This column is dedicated to the people thanks to whom Apple was created and evolved to the status of one of the largest corporations in the world. Here you will find a lot of interesting news and other key figures who played an important role in the development of our beloved company.
Most of us know the front side of Apple - these are the windows of retail and online stores, iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other products that are desirable and in demand, despite their high or very high prices. Apple's downside is familiar to its suppliers - those who supply it with numerous components for its products. They do not talk about their impressions of this company. Contracts include a nondisclosure clause that promises harsh punishment for violators - and suppliers know this is not a formality at all. But all the secret becomes clear someday.
On February 26, at the Steve Jobs Theater, the annual re-election meeting of shareholders will take place. Boring? The board of directors will report to the owners of the company (you will be surprised: these are not reptilians at all!), The owners will express their will. Everything as usual? But no: among the 6 issues on the agenda, there is one outrageous and almost indecent, worse, it is purely political. The decision of the owners is the law for the company, no one knows what it will be, the consequences can be catastrophic.
36 years ago (okay, a day more) was released. It was the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface instead of the then standard command line interface. The product was called revolutionary and determined the further development of the industry. How exactly was it, and what has changed since then?
Apple pays great attention to the development of medical technology, but time after time it is faced with the overwhelming force of the global bureaucracy. Surely, if not for this, we would have already seen the Apple Watch with the functions of analyzing the level of oxygen in the blood and at an early stage. Moreover, the company's branded watches already know how to do all this, but in order to release these functions to the people, an incredible work of approval, licensing and certification is required. However, they fully support this practice of introducing innovations, considering it more than useful.
Everyone has probably heard the story that Steve Jobs's annual salary as CEO was one dollar. It is clear that he did not have a shortage of company securities, and therefore, even with such a salary, the entrepreneur did not live in poverty. However, sometimes this became the cause of all sorts of incidents, which Jobs himself liked to talk about. For example, it is known that every time Jobs came to lunch at the campus cafeteria, where he had to pay with a name badge associated with an employee's personal account, he could dial anything, but did not know who was actually paying. because his salary would not even be enough for coffee. Tim Cook usually pays for himself, but this is understandable, because his salary is much higher than that of his predecessor.
Leaks of corporate secrets in any self-respecting company are punished severely and on the spot. Sometimes with the use of heavy judicial artillery. No matter how free the schedule and no matter how benign the working conditions, the rule of "talker and spy" has not been canceled. Therefore, someone's heads, most likely, have already flew from their shoulders in a number of American Apple stores. There is nothing to share with journalists Wall street journal.
Being an Apple Store consultant isn't easy. It’s very difficult. And often the atmosphere in the team is very different from what is shown on the site in the photographs next to the offer to apply for a vacancy for an employee. Even the lowest position at Apple requires two or more interviews to be hired. The main idea, which will be explained to you very quickly in the office of an HR specialist, is to prove that the company needs you. For she is absolutely not interested in you: every store is literally bursting with people who want to get a job in such a place. They are most likely better than you.
Let's assume that you've interviewed and received a final yes. The most difficult stage begins. In addition to studying standard corporate materials, each employee goes through training to “follow Apple's customer service”. This wouldn't be out of the ordinary if Apple’s rules weren’t about your speech. Example. Can't speak "Unfortunately", otherwise you will regret already outside the shop of the former employer. We use the phrase "It so happened that ..."... If you can't solve a client's problem, negative words are prohibited.
And now you, having studied a pile of corporate materials, finally found yourself "in the field". Or is it not? For two weeks, if you please, quietly run after employees with great experience. And yes, you are not allowed to talk to customers. Generally. First - training and education. Once they are confident that you are ready, you will be allowed to open your mouth to the person in need. Remember: if a client names his device incorrectly, nod back in approval, because this person knows better than you how to call what he spent his money on.
Naturally, you are not working on sheer enthusiasm. Genius Bar tech support specialists are paid up to $ 30 per hour, depending on qualifications. Ordinary soldier-consultants can be counted on from $ 9 to $ 15 per hour. Is this a lot? By local standards - pennies... And forget about the traditional vocabulary of “career advancement”: if you’re hiring Apple as a store worker, you may never get the chance to make your way somewhere “higher”.
Whatever you do and whatever you do, Steve Jobs's watchful eye is watching you. The man personally decided which cables would be plugged into the iPad 2 and routed to the devices on display as part of Apple Store 2.0, the company's recent store reform. Two years ago, after a liver transplant operation, Steve Jobs reviewed plans for future Apple stores in his own room and handed out appropriate instructions. And even now, when your boss, Ron Johnson, is heading to another company, you should not hope for indulgence. Whoever takes his place, the strictest discipline will always come first.
