Three Surprising Questions Apple Store Asks About Every Job Candidate

by | Jul 10, 2012

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs demanded excellence from himself and others. He refused to sugarcoat his comments and he expected “fearless feedback” in return. Could you have gone toe-to-toe with Steve Jobs? If not, you probably won’t get hired at an Apple Store and that’s a shame because Apple is one of the few retailers that are hiring in a big way. Apple is on pace to open forty new stores this year alone.

As a leader in any field, pay close attention to how the Apple Store hires winning personalities. There’s a lot to learn. Although many brands try to copy the look and feel of the Apple Store (see Best Buy Tries on Apple’s Sleek Look in The Wall Street Journal), they are missing the real soul of the Apple Store experience—its people. The Apple Store values a magnetic personality as much as it does proficiency. But how do you find the best people who are passionately committed to the brand and the customer experience?

When evaluating potential employees, Apple hiring managers must answer three questions on a candidate referral form intended to gauge the candidates’ ability to provide a superior customer experience.

1. Do they display grit?Grit is the ability to perform under pressure, especially in “ambiguous” situations where clear answers might be elusive. Grit is courage and confidence. There’s a difference between confidence and arrogance. An arrogant job candidate says, “I know everything about the MacBook Pro.” A confident candidate says, ‘There are a lot of things I don’t know but I can find the answer.’ A person displays grit when they acknowledge what they don’t know but are determined to learn.

2. Can the candidate offer a Ritz-Carlton level of customer service?  This question measures the candidate’s ability to provide transformational experiences. The Apple Store simply wants to know if the person being considered has customer service skills up to par with its standards. The Apple Store doesn’t want to hear a job candidate say, ‘I love customer service.’ Instead they want to hear, “I take every opportunity to wow a customer and here’s an example…” A candidate might be asked, “Has there ever been a time when a customer asked for something that you could not provide at the moment? How did you handle it?” In this case the hiring manager is probing to see just how deep the candidate can go into Apple’s Five Steps of Service, which I revealed in this previous article. Although the candidate is not expected to know the five steps of service, people who are exceptional at communicating instinctively follow some, if not all, the steps in their interactions with customers.

3. Could the candidate have gone toe-to-toe with Steve Jobs? This question implies that the candidate has a general idea about Apple’s products and technology. More important, Apple Store hiring managers want to know that a candidate has an opinion, can articulate it, and is willing to fight for it.

“I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face,” Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson. “That’s the culture I tried to create. We are brutally honest with each other.” Few employees ever met Jobs in person but, if they had, would they have be able to hold their own with Steve—really go toe-to-toe with him—or would they have cowered and wilted into a blubbering mess? Jobs’ top executives understood that they had to treat Jobs with respect but that they were also expected to push back on his ideas and argue their points. “I realized very early that if you didn’t voice your opinion, he would mow you down,” Apple CEO Tim Cook once said. Yes, the Apple Store hires friendly and passionate employees. But Apple also looks for people who confidently express their opinion and have a fearless attitude about offering feedback.

During my year of research into the secrets behind the Apple Store, I was impressed with the fact that, despite being the most profitable retailer, Apple is never content. Managers are constantly evaluating their employees and themselves. They give feedback daily and solicit feedback in return. They apply Ritz-Carlton methods to the sales floor and seek to improve on those methods.  They are constantly evaluating the quality of conversations between employees and customers.

Companies that hire friendly, confident, employees will be rewarded with a team of empowered individuals who voice their opinions, feel comfortable offering feedback, and offer an exceptionally high level of customer service.