferences by clicking the Apple logo (top left corner of your screen) and choosing ‘System Preferences’.
Next, open your computer’s Desktop & Screen Saver sub-menu. At the bottom of this dialog window, you’ll see that you have the option of checking a presumably un-checked box, which will then allow you to choose the interval at which your desktop’s picture rotates between a pre-selected subset.
You’re able to choose from your iPhoto library (entirely), a specific event, or simply a folder full of pictures. I personally use iPhoto to sort all the pictures on my computer – so I believe that’s the best way to go – but to each his/her own!
I like minimizing the use of the mouse when I’m on the computer – I’m a heavy keyboard user – switching between tabs in my favourite internet browser is a very big part of that. I don’t like having to use the mouse to do that, but when I first switched to Safari from Firefox, I saw that the common ⌘ 1 or ⌘ 2 shortcuts were bound by default to opening the 1st and 2nd bookmarks bar bookmark, instead of my first and second open tabs.
The following, is a handy solution I’ve found (with the help of Roberto Carjaval) and the good people at http://www.shadowlab.org/ who’ve developed a piece of software called Spark (my own mirror here, version 3.09b). “Spark is a powerful, and easy Shortcuts manager. With Spark you can create Hot Keys to launch applications and documents, execute AppleScript, control iTunes, and more…”
As you can probably tell, I’ll only be showing you how to use Spark to bind ⌘ 1 to the first tab open in Safari, and ⌘ 2 to the 2nd, so on and so forth.
Note: This guide only works for people using Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, if you’re using Safari on Windows, you may have to keep looking for a solution.
Step One
Download Spark.dmg (mirror here), launch it, and then drag it to your applications folder. If you’re a rookie to Mac OS X, then you should know that this is a pretty standard process. Image attached below.
Drag Spark From The Newly Downloaded *.dmg File To Your Applications Folder
It’s not secret that a popular company like Apple has hundreds of people applying daily for work. If you’re one of those people, and happen to have that extra drive to be one of the few selected to join the team, this guide will serve you greatly. I was hired in September of 2009 as a ‘Specialist’ (essentially a glorified salesman) in one of their retail stores, and want to share the experience that it was, to go from nothing to hired.
First thing you need to do is create an Apple ID. You can go to myinfo.apple.com to do so. Once you’ve entered all relevant information (the more complete your profile, the better) you can login and search the job listings that are currently posted. Login with your Apple ID to cooljobs.apple.com. From here, you’ll be able to search through corporate, as well as retail positions that have been put up. Since I haven’t gone through the corporate process, I won’t touch on that, and will just stick to retail.
Apple Retail
Once you’ve clicked the “Search Retail Jobs”, you’ll get a return of a long list, with all the job titles prefixed by a country code; CAN for Canada, US for the United States, GER for Germany, etc. Choose each position you think you’d be suited for, one by one, and go through the process. You’ll choose a state/province where you’d like to apply, and either apply for current or future openings. Once this is all done, you’ll be formally submitted as a candidate, and if by some miracle you get chosen out of the bunch, good for you, you lucked out.
Once you’ve finished all the applications, I would encourage you to drop into the store, and meet some of the managers; it’s usually very occupied in the Apple Store, so it’s a good idea to go early in the morning (I would call 11am the deadline to go in). Let them know that you’ve applied formally online, and are very interested in a job with Apple. Tell them why you want to work for Apple, why you’d be good at the positions you’ve applied for, and why they might want you on the team. You want to make sure you’re being cordial at all times, and not coming off too strongly. Let them know that you’re aware that they’re hiring (if they are) and if they’re not, let them know that you’ll be checking back, and that you’re serious about applying. Ask if there’s anything you can do (every store is different, every manager is different) that will sweeten your chances at an interview.
People are always asking me: “You have clients? What do you do for them? Oh, you’re an I.T. consultant? What kind of I.T.? What can you do?”
The main thing to take away is that a consultant is someone who has answers in a specific field. People are always trying to narrow down exactly what it is I do and it’s sometimes a challenge for me to sum it up.
Right now, I have a little over two dozen clients that pay me for my knowledge and services. They value my expertise, my resourcefulness, and my advice and they count on me to steer them in the right direction. They pay me because I have answers to questions, and I facilitate what they would otherwise not be able to, or don’t want to put the time into. They pay me also because sometimes it’s more cost efficient, and I’m able to provide solutions at a much cheaper rate than the general consumer would expect from department stores or big business.