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An incredible atmosphere of secrecy has reigned around Apple almost since its inception. Rarely is it possible to find out about the plans in advance: today they showed it, they released it a week later. Only Apple Watch and Mac Pro had a long delay - six months passed from the moment of the announcement to the release. The secrecy goes so far that some employees do not understand what they are working on. Until it is shown from the stage.
The question arises: what is it like to work in a company where you do not know even 10% of what is happening? That is why few people know what is really going on inside the company. But Quora helped me find the answer to this question. Some of the messages touch on the Steve Jobs era, some are more recent and different: it's no secret that under Tim Cook, corporate culture has changed a little. How everything looks now - in the answers below.
Apple's first rule is never talk about Apple.
Justin Maxwell, a UI designer, says that if he were still at Apple now, he would not have been able to take part in this survey. Working at Apple comes to the understanding that the company and work in it is something more than you yourself. “You're working on new systems, a new one-piece casing, that's part of your job, but not something worth writing about on your blog,” says Justin.
Everyone who works at Apple has a great affection for her. Employee Andrew Guang added that in Chinese Apple Stores, managers even climb on desks and shout to their employees, "We're Apple!" Then they happily answer him with the same: "We are Apple!" Some employees hide that they work in Cupertino, so as not to answer a lot of stupid questions about what is happening inside.
Delicious food covers all the flaws
According to one anonymous author, the company's campus is really beautiful (and it's not the new Apple Campus 2 yet). There are several restaurants inside where you can grab sushi or spicy Mexican food, salad or sandwich.
Cafeterias are always noisy and crowded, but the chefs, in their impeccable white aprons, manage to feed and send everyone to work. Another anonymous person added that he also liked the food and the lack of a corporate dress code (no one goes to Gucci or Versace here), but added that the atmosphere in the company is incredibly difficult to work with:
According to Nitin Ganatra, manager of iOS apps, at Apple, hundreds of emails are constantly pouring in on you from all sides:
A letter comes to you, although it was not intended for you. It is from Scott (Forstall - Ed.), Although Steve (Jobs - Ed.) Forwarded it to you, and he is urgently awaiting an answer. And so on until three in the morning, until the vice presidents receive an answer to their question. This repeats itself day after day, week after week, for years.
Don Malton, internet technology manager, adds that everyone is always waiting for an answer, and if it doesn't come, they get very annoyed. It doesn’t matter if it’s lunch break or 2 a.m. - they are waiting for an answer immediately.
When someone comes to me and says that he wants to become a manager, I directly ask the question: "How did you sleep today?" Then everyone answers: "Okay," and I immediately add: "Great, because this was your last quiet night."
Melton also noted that it is difficult to imagine a calm Sunday at Apple:
You are sitting with the phone in front of the computer, because on Monday there is a meeting, and you need to prepare for it. It doesn't matter that it's a day off and your favorite show is on.
The only exception was the time when "The Sopranos" was shown - this series was loved by Scott Forstall and did not bother anyone while watching it. Probably for this reason, Apple updates the Mail application every year, and in the latest iOS update, they even launched a picture-in-picture mode so that they could watch TV shows and answer letters from management.
Steve got what he wanted
Chad Little, Apple's designer, says that if Steve Jobs wasn't involved in your project, you can do it for months at a relaxed pace. But if Steve was interested in the result, everything was done incredibly quickly:
No one even imagined that a person is capable of doing something at such a speed.
Secrecy is part of the company's culture
Dave Black, an engineer, says that one of the top tenets of corporate culture was secrecy. In the company, practically no one said what they were working on and how things were going. Information was revealed only at the moment when it was really important.
Marketers are in charge
According to one anonymous author, marketers run the show at Apple. They are the ones who talk about what people need now and what product should be brought to the market. In addition, the number of key reviewers who provide reviews of the company's products are important. One of these is considered the editor-in-chief of the Re / code portal Walt Mossberg, a good friend of Apple's management.
No “Think Different”
According to one of the company's employees, Apple has built a great myth around itself. On the one hand, everyone sees the “Think Different” posters, while inside Apple itself everything works strictly according to the rules and employees must strictly follow them.
Apple is not a place for children
One anonymous employee noted that Apple is not a place for children. Most of the employees are doing well for 30 years, they have a lot of life and work experience.
Moreover, all these people are constantly involved in sports. A huge number of employees participate in triathlon, cycling and running marathons. The atmosphere in the company leads to the fact that you can quickly and easily lose your extra few pounds. By the way, Tim Cook himself does not hide the fact that from time to time he wakes up at 5 in the morning and goes to the gym.
But in the end, work at Apple is quite ordinary.
One of the anonymous people noted that most of Apple's employees have a very ordinary job, which is repeated every day.
We do not come out every day with a presentation of a new product under the watchful eye of thousands of people. Most of the time we sit at the table and write code.
