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 [...]]]>

St. Catherine Apple Store, Montreal Quebec Canada

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:

Answer: Apple’s retail stores grow in a very calculated way. Over the course of time their sales and technical support appointments are analyzed and the need for more staff grows with the demand. When a new position for a Specialist (because the store is selling more) or a Creative/Genius (because the store is booking more technical support appointments) goes up, it’s first made available to the store internally. Those who want to apply are given a 5 day window (approximate, something short) to submit their candidacy, and then if the spot cannot be filled internally, then the listing goes public on http://cooljobs.apple.com.

The more direct answer to this question depends on the management. The best way to be promoted internally is to a) perform above average with the position you’re currently filling and b) make sure that you’re intimately familiar with the requirements for the position you’d like to fill.

You should know that ultimately it is the leadership team (usually the store’s general manager) that decides whether you’re fit for the position or not. Being a Creative or a Genius entails passing a technical test – even if you pass with flying colours, it will still be a political decision to be made by the management, so you need to be sure that you’re properly manipulating their perception of you. If they don’t like you, or if they see something they don’t like, it’s easy for them to just pass you up for no other good reason. I remember when I wanted to move into the genius position, my particular manager told me that my “team skills” had yet to develop to the point necessary, this wasn’t anywhere near the truth – she was just reaching.

Answer: When I went for my interview I wore a white button down shirt, blue stripped tie, black pants and black shoes. I still presented myself as a ‘regular’ guy, and I didn’t change my behaviour or my attitude. When I first met the managers who setup my interview, I was wearing a ratty t-shirt and torn jeans, it didn’t matter. I’m sure that people have been hired before wearing jeans, and I’m sure that people have been dismissed because they looked sloppy – the point here is that the clothes are just icing on the cake, if you’re the right candidate it’s not going to make or break you. My advice to you is to dress as ‘professionally’ as possible. Pretend like you’re conducting the interview, and look at yourself without thinking anything about yourself as a person, do you look like someone who would get the job? When I was on the job, I wore sweatpants, jeans, sometimes even torn jeans – but I still performed excellently, customers saw the torn jeans initially, but after 2 minutes of speaking with them, they were practically in love, because I was honest, knowledgeable, and quite the charmer *WINK*. If you ask an authority at Apple what to wear, they’ll likely answer “business casual”.

Answer: I started at $13.50 CAD per hour, which is pretty good for a retail job – I know for a fact that if I had lied about having an undergraduate degree (I was 2 years in at that point) I would have started at $14.00 or $14.50, This was October 2009, when minimum wage in the province was $9.50. It’s going to float in this area, you’re not going to see a big jump. I can’t comment on how others countries handle it. I don’t know what they’re paid, and I don’t know how the conversions are taken into account.

Answer: I’m assuming this question was “does it matter that I live far away from the store?” No, I don’t think so, as long as management understands that the commute isn’t a problem for you, and that you’re punctual, you’ll have no problem getting hired, even if you live an hour away. The right candidate is the right candidate, they won’t hold it against you if you live far away.

Answer: Yes this e-mail notification you received is standard, everyone receives it after applying. If you’ve made prior contact with a manager (like I did), they will likely also email you personally (with their Apple email address usually) to make follow up arrangements for an interview, or anything else thereafter. These arrangements can also be made over the phone if you happen to make contact in that way.

Marc's CV, click to download

Long Answer: This question personifies ‘over thinking’; you’re concentrating too much on the little details that are meaningless. Thinking too much of the theatrics and drama that doesn’t concern actual business people is just how you come across as neurotic and unstable. PDF is an industry standard that is wildly recognized that is natively viewable on a Mac – and that’s besides the point, Apple isn’t holding some childish grudge against Adobe as a whole – they’re saying “Flash isn’t good enough right now so we aren’t supporting it” – PDFs are still viewable on an iPhone.

P.S. a “Microsoft Word 2007″ document can be opened on a Mac or PC.

Short Answer: I submitted my CV as a PDF document; you MAY get brownie points for submitting your CV as a .pages document, but I seriously wouldn’t bank on it.

Answer: My B&W CV was suitable, but it wasn’t of much importance – I made a good first impression in an Apple store and was essentially recruited right on the spot (pending the formalities of the interview process). I’m sure you could score some creative points if you make a really unique looking CV – it might help you stand out when you’re just applying online without any additional influence to give you points. I believe that your CV should be icing on the cake, it shouldn’t operate on it’s own, statistically you won’t succeed – if you ask me, the CV is a formality, they read it for 2 minutes to learn a little about you, then you get a chance to communicate all those “words” and turn them into experiences and paint yourself as a great candidate… without some “extravaganza in design”. As for the rest of the rambling in your question, you’re over thinking, dial it down a notch.

Answer: It is my understanding that the Apple Retail has certain guidelines as far as to set starting wages. You get paid a little more if you have finished high-school, or if you have a post-secondary degree. If you have previous retail experience, or tech experience it may weigh in your favour – these are all at the discretion of the store’s manager.

Do I regret not negotiating? When I got the call saying I was hired, and that my pay was going to be $13.50 and a “How do you like the sound of that?” I responded with a charming and slightly joking “Well I would like it a little more if it was closer to $14 or $14.50”. In turn, I was told that the rate was very competitive and that this was starting pay for someone of my caliber.