I strive to provide a service that’s superior in three main regards:
Cost: In the long run, I’m going to save you money. You’re not going to spend anything on the unnecessary, and you’re going to put money in the right place so you get the most value out of what you buy, and how you use it.
Efficiency: Every client of mine gets personalized treatment. I cater to your specific needs and put the extra time (without extra billing) to make sure the job is 100% complete. Examples being data transfers and personal setups are done to your satisfaction. GeekSquad, Futureshop, or the Apple Store won’t do it as well as I do. I’ve seen it done, I’ve seen them leave huge gaps in transfers leaving a customer completely unsatisfied. I guarantee you’ll be happy with my service, or you don’t have to pay me.
Knowledge Base: The reason I hold myself at a much higher esteem is that I’m well versed in numerous different subjects. Your Futureshop employee won’t have the greatest advise for you Mac purchases, your Apple store genius won’t have the answers to your home networking issues, and your GeekSquad will give you scripted answers that you would expect from a company, not a person. I’m the only resource you’ll need to handle your wide array of issues, and best of all, I’m honest, up-front, and direct. No run around, and no B.S. responses from me.
Having said that, I’d like to share with you a list of the recent work I’ve done for my clients, to give you a better understanding of how simple (or complicated) the service I provide can be.
**UPDATE April 14th: Apple has announced a delay due to a large number of sales in the United States. Whereever the bottleneck, Apple is unable to keep up and is delaying the Canadian (and international) release of the iPad by about a month. It’s been also announced that details of the availability will be made clear on May 10th, so stay tuned for more specifics as they develop.
“A magical and revolutionary product starting at an unbelievable price.” This is how Apple has chosen to market it’s latest invention, the iPad (www.apple.com/ipad). Will it live up to the hype? Nobody can say for certain… but we sure can speculate!
It’s been a buzz for a while, and everyone has been waiting patiently. Unfortunately however, everyone outside the United States has had to wait a little while longer before getting their hands on the device.
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January, he noted that the first wave of devices (WiFi-only) would be available late March. This was eventually pushed back to early April and then set in stone for April 3rd, 2010. The catch was that the WiFi + 3G version of the iPad would be available sometime after the WiFi-only device, estimating about 30 days. At this point, we still had no idea when the device (either version) would become available to the rest of the world, and no intelligence to suggest that a Canadian launch was imminent.
A press release by Apple on March 5th, indicated that the iPad would be available outside the United States near the end of April. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK are the countries that made the cut for the “outside of the U.S.” list. « Read More »
One of the new refinements released with Snow Leopard, was Chinese character input. This does come standard with any install of Snow Leopard, but isn’t enabled – you need to take a couple further steps to have it functioning and ready.
First, you’ll need to make sure you have one of Apple’s laptops that is equipped with the glass trackpad (the one without any buttons), and running 10.6 or later.
Second, open your system preferences, and choose Language & Text option under ‘Personal’.
Under Language & Text, choose the ‘Input Sources’ tab, then on the list on the left hand side, scroll down and choose either Chinese – Simplified or Chinese – Traditional. You’ll notice that when you do this, the right hand side of the preferences window will show “Show/Hide Trackpad Handwriting Control + Shift + Space” no longer greyed out. This is the key combination you’ll use to toggle the handwriting input dialog.
It’s a documented fact that (and excuse the lack of references, you’ll have to take my word for it) Apple has been on the rise as of late. There are more Macs than there have ever been, and with exciting new announcements about Apple’s iPad, and other looming upgrades to other devices (iPhone, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro), it’s a good time to be an Apple groupie.
Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard
I’d like to shine the light on a release that was made more than 6 months ago, because I’ve recently encountered a few people who were very much of the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” opinion. While in theory, this mentality typically does hold true, in practice it sometimes seems… a little less than practical (har har).
Snow Leopard is/was Apple’s most recent release of their Mac OS X operating system (10.6) that was available to the public as of August 28th, 2009. For those of you who are less familiar with Apple and Macintosh computers, think of Snow Leopard in congruence with Microsoft‘s latest release of Windows, 7.
A new operating system’s (OS) release usually commands a lot of attention; it’s a new and exciting time to marvel at the cool new features, fancy aesthetic renovations, and hopefully added functionality.
Normally, with a new OS comes the need for faster, stronger and better hardware. The new operating system takes up more room, needs more memory, and a faster processor or it doesn’t run properly. This is sometimes a cause for concern. “You’re telling me I need to pay a couple hundred dollars for this new version of Windows that is going to make me want to buy a new computer because my two year old machine all of a sudden doesn’t match up?”
