I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Melbourne) in Nov 2015
Interview
I applied via Apple website and HR emailed to me to schedule telephone interview. The phone interview went for an hour, started with going through the position description and salary to see if you are ok with the pay then interviewer going through your work experience then ended with technical questions and troubleshooting skills.
Interview questions [5]
Question 1
What the difference between RAM and Hard Disk Drive?
Three computers connected to the router via Ethernet cables. Two computers can see each other while the other one cannot see the others. How would you troubleshoot it?
I applied online. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at Apple (Galway) in Apr 2015
Interview
First there was a phone screening interview, then phone interview and online test. It is supposed to be an easy process, however I mistakenly closed the online test when my daughter started bawling and walked in on me. I had passed the skype interview and can tell they really wanted me.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (El Paso, TX) in Oct 2015
Interview
I received an initial phone call/interview about two weeks after applying through jobs.apple.com. This was very basic in which only two real job type questions were asked: 1) A customer calls because they received an apple watch for fathers day and do not know how to set it up (the key this question was saying happy fathers day and acknowledging that you would be thorough yet quick so the customer could return to their family) 2) How do you solve problems, this answer will be different for everyone but make sure you do the critical thinking before you get this phone call. After that brief interview I was told that I will be moving on to the next round of interviews and we set up the time for my second. In total the first interview was maybe 15 minutes.
During the second interview we did one customer role play in which my "customer" had received an iPad for her birthday or anniversary, her husband had loaded a bunch of games and apps onto the iPad but she wanted to get rid of them. For anyone who owns an iOS device this was an easy role play, but the one piece of criticism I got was that I needed to slow down and verify each step of the process with the customer. Other than that one role play it was mostly questions such as am I willing to set up a home office that is mostly soundproof with a locking door free from distractions and just questions about me and my work history. The last thing she said was that she enjoyed the interview and that she wanted to move me to the final round. She told me I would receive an email within 5 days (which I received in 4) to setup the time. The second interview was 25-30 minutes in total.
My final interview was with an actual team manager. He wanted to comb my resume with me to clarify previous jobs held and to translate some of my other customer service experience into this role. Some of the questions require a bit more critical thinking for people who do not work in the tech. support field such as "tell me about a specific time recently when you solved a problem" this question was meant to determine my internal problem solving method and how I learn and solve problems. We did two role plays; the first role-play was a customer phones in because they received an attachment from an instructor but the sound won't play. I had a brain fart during this one so I kept going through a multitude of steps before simply asking the customer to play a song on his iPad, the song played and I was able to determine that the file was corrupted. The key in this scenario was to acknowledge the importance of the issue to the customer as well as offer advice such as getting a copy of the video transcript in case they couldn't get the video to work at all. My second role play was the customer couldn't get their email to download; I went through verifying their credentials on iCloud and through the service provider before finally having to tell them that it is not an iOS problem but likely an issue with their service provider, once I explained that I advised the customer to see if there was an outage or an extra few steps their email provider required in order to make it function. This interview lasted about 50 minutes.
After the third interview they tell you that you will hear back in one to two weeks. I heard back the first time five days after, this was a conditional offer pending a background check. At this point the hiring manger told me my starting pay which was only 20 cents below my asking but 60 cents above my areas average. I did the background check that night and heard back exactly a week later that I passed the background check and was officially given an offer of employment.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a specific time recently that you solved a technical problem