“My caliber.” Well, the first thing I thought was this woman has no real idea of what my caliber is at all.

This sort of thing is really subjective – would you work the job if you weren’t paid a certain amount? My advice to you is (and not just for working at the Apple store) is to forget what you’re worth to yourself – it’s not about what you’re worth, it’s about what you can negotiate.

Let’s think for a second, do you think that the Apple store is desperate for employees? Do you bring something special to the table? Do you have something that is considerably valuable within you that you could apply to your position? Pitch it, and tell them what you think it’s worth. I think it would be really challenging (less than 5% occurrence, if even that… and I’m pulling a number out of the sky) to get an increase in wage over what you’re offered initially, before you even start working, but at that point, they’ve dismissed other candidates and offered you the position, they aren’t going to take it away from you just for asking.

Apple Corporate - 1 Infinite Loop in California

Answer: I don’t have any special advice here – but I can tell you that Apple loves promoting from within. Retail positions that are posted on http://cooljobs.apple.com are first posted internally for consideration – I imagine that corporate positions follow suit. If you see Apple as part of your long-term plan, and you can’t find your way into a corporate position off the bat – it isn’t a bad idea to jump into retail to get your feet wet. However, this CAN work against you, if you perform poorly in the retail environment it will work against you when you’re applying for a corporate position thereafter. Make sure that you’re strengthening your candidature by being a team player, taking strong initiative when appropriate, and developing skills to stand out amongst your colleagues. Getting your foot in the door (by working retail) will not work if you happen to be an awful retail employee, or don’t get along with your superiors at work (when you’re applying for a greater position, your bosses will be weighing in with your interviewer).

Answer: It’s not what I would call difficult, but it is time consuming – a lot of patience is involved.

You can’t be considered for a different position within your first three months of being newly hired (this is typical, it’s up to the managers obviously, but they’ll hide behind this guideline as an excuse not to consider you immediately, if they don’t want to).

You need to prove that you’re a good fit for their store – the Specialist position has more turnover than any other position – so they want to see if you’re committed or not – they don’t want you to just start doing it, not like it, and then quit. From my recollection, you’re also required to be ‘certified’ in two or three of Apple’s iLife apps (iMovie, iPhoto) and one of their pro apps (Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Logic). This needs to be verified, though, so don’t quote me on it, but it’ll be somewhat accurate.

What you should do is wait until you get some positive reviews, develop a positive rapport with your superiors, and then express your interest in the position, and tell them why you think you’d be good at it – being genuine is key here. Keep in mind that you can’t just be promoted to the position without there being a need for one. If a Creative quits or gets fired, expect a posting for it internally, and soon. Even if nobody is leaving, don’t sweat it, Apple store’s are growing constantly, and when the word comes down from corporate that they’ve been approved to hire more staff, they’ll inform everyone.

Answer: When I first started working I gave my managers a blank slate for my availability, and they were scheduling me for the full 44 hours a week. However, I was still just a part-time employee – so they were getting full time hours from an employee they weren’t paying benefits or a full-time wage – unethical, but I hadn’t made any complaints either. After 3 weeks, I restricted my availability to 4 days a week and my hours scaled back accordingly. I wasn’t the only part-time Specialist being worked 40+ hours a week either – they were still trying to hire many more people so a lot of us were being ‘taken advantage of’.

As far as the large amount of employees – Apple’s retail stores have 3 kinds of customers: 1) High maintenance people who have a billion questions and no direction 2) People who know exactly what’s going on and don’t need anyone 3) 10-17 year olds who go in there to waste their time on Photobooth and make me question humanity as a whole. As per Apple’s mantra, the customer is their most important asset, so the more Apple promoters/lovers they can create out of potential customers, the better. As a result, they need a lot of staff on the floor.

Answer: It’s rare for Specialist applicants to jump directly into a full-time position, unless they’re older (this job is going to be a long-term commitment) or they have a connection with the managers. Full-time positions are given away to employees who are more valuable, and long-term committed employees are more valuable than younger employees/students who are MUCH more likely to jump ship when a better opportunity rolls around (and it almost usually does). However, you’re right, they offer GREAT pay for a part-time retail job, you’re unlikely to find better.

Answer: They have no preference for age, above the regulatory legal requirements of your region. However, most 16 year olds aren’t developed enough to be tasked with all the responsibilities of an Apple store employee (above being a Concierge). Previous retail experience helps, but really, the only requirements are having adequate communication and social skills to handle the variety of customers that an Apple store handles daily. Apple’s ‘adequate’ sets the bar pretty high – and while there are many high-functioning idiots who staff their stores, the bar is constantly being raised because more and more people are applying, and fewer of that large pool are getting the job. You may find that you need further grooming before being worthy of a position they’re offering.

The late Steve Jobs, smiling. One of Marc's role models.