I guess most of you are familiar with the hiring procedure: finding the required vacancy, preparing a resume and cover letter, communicating with the HR department, and interviewing. Nothing unusual, everything is extremely standard and, as a rule, rarely differs from company to company. But Apple is a completely different matter, because the process of finding a job in the corporation of your dreams is unlikely to be anything from what you had to deal with before. Want more details?
Colleagues from Business Insider shared such interesting and even unique information. At the disposal of the journalists was the story of the analyst of the online magazine iMore Michael Gartenberg, who, by the will of fate, managed to work for Apple Inc. in the position of senior director of marketing. A very curious aspect of Gartenberg's career is not his direct interest in the company, which many are afraid of, but the interest of the company's management in such a valuable employee as Michael.
As the hero of our today's story later told, while working as an analyst for a thematic publication, he managed to attend a sufficient number of Apple conferences and presentations. During one of them, the vice president of the company Greg Jozvyak contacted him, who asked Michael to give him 5-10 minutes of free time. "What have I done wrong? - flashed through Gartenberg's head. “It’s not every day that the vice president of such a company invites you to talk about something.”
According to Josvyak, he just wanted to offer Michael a job, but given the lack of free time, he offered to talk about it right on the company's campus in Cupertino. Subsequently, it turned out that the position implies direct reporting to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Apple Inc. for international marketing. As long as Michael was at home, the newly-minted employer avoided any details about the upcoming duties and the possible circle of responsibility.
After landing at the California airport, Gartenberg received a text message that he needed to meet with a certain Hiroki Asai, who is one of Apple's top marketing staff and will be his protector. The next day, Gartenberg recalled, there were several meetings with the company's management. His interlocutors were not only Phil Schiller, but also Jozvyak, Brian Kroll, who was responsible for the development of macOS at the time, as well as Dave Moody and Michael Chao - he worked on the iPad line.
“It turned out that my future team is a team of specialists in international marketing and promotion of the company's products in countries outside the United States. For a long time I worked practically in obscurity, but not because this was the policy of the company. Many things were simply not included in my circle of work. Apple is a company built on details. She is very versatile. I remember the first time I sent an email to one of my colleagues, apparently with a mistake, when he immediately replied to me: "spelling decides." I love Apple. Perhaps this is one of the best places to work. "
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I guess most of you are familiar with the hiring procedure: finding the required vacancy, preparing a resume and cover letter, communicating with the HR department, and interviewing. Nothing unusual, everything is extremely standard and, as a rule, rarely differs from company to company. But Apple is a completely different matter, because the process of finding a job in the corporation of your dreams is unlikely to be anything from what you had to deal with before. Want more details?
Colleagues from Business Insider shared such interesting and even unique information. At the disposal of the journalists was the story of the analyst of the online magazine iMore Michael Gartenberg, who, by the will of fate, managed to work for Apple Inc. in the position of senior director of marketing. A very curious aspect of Gartenberg's career is not his direct interest in the company, which many are afraid of, but the interest of the company's management in such a valuable employee as Michael.
As the hero of our today's story later told, while working as an analyst for a thematic publication, he managed to attend a sufficient number of Apple conferences and presentations. During one of them, the vice president of the company Greg Jozvyak contacted him, who asked Michael to give him 5-10 minutes of free time. "What have I done wrong? - flashed through Gartenberg's head. “It’s not every day that the vice president of such a company invites you to talk about something.”
According to Josvyak, he just wanted to offer Michael a job, but given the lack of free time, he offered to talk about it right on the company's campus in Cupertino. Subsequently, it turned out that the position implies direct reporting to Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Apple Inc. for international marketing. As long as Michael was at home, the newly-minted employer avoided any details about the upcoming duties and the possible circle of responsibility.
After landing at the California airport, Gartenberg received a text message that he needed to meet with a certain Hiroki Asai, who is one of Apple's top marketing staff and will be his protector. The next day, Gartenberg recalled, there were several meetings with the company's management. His interlocutors were not only Phil Schiller, but also Jozvyak, Brian Kroll, who was responsible for the development of macOS at the time, as well as Dave Moody and Michael Chao - he worked on the iPad line.
“It turned out that my future team is a team of specialists in international marketing and promotion of the company's products in countries outside the United States. For a long time I worked practically in obscurity, but not because this was the policy of the company. Many things were simply not included in my circle of work. Apple is a company built on details. She is very versatile. I remember the first time I sent an email to one of my colleagues, apparently with a mistake, when he immediately replied to me: "spelling decides." I love Apple. Perhaps this is one of the best places to work. "
Also interesting:
Please rate 5 stars at the bottom of the article if you like this topic. Subscribe to us Telegram, In contact with, Instagram, Facebook , Twitter, Viber, Youtube.
Rate: