Apple Store Manager Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Jul 2009 in Los Angeles, CA (took 3 days)

Ridiculous interview in a mall food court
For the worlds most admired company, I was blown away by their overly casual attitude
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, but c'mon...I still want to be professional and its hard to answer their 3hrs of interview questions with screaming kids, parents and the smell of fried food.

 Seriously, how can Apple hire managers from Williams Sonoma, Gap and Starbucks to sell technology solutions to customers? Makes no sense...and even worse, the managers constantly joke they know nothing about the products; very tacky! Yes, the aforementioned companies are great at merchandising and creating a great experience, but they do not "Sell"; people walk in and know what they want. This is the trap Apple is falling into. A store full of arrogant retail snobs who know nothing about overcoming objections or asking for the sale.

The district managers are just as bad, always on their iphones interrupting the interview and putting out fires...whatever...i know how field mgmt works, they have it easy, mon-fri half days usually. My old District Manager would stop by for 1 hr per week and then go off to take care of his bratty kids the rest of the day.

For a company that prides itself on diversity, I saw no people of color in mgmt ranks...EVERYONE was white, blonde and tanned. LIKE, OH MY GOSH! Honestly, the worker bees are diverse, but all the managers are white as can be.

Anyways, enough ranting, standard interview questions and each person seems to ask the SAME question as their counterparts but only in different manner. Very boring and I had to push myself to stay focused past their repetition, stupid jokes, loud environment and senseless small talk (who cares what your favorite food is?)

I would agree that Apple is incredible; great brand w/ great products and their stores are THE retail experience to beat, but how long will this last? It seems like their customer segment is already saturated. I mean, c'mon, how many ipods can a person buy every few years?

I really see Apple retail hitting hard times in the next 3-5 yrs. They are too mgmt heavy and focus too much on creating a fun atmosphere vs selling solutions to customers. I saw five customers leave with no bags and just knew they would be going to Best Buy or Wal Mart to purchase the item the rep spent 30min talking to them about.