Interviewed Aug 2009 in Cupertino, CA (took 2 days)

After being referred by an employee, I had initial discussions with a recruiter, then a phone interview, and finally a 1:1 in-person interview with the hiring executive. The process of arranging the various sessions went very well--the recruiter and an administrator worked the schedule efficiently and processionally.

The good news is that the job description was very well-written. The bad news is that the reality did not seem to match the posting. The hiring executive seemed unable to focus during our in-person interview and consistently contradicted the details in the job description. Example: "We don't really have any processes for that," in referring to a posting bullet reading, "Responsible for managing process flow and control for [a specific repair channel]."

The in-person questions seemed unrelated to the job requirements. Not in a discriminatory way, just not connected to anything in the posting.

I left with the impression that there would be additional discussions, which was confirmed in subsequent email exchanges both with the hiring executive and the recruiter, but everything went silent almost 90 days ago and I have heard nothing more. Can't exactly give them good marks for follow-through.

People: nearly everyone with whom I interacted was positive, upbeat, and happy about their work. They projected a good impression of Apple as a company. Unfortunately the hiring executive was the exception--not a bad impression per se, but not great.

Office: the physical environment was first-rate.

Work culture: if the job posting was correct, the work culture would be great. If the other employees I know there are representative, the work culture is great. But if the hiring executive was either correct or representative, "great" falls to "below average."