Answer: I, personally, have a great passion for Apple as a company – but it’s only because I greatly admired (and continue to) the recently late Steve Jobs (Co-founder and C.E.O.) as a business man, and passionately driven entrepreneur. If Apple was a person, his name would be Steve Jobs. So naturally, my admiration for the man, carried over to the company. The iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, OS X, the aluminum MacBook Pros – all rockstar consumer products that other businesses are stupidly jealous of – and a lot of the credit belongs to Steve. I communicated this a lot in my interviews and my answers to questions. Not because I was sucking up, but because I really believed it. The iPod changed the game, a stale mp3 player market was transformed by the iPod and iTunes, the iPhone (and then the App store) was the first of it’s kind – the MacBook Pros (have been) and MacBook Airs (after some tweaking) are the best computers on the market – all revolutionary products – and without Steve, Apple would have almost surely fallen flat and failed miserably.

When asked why I wanted to work for Apple – I told them Steve Jobs knows what he’s doing and I want to be a part it, I couldn’t agree more with how he did business. His obsession with excellence, ruthless honesty, extreme attention to detail and perfection are rules that I model myself after, I respect him, I admire him, I want to learn more, I said.

This attitude coupled with my strong communication and people skills made me a very strong candidate for the position. My own technical experience helped also, and the fact that I used many Apple products probably did as well, but don’t let that hold you back. Don’t act all “Unfortunately I don’t know anything about Apple products”, instead “I’m actually looking forward to learning, I haven’t had much opportunity to look deeply into it, but I’m a quick study and I can’t wait to get started”.

Answer: If you aren’t hearing back at all – investigate. Go into the stores you’re applying to and ask for feedback. Be respectful, professional, and probe as to what you could do to become a better candidate. Is there a reason you’re being overlooked? Or are there just too many people applying?

It’s difficult to stand out if you JUST apply online – you’re one of thousands of resumes they’re combing through, and maybe there’s somebody out there who’s better at formatting their online profile, or putting more lies (or not) up to attract the managers.

If you want to make an impression, you need to go into the store, shake someones hand, and communicate to them why you want the job, why you deserve a chance, and what you bring to the table that isn’t easy to come across. Simply “not hearing back” and continuing to wait for someone to bring you the job is the exact opposite of what Apple stands for. Nobody is handing you a job for free, work for it, earn it, or you don’t deserve it anyway.

Answer: While I was attending core (Apple’s mandatory training before you start work), among our group was a 60 year old gentlemen who was heavily experienced in graphic design (he had his portfolio with him and everything!). As far as disability – it would really depend – I’m sure Apple is equal opportunity as far as employment, but it would need to be a handicap that doesn’t affect your job. For the record, I’ve never seen someone in a wheelchair or crutches working at the Apple store – I’m not sure of their policy in regards to this. Sorry.

Answer: A link to my resumé can be found here. In order, but not necessarily one at a time, I’ve been: a paper boy, a clerk at a coffee chain called Tim Hortons (very popular here in Canada), a computer specialist at a kids day camp (making stickers, playing games, simple stuff – we used Macs!), an I.T. consultant (schools, small business, private home clients), a baby sitter, a bartender, and then an Apple Specialist.

During my time as an I.T. consultant I was essentially a walking Genius bar techie, but also had to support the PC platform – it was just time spent learning about Apple products and computers in general – it prepared me well.

Answer: Well, looking at your comment I’m going to say your written english isn’t as strong as you think it is (if you thought it was). So maybe you’re filling out the forms and in your head you’re doing great, but you aren’t communicating your thoughts properly, and it’s hurting you. Apple doesn’t have a “look” – there are nerds, jocks, hippies, goth, black, white, yellow, purple, virgins, players, cool guys, losers, winners (and the list goes on) who work at the retail store, whether you have one or one hundred tattoos. That definitely isn’t it. You may be getting passed up because there are better candidates available, or because the hiring managers didn’t like you, or because you’re missing something. If you get the rejection e-mail, I encourage you to follow up with someone and get some feedback. Hopefully you left the seminar with some contact information or met a few people you could get in touch with.

Answer: Hey friend. I’m sorry to hear about your trouble. One thing you need to know is that while Apple is a company that’s ideally run by a set of rules, it’s retail operations are run by simple every day people – nothing very special about them. They could be biased, they could just not like you, they could just be having a bad day. They may see repeated attempts as incremental failures; they might be looking at your file and just not agreeing. You can’t at any point take this personally – either they’re doing the best they can, or they’re crappy at their job, or you might just be missing a piece of the puzzle… or they just may need a different candidate at the time being. It’s possible that the lengthiness of the process has worn on you and maybe you’re losing your spirit, or getting visibly frustrated.

If you still want the job, don’t give up – keep at it – but improve yourself, if you haven’t adjusted between rejection #2 and #3 then there’s nobody to blame but yourself – acquire feedback and build on top of it. If you’re passionate and you believe you deserve it, keep at it and you’ll eventually get it. I know I know, it’s easy for me to be all idealist and say it, but keep at it and I think you’ll be happy you did.

As for converting your family to Mac users… it’s not really relevant. Don’t focus on it, it’s fine to share that info with the crew who are interviewing you, but it’s not much of a selling point.

Answer: Norm? I couldn’t say – I doubt it, but acceptable? Totally.

Answer: I know 16 and 17 year olds who work at Apple retail stores, it’s not incredibly common, but it happens. Hopefully you’re a special kid.

Answer: No, I don’t think they’re allowed to – I believe it would be discriminatory? Someone enlighten me.

