Apple Senior Software Engineer Interview

Interview Details – First, this interview took place at the end of 2001, but the popup didn't let me specify that correctly.

I had interviewed with Apple for several other positions before this one. Apple actually did keep my resume on file, and they called me for two of the openings that I didn't get before landing this job.

First, Apple's recruiters are excellent. They were easy to get on the phone, they were highly responsive, they knew their department's needs, and they knew enough about their department's business to be able to speak about prospects for promotion and career development in their group. At Apple, recruiters specialize in particular areas of the business.

After a phone interview with the hiring manager, I came in for face to face interviews with all of my prospective peers on my team, my boss's VP, one of my boss's peers in the same department, and the senior director of an engineering group with whose members I would frequently need to collaborate.

In each interview, the person I spoke with was able to decide that I was technically qualified very early on, so we mostly spoke about how to deal with various situations that might occur with customers or colleagues, and how I would go about handling them. The process was mostly about deciding whether our personalities would mesh.

I would advise anyone applying at Apple to be completely forthright, and never bluff. If you don't know an answer, say so and describe how you might go about finding it out.

After I joined the company, I had occasion to interview candidates for jobs both within and outside my group from time to time, and everyone I saw was already well qualified technically. Again, Apple's recruiters are top notch, and the only applicants I ever interviewed were highly qualified. It wasn't a matter of finding someone who could do the job, it was always a matter of choosing the best of several good candidates.

Negotiation Details – I was quite happy with the offer, which was about 10% above the figure I'd had in mind going in. So, they named a figure, I accepted, and that was that.