A new OS is supposed to be an upgrade right? Normally an upgrade doesn’t turn into a burden, it’s supposed to make things easier. For some of us, upgrading ram or clearing hard-drive space is an arduous and costly task. If only someone out there would try to break the trend…
Quick plug: Perkins Mailing (www.perkinsmailing.com) is a Data, Imaging & Mailing solutions firm located in the downtown Toronto area (Dundas & River Street).
It may interest some to know that I actually run my own I.T. consulting firm. Up until recently it’s been very informal; no business cards, no website, just word of mouth and referrals getting me new clients, and in all honesty the hours can be very scarce (not that I’m complaining, it’s a side gig). I thought that if I invested a little time and money into it, I could get some positive return on my investment… so I decided to formalize the whole operation a little more.
Needless to say, I finished putting www.marcitpro.com together, and then had the much more arduous task of putting together a business card (…that didn’t totally suck). I started out with many five or six slightly different designs before finally starting from scratch with a new idea I had. The pictures you see are the first print of my final design (which I’m sure will be revised eventually).
Two things I had seen in previous business cards that I wanted for my own:
Embossing, in this case a thermal raise to give the writing a textured feel.
Linen-esque paper because I’m not a big fan of the plastic/glossy feeling on a business card.
Are you currently satisfied with your long distance plan? Are you spending money as you call or are you paying a flat fee, like you should be? Spending more than $20.00-$40.00 a month? A year? Well you shouldn’t be.
MagicJack is a USB device you order from www.magicjack.com, that plugs into your computer and a home phone device, and gives you unlimited local and long distance calling anywhere in North America… for $20 a year. Caller I.D., call waiting, voicemail, directory assistance; all included. If you happen to live in the United States, or want to register your MagicJack with an American phone number, it’s free; if you want a Canadian (or a vanity) phone number, it’ll cost you $10.00 a year… for now. For one reason or another, they can’t offer free Canadian numbers. On top of that… it’s free to try for 30 days, except you pay the $3.95 shipping cost.
Anywhere you have a computer and broadband internet connection,you can use your MagicJack. If you ever move around, you’ll need to change the address for the 9-1-1 services to work properly; I don’t know about changing the phone number as I have yet to do so; but it really seems like there is no downfall to using MagicJack, and if there is, please speak up.
www.marcitpro.com & www.marccizravi.com on my custom frames.
The topic today: custom licence plate frames. How did we get here? Good question, lets find out!
I was recently putting the finishing touches on a website for my I.T. consulting firm (www.marcitpro.com), and was thinking of all the ways I could get some low cost advertising out there.
Television, radio, movie previews, internet, billboards, public transit (to name a few). It’s pretty endless how many different ads you can put up for a business, however, there are costs associated. Usually, they’re on going: you need to pay for every time an ad is run on T.V., or clicked on the Internet.
Since I wanted to increase the value of my monthly car payments (and all the other costs associated with driving), I decided that it would be a good idea to put some form of advertising on my car as I drive around. I find bumper stickers to be tacky, and putting decals on my car… well, that’s a little desperate; I don’t want it to look like I’m GeekSquad junior driving all over town. The reality is that my I.T. practice is something I do on the side, and doesn’t maintain a huge focus in my overall life. Some months I’ll go two weeks without a service call, and some weeks I’ll spend 20 hours working. Needless to say, it’s not something that’s going to be part of my future (as far as I’m concerned at the moment), so I don’t want it to overtake the vehicle that I’m driving daily.
It seems that with all the new people I meet that I happen to have an extended conversation with, they ask me “So… Marc, what is it you do?” and sometimes it’s less than easy to tell them everything it is that I spend my time on. I’ve always thought of myself as a really well rounded individual – I retain talents in many different fields, and as such, I’m currently exploring many different paths to many different goals, all to one end: early retirement with financial security beyond any doubt.
Some might say, that it’s less than efficient to spread your efforts so thin; I’ve come to realize this myself, however, I still pursue many different endeavours simply because I still maintain a genuine interest and have yet to make a final decision as to what it is I want to do with the future.
If you look at the following picture, you’ll see a visual representation of almost everything I’ve been a part of in a professional (or pseudo professional) capacity within the past 12 months, and for a select few, a little longer than that.
Marc Cizravi's involvement in the past 12 months...
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Quick plug: Perkins Mailing (