Answer: Perhaps there were applicants who were able to “answer every question they had been asked” INCLUDING technical ones. If you want to find out more, try getting in touch with the interviewers. This seems like a pretty simple question; If you don’t know how to get in touch with anyone, go to your local Apple retail store and ask for one of the team leaders (managers). Ask them for some contact information which would put you in touch with hiring managers or seminar managers.

Answer: The stores staff doesn’t really need to know you, just one or two important people – the store’s head manager, the hiring manager, and perhaps a senior member of the store who would give you a good recommendation (don’t worry so much about the third, you’re not likely to just drop into that last one). The store manager isn’t going to have much time for you, so when/if you do make interactions with him/her, make sure they count. Be professional, courteous, and concise. Pretend you’re meeting your girlfriends parents for the first time and you want to make a good impression – within the first couple minutes they’re going to make their mind up about you. The hiring manager is someone you can allow yourself multiple interactions with – you want to show them your commitment, gentle persistence, and seriousness about your application.

“I’ve been thinking more and more about working here [the Apple Store], and it would really please me to be here. I think that enjoying your job is really important, and I know that I’d have fun here. I want to know what I can do to make myself a strong candidate – would you please share with me what you think is important?”
Let them answer.

“I understand, and I appreciate your help. I’ve put my resumé together and a cover letter explaining why I think I’d be a really good fit. Can I leave this with you? Are you currently hiring? I think I’d be a really good Specialist, I enjoy interacting with customers and have a lot of retail experience. I know that you’re very busy here, but would you mind if I followed up with you in a week?”

Answer: Excellent questions, really – this stuff is important. I’ll answer the second question first. If it took you 5 trips to get everything figured out, then that’s a poor reflection on them, not on you. It could have been the sort of thing that needed time to get sorted out – but at the very least, looks bad on them, not you, so ignore it, especially since you’re applying for the Specialist position.

Getting to know the staff is almost always a bonus (it’s easy to make a good impression with a few minutes, and it’ll be the only impression if you don’t give them the chance for a second or third). There are senior staff who are allowed to weigh in on hirings, if it’s their place to. There are “leader” geniuses who are pseudo managers of their group. Creatives may also have this sort of employee as well, but it’s not confirmed. Ultimately, the hiring is really up to the hiring manager and above him/her, the store manager – these are the people you should be focusing on. You really won’t have spent enough time with random employees in the store for them to make strong recommendations or oppositions to your hiring – so again, don’t focus on it.

Answer: The MAJORITY of people speaking just for the sake of speaking aren’t going to get called back. Some phonies will get called back, and even hired (oh man, some of the people I worked with at the Apple store made me sick to my stomach) – but I made a fun game of mocking them from a distance with a few other employees who saw through their bullshit.

Part of this I just can’t answer – I don’t have their guidelines written out – but you could argue both sides – and I think that you could overcome regardless of what the rule was (if they were to have one). Speak as much as you want, but don’t hog the spotlight, and be genuine, that’s the most important thing in the world. Don’t be a liar, don’t be a cheat, don’t be a weasel. If you’re a good person, these sorts of things will haunt you, and you’ll definitely regret it when you’re being rejected because the interviewers see right through you – they almost always will. They’ll avoid people with bad habits, bad attitudes, closed minds.

Answer: Yes, two 8 hour days of paid training at your hired waged.

Answer: Many variables here, how many hours are available, what you submit for availability, what time of year it is (summer, back to school, holiday, new product launches). When I was working there as part time with full availability, they gave me 40 hours (this was in the October/November period).

That’s it for now!

I hope that these questions answered will be of further help to you in your job hunt, I appreciate people commenting and reading and it motivates me to do more work on here (when I find the time for it). If you ended up getting hired because you took some advice here (and you feel that I was of valuable help), please consider making a donation, part of proceeds go to a local animal shelter near my house which feeds hungry cats & dogs . If you’d like to make a full donation to them on my behalf, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the coordinator so you can contribute yourself.

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 [...]]]> Update: There is a follow-up to this article, with comments and questions via e-mail answered! It may interest you to read it after you finish this piece.

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 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.

note: If you’re applying for numerous positions, you will want to know that once you’re hired, you have to wait until your three month probationary period is over before applying for what I can only assume would be a promotion. I was hired as a Specialist, and was eager to apply to the Genius position (the position I wanted initially, but wasn’t available at the time… or so I was told). Since I wanted to work immediately, and thought it would be a good idea to get my foot in the door, I took the job as a Specialist, before finding out it wasn’t ever going to happen; more on that later.

The Interview

There are a couple parts to the interview; typically it won’t be the store manager who does the interviewing, but he/she will join you later to talk to you a little bit; usually the assistant managers will be sitting down with you. During the interview they’ll ask the standard questions, which you should be prepared for. I’ll accompany my answers to these questions (as best as I can remember, paraphrased a little, of course).

Why do you want to work for Apple?

I’ve never pictured myself working retail, but I knew that if I ever did, I’d want to work for Apple. Things are done differently, and standards (products, customer service, work environment) are set much higher than any other company I know of. The end goal is just to make peoples lives better; I’m also just really pationate about Apple as a consumer, I have many of your products at home and genuinely enjoy them, and would love to share that excitement with others. I want people to see Apple as I see it. Apple’s products have enriched my life and I’d want to be part of a place that gets to showcase those products, and send people home with them.

What would make you a good (for me, Specialist)?

Like I said, I have many of your products at home. iPod, iPhone, Macbook, Airport Extreme – all products I’m extremely familiar with. I feel that I have a good base of knowledge that can only be furthered by working at Apple, that would in turn allow me to share that with customers, and show them why Apple really is better than the competition. One common misconception about Apple is that they’re overpriced or more expensive for no reason. I want to show people the true value of the equipment or service, and show them how much more they get out of purchasing an Apple, opposed to anyone else. I don’t want this to come out the wrong way, but I think that I’m a real people person too; I like talking to people, and I find that people get really engaged when I’m passionate about something. As a Specialist, I could go on for hours about all the different Apple products and services, and communicate that pseudo ‘love’ I have for Apple, and share it with customers effectively.

What would make you an asset to Apple?

Everything I’ve already said I think makes me an excellent candidate for this position; but as an employee generally, I’m punctual, energetic, have a good work ethic, and tremendous attention to detail. I’m always conscious about my customers needs and the needs of my co-workers, so I’m quick to pickup on queues that would be important in a setting such as a retail store. I’m a great independant, and a good leader, which I think makes me a good team player at the same time. I’m great with taking direction, and very receptive to feedback from peers.

What previous experience do you have that you’ll be able to apply to your job, should you be accepted?

Essentially every job I’ve had I’ve interacted with customers, in one way or another. The clients I service from my own firm, customers when I’m serving or bartending, teachers and parents at the schools where I’ve done I.T. support, and even kids at summer camps where I’ve been a science & technology specialist. Everywhere I’ve worked, performance has been the equivalent to how happy I keep my clientele, I have known no other way to ‘perform’. That’s to say that even when someone is sometimes (and not that I’d ever say it, but we both know it happens) being unreasonable, you have to adapt and maintain a professional attitude, and do whatever it takes to keep that person happy. Even if someone were to treat me poorly, I wouldn’t break or dip below that standard of excellence I’ve set for myself. I treat others the only way I would expect to be treated myself.

After this interview was done, I was left with a written test (one that exists for every position in the store) that asked me numerous remedial questions regarding computers. What’s a CPU? What’s the difference between ram and a hard-drive? Which of the following is not part of the iLife suite? Many static, simple questions that hardly test anything past basic understanding of components. It was maybe 15 simple questions along those lines, which you were given maybe 30 minutes to complete (probably took no more than 20 minutes). When I was done the test, I was greeted by the store manager, who went on a little schpeel about how much she loved Apple and how special they thought they were. This is where you’re listening a lot more than talking. You’re hearing about what a big deal Apple is and why it’s different and all this other stuff. At this point, you should be agreeing unconditionally and finding appropriate times to relate to what’s being said. It’s also at this point that you’re asked what you expect as compensation. You can throw a number out, but the reality is that a part-time Mac Specialist is going to be making anywhere from $12 to $15 an hour. You’re evaluated on your previous experience, your formal education, the impression you make on your manager, and made an offer based on how little he or she thinks you’ll accept. You leave the interview being told that you will be contacted further to see whether you’ll proceed or not.

When I received my initial offer, it was via a phone call a couple days after my interview. I accepted the compensation I was being offered right away (hourly wage of something between $13.40 and $13.60 an hour *wink* *wink*) not knowing what the norm was, or what caliber of people I was going to be working with. I also needed something quickly, and wasn’t in any position to be negotiating. I quickly realised that I was being underpaid for my capacity, and for the service that I provided in the store. I needed little to no training, and after a couple weeks, I was more informed on what I call the ‘importants’ than my colleagues who had been in the store for more than a year. I was already capable to do certain tasks that would require certain expertise, that few if not any other specialists had. I digress.

Apple Employees

After receiving the phone call with my offer and wage, I was also contacted by email to see when would be a good time to do the ‘core training’. The base knowledge all Apple employees are expected to have; history of the company, the major dates, and the revolution that Apple products led, so on and so forth. During the training, you receive little to no product training what-so-ever. I found that many of the people I was training with, weren’t familiar with anything Apple. One girl at Core claims she had never even stepped foot in an Apple store prior to being hired; this was a little shocking. They had been hired because of the kind of person they were. This isn’t to say that mistakes were made, there were a couple in the group who were so dense, and showed everyone it was clear they didn’t belong. It’s at this point that I realized it had nothing to do with where you had been, with what you could do; it was more of the person you are and the potential that you hold. Your attitude, your demeanor, your composure, all traits that are heavily favoured when applying for a non-technical position at Apple. They want individuals who are passionate, driven, and born to interact and make people happy. They want friendly, personable, and professional; traits I believe you’re more or less born with; the rest can be trained, but your instinct and personality is pretty programmed, difficult to change.

notes:

1) Genius’ (technicians), Family Room Specialists (iPod/iPhone repairs), Creatives (trainers) are the three positions where your previous technical experience may come in handy, otherwise, it’s not of much use. Apple believes they can teach the blank slate anything, as long as they’ve got the right attitude and correct personality.

2) You should know that I was hired individually. I revisited the store a couple times and made myself known as a person as opposed to one of the masses applying online. Sometimes, seminars are held which do hiring/interviewing in bulk; I’m not familiar at this point in time so I won’t speculate until I have more facts.

I’ll update the post if I think of more, but as usual you may contact me if you have any additional questions, but before you do make sure you read this.

Update: There is a follow-up to this article, with comments and questions via e-mail answered! It may interest you to read it after you finish this piece.

If you really valued this guide or have 5 minutes to spend reading www.marccizravi.com/donate/, much appreciated.

First, you’ll need to make sure you have one of Apple’s laptops that [...]]]> 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.

After doing this, you can toggle the control window/handwriting input dialog by holding Control + Shift and then tapping the space bar. Once it comes up, you will write with your fingers on the trackpad. On the right hand corner of the dialog, you’ll see the computers best 4 approximations of what it is you’re trying to input, and you’ll choose accordingly. Since the trackpad is now dedicated to your handwritten input, you’ll have to imagine that the far right of the area is divided into 4 squares, and tapping either on the top, slightly high, slightly low, or on the bottom, will choose one of those four character approximations.

This same process is available on desktop Macs as well, but you need a third part input device.

As usual, I’ll explain Apple’s Mac OS X platform first. The two functions (searching system files and [...]]]> Recently I was looking to delete some files off my Mac, that were albeit being difficult to find. It was a little challenging, so I thought I’d put together the solution for you all to take advantage of.

As usual, I’ll explain Apple’s Mac OS X platform first. The two functions (searching system files and showing hidden ones) are independent.

Terminal Application within the Utilities folder (Mac OS X)

You can see the effect the two commands I describe has had it's effect, as files from my hard drive have been revealed.

1. defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
2. defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
3. Killall Finder

Once you have terminal open, you can copy paste (command + c, command + v) any of the commands above into the prompt. The command #1 (ending in TRUE) will write to a preference file on your computer, telling it to reveal ALL files, including hidden ones. Once you’ve typed that and hit enter, you’ll notice nothing will have actually changed. You’ll have to run the command #3, (Killall Finder) which will re-launch the Finder, and doing so with the new preference in place. You’ll see the immediate result, as some hidden desktop files become visible right away. You’ll be able to tell which files are otherwise hidden files because they’ll be a little translucent.

I should warn you that altering hidden/system files can lead to disastrous results, so be sure to proceed only with instructions from a professional, or if you absolutely know what you’re doing.

At any point, if you need to reverse the changes you’ve made, you can type command #2 (ending in FALSE), then #3 again to re-launch finder, and you’ll see all those hidden files disappear.

A Finder search in which system files are not included.

To search system files, you can first use spotlight (command + Spacebar), then click the ‘Show All’ function that offers itself immediately before any of your results. Once you do this, you’ll have a new Finder window open showing all the results of your search. You can also just open a new Finder window, and use your spotlight dialog in the top right to start a search, hit enter, and view the results.

Adding system files to your search comes next. Whenever you open a Finder window with search results, you’ll receive an option near the top right of the window which will act as a filter, or give you additional options for your searches. By default, you should see (Kind) is (Any) – you can change that to (System Files) (are included)

The same search, except with System Files INCLUDED

Windows XP

It’s out of character, but it’s actually a lot easier to reveal hidden files on the Windows platform (I swear, that’s all that’s easier when you’re using a PC). Open up a fresh window, and at the top on the menu bar you’ll see File, Edit and then eventually Tools. From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options.

Windows XP Folder Options

Windows Show Hidden Files & Folders

You’ll be happy to know that this process is identical on Windows Vista, and Windows 7, but from me to you – if you’re using either operating system, I’m sure you’ve been handed more problems than solutions, with a bloated operating system that eats at your computers resources, and demands more and more from your hardware.

Search System Files & Hidden Folders

1. Open a search dialog. You can do this by hitting F3 while having any Windows Explorer window open, or click Start > Search.
2. On the bottom left corner of the window you’ll see ‘Change Preferences’. (underlined in image)
3. Choose ‘Change files and folders search behaviour’. (image)
4. Choose ‘Advanced – includes options to manually…’ (image)
5. Finally, back to the ‘Main Menu’ of the search dialog. Check mark the ‘Search hidden files and folders’, and anything you search will now include your elusive files. (image)

Until next time… if you need more help, you know who to go to!

This is the western digital smartware logo you may see on your computer when connecting your external drive.

note: If you don’t want a funny story, then check your AppleCare Status: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do. Otherwise, read on.

During my time at Apple, I would often run into customers who would come into the store with malfunctioning equipment (either because they’ve caused a problem, or [...]]]>

AppleCare Protection Plan - Extended Coverage for your Apple Products

note: If you don’t want a funny story, then check your AppleCare Status: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do. Otherwise, read on.

During my time at Apple, I would often run into customers who would come into the store with malfunctioning equipment (either because they’ve caused a problem, or hardware was defective). Ultimately, to get any sort of results, they would need an appointment at the Genius Bar. This would in turn have a Genius (aka technician) look at the product, make an assessment, and then present the solution. For someone who hasn’t voided their warranty with physical or water damage, it’s usually good news.

When someone would come in, I would ask what the problem was, to determine whether it was software or hardware related. Then, I would lookup their serial number on Apple’s website to see if the product was still covered under either limited warranty, or AppleCare. What’s funny here is, the fastest way I found to do so, was to google “check applecare serial number” to which I would always find a result to some random guy’s blog: www.macitguy.com. I’d be directly linked to Check your Applecare status by Serial Number, which would in turn give me the direct link to check, well, AppleCare status by serial number.

After a while, I stopped searching Google, and using the ever so helpful macitguy, I just started typing https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do, it was just easier (believe it or not).

Quicktips:
-Be really nice to the Genius’, they hold your fate in the palm of their hands. If for some reason you’re not happy or aren’t being treated the way you want, ask for a manager. If you’re not happy with the result of your appointment, ask for a manager. Even if you’re out of warranty, even if you’ve damaged the computer a little bit, there’s always a chance. Be professional, curteous, and show them you’re a loyal Apple customer, and you might get pleasantly surprised.
-Always arrive to your appointment with your data/personal information backed up. The Genius may need to wipe/restore your device; you would lose all your data without a backup. Or you would need to make a second trip after being told to go home and back your stuff up.
-Innocence, ignorance, and a gentle attitude. The three keys to success at the Genius Bar.

Fun fact:
The reason they call AppleCare “an extended coverage” for your product, as opposed to an extended warranty, is to avoid liability in the event that Apple goes under. If Apple declares bankcruptcy tomorrow and closes their doors, and you have 2 years left on your AppleCare coverage, and something goes wrong, you’re on your own :]

I’m always hearing friends, family, randoms, saying they wish they knew how to download movies or television shows off the internet (for free). While there are some pretty good sites for streaming – and many television [...]]]> note: Since this post has been put up, mininova has been shut down. www.thepiratebay.org, and www.torrentreactor.net are good alternatives.

I’m always hearing friends, family, randoms, saying they wish they knew how to download movies or television shows off the internet (for free). While there are some pretty good sites for streaming – and many television networks actually upload new episodes to their website after airing the night of, or soon after – it’s not the same as having a large library of all your favorite shows and movies available at your finger tips. The added disadvantage to all of these streaming sites (legal and illegal alike) is that they usually sacrifice quality; that, and the added loading period makes this quite the arduous process. As such, the following guide should set you in the right direction to start downloading to your hearts content.

Try to follow these steps as best you can; at the end of this article you will find video tutorials which will guide you through this process, from beginning to end.

Step 1: Downloading your Bit-Torrent client.

To download torrents, you’ll need a client (you) program that is used in conjunction with these files to download your content. www.utorrent.com (UTorrent) is the most popular Windows XP/Vista (PC) application, but if you’re a Mac OS X user, you’ll want to download www.transmissionbt.com (Transmission). For utorrent, click download and run the installation file, once everything is finished, you’ll find the shortcut on your desktop. For Transmission, download the *.dmg file, once it’s open, copy Transmission to your applications folder, and run it from that location.

Step 2: Downloading *.torrent files

mininova - The ultimate Bittorent source!

When you ‘bit-torrent’, all you’re doing is downloading & uploading from a network of users who have interests similar to your own. The way you tell your client program (uTorrent or Transmission) what it is you want to download, is by finding the proper ‘index’ or torrent file. So, if you want to join that network and start downloading, you’ll need the torrent file linking you to the network of that specific file(s). The best way of doing this, is going to ‘torrent websites’ which have search-able libraries ready for you to browse.

www.eztv.it

Two of the best full-content, public websites are www.mininova.org and www.thepiratebay.org. I don’t personally use the pirate bay, but it comes with strong acclaim, and if I can’t find what I’m looking for (rare) I’ll take a look there as well.

I personally download more T.V. shows than anything else, and to keep track of what’s new, I use www.eztv.it. EZTV is handy because they always list what new shows are airing on that specific day, and usually are quick to upload their torrents. They’re what you call a 0-day site (uploads are made a few hours after the episode airs), so if you miss an episode of House or Lost, you can log-on to EZTV a couple hours later, and find the torrent to download it.

A quick side-note: different torrent sites have different specialities. Some focus only on television shows, some just movies, and some do movies, software, books, and the whole lot. Some require registration, some require invitations, and some are just public to anyone and everyone. If you keep to Mininova and EZTV, then just ignore this note; once you become more of torrent guru, you can start exploring elsewhere, not that you’ll need to.

Step 3: Finding the best torrent.

Sometimes search returns won’t always bring you what request. Sometimes they’ll even bring you returns that you won’t want. Variations in files such as type, quality, size and language will become an issue if you’re not careful. You won’t want to download something with poor quality, or quality that exceeds your needs, or file types that are problematic.

• File type: Make sure you’re downloading files that are *.avi; don’t download *.mp4 or *.mov files – they’re usually pre-iPod formatted files with smaller resolutions which will look bad on a full-screened computer.
• File quality: You’ll find that some files will have jibberish in the file name. Things like 720p, HDTV XviD-LOL, AC3 5 1 are descriptions that are usually placed in the file name, referring to video or audio quality. 720p implies a higher resolution, XviD a codec being used to compress file size while maintaining quality, and AC3 5 1 referring to 5.1 surround sound capabilities.
• File size: There is an easy guideline for new television shows that are being uploaded daily: You should have about 175MB for a show that airs in a 30 minute time-slot, and 350MB for a show that airs in a 1 hour time-slot. For movies, it varies since some movies run for an hour and a half, and some run close to two or two and a half. Sometimes you won’t have much of a selection, and you’ll have to download a 700MB movie hoping it’s good quality – if it’s a shorter movie then chances are good, but if you’re downloading something like The Dark Knight – a movie that runs for more than 150 minutes, you’ll be sure to exceed 1GB for a good quality download.
• Language: Be careful not to download hastily, you might find that your file names are including suffix’ such as ITA, GER, RUS referring to the dubbing of audio – there’s no option to change language once your download has been made.

The last, but arguably most important criteria to consider when searching through torrents, is the amount of seeds (uploaders) and leechers (downloaders) to consider. The more seeds the more people you have uploading the file(s) for you to download. More means faster speed. The more users, the more ‘healthy’ the torrent is; you’re more likely to finish the transfer quickly thanks to higher speeds.

Adding to uTorrent

Download this torrent!‘ – on EZTV, just make a direct choice on the front page and it will start your download). The torrent files are tiny, (usually within 100kb) so they should download quickly, once that’s done, you execute (double click) the file and if you’ve installed and run your client properly once before, you should notice that your torrent client opens up automatically and runs the pop-up I’ve displayed, prompting you to add your new torrent to the queue.

Adding to Transmission

Once added, you’ll notice that after a couple minutes your download speed will start to climb; usually it’ll be slow to begin with, but as you connect to more and more peers (seeds and leechers), it will steadily increase.

One of the greatest limiting factors on your download speed, will actually be how much you’re currently uploading. It’ll seem a little contradictory to the process to be stingy, but you want to limit your upload speed while you’re downloading to get the best performance out of your internet. The simplest way to think about it, is to imagine your download and upload bandwidth as a large pipe, and if your upload is reaching it’s potential, there’s no room left for your download speed to do the same (upload takes priority in this scenario). To avoid limiting your download speed while you’re torrenting, you will want to limit your global upload speed. If you set your client to a global limit (usually to 20kb/s), no matter how many torrents you’re running simultaneously, your overall maximum upload will not surpass 20kb/s; your client will determine which torrent gets how much upload, and you won’t have to worry about it. It’s good practice to upload at least 20kb/s, I’ve noticed that when I’m more generous with my upload, my download will be rewarded by the tracker (the server that governs the connections between all seeds and leechers). To get a good idea of how much you can afford to upload without limiting your download, visit www.speakeasy.net/speedtest, choose a location close to yours, and observe the results.

Setting your limits in Transmission

To be safe, set your upload limit at least 10-20kb/s below your maximum if you’re only torrenting; if you’re using your computer and surfing the internet and doing other tasks at the same time, you’ll notice considerable lack of speed. Set your torrent download maximum 100kb/s below your potential, and upload 30-40kb/s below your potential, and you should be able to surf with minimal disturbance.

Setting your limits in uTorrent

I feel an imperative to encourage you to keep your torrents running after they have completed downloading. Once you reach 100%, you will become a seed, and peers that connect to you will only be those who have yet to complete the download themselves. Keeping your torrent running after completion, sustains this process and allows it to thrive – makes the content available to more people; after all, you would not have this content to share had someone not made it available to you in the first place. It’s good practice to seed until you’ve reached a 1.00 ratio (uploading and downloading equal). However, you should be aware of your monthly bandwidth allocation before you start mass-uploading or mass-downloading.

A couple years after the internet became a big deal, internet providers quickly realized that people were abusing file sharing, and they started limiting how much you can download and upload in a month (your bandwidth limit). For a novice user, this limit is hard to surpass; but for an avid torrent user – a whole different story. Make a good balance of give and take, make sure that you’re not surpassing your limits, but don’t be stingy and close your torrents as soon as they’re complete, a selfish world can’t sustain itself – remember the 1:1 ratio!

Step 5: Enjoying your content!

The last little part is just running your media. Sometimes there are special codecs, or you’re forced to download strange file formats for obscure movies that were encoded years ago. The most popular application to run various kinds of audio/video files, is called VLC media player. It’s supported on all Windows and OS X platforms, and is available on their website, www.videolan.org, in the downloads section.

Associating *.avi files with VLC in OS X

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the application (on Windows, just run the installer, and click next until you’re finished. On OS X, open the *.dmg file, and copy ALL of the contents into a folder named VLC in the applications folder), you’ll need to make sure that files are being associated properly. This means that when you’re double clicking a newly downloaded *.avi file, VLC launches automatically instead of whatever native software that would run these files. Lucky for you Windows users, VLC will automatically change the association, your job is done, feel free to enjoy whatever it is that you’ve downloaded; for OS X users, you’ll have to follow one last step:

Find the downloaded file, and open the file’s properties. You can do this by either right clicking, and choosing ‘Get Info’, or holding the Apple Key and then pushing I. Once this is done, under ‘Open with’ click the drop down, choose ‘Other…’ and find the VLC application, choose, then make sure before you close the dialog, hit “Change All” so you won’t have to do this for each individual file.

In addition to this guide, I’ve posted video tutorials which show me (from start to finish) setting up and downloading using the clients described above. If you’re on OS X click here, if you’re using Windows click here.

Hopefully this guide has been more than just useful for you; if you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact me.

]]> http://www.marccizravi.com/2010/rookies-guide-bittorrent/feed/ 7