I read an interview with Alex Frankel about his experience working in an Apple Store.
Some interesting things to note:
Apple turns away 90% of applicants to their stores. Is this true? Some say yes.
Apple prefers "enthusiasts and true believers" over sales experience.
Does design supersede everything at an Apple Store? Apparently so.
The interview is well done and the Q/A’s given are good for anyone who wants to know some good info on what makes an Apple Store tick concerning employee requirements, training and so on.
. . .
Digression:
Part of the Apple Store experience which I always considered a bit on the pompous side is any employee labeled as a "Genius".
Case in point: Apple Genius Bar Rant Part 1 and Part 2 (video).
The Mac user in the video did not receive assistance at the time he was told prior. Furthermore when he finally did talk to the "Genius", the only advice given was to buy software.
Not very Genius-like if you asked me.
Why does Florida always get the sucky Apple Stores?
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My experience at the Apple Store suggests that “Apple Genius” is an oxymoron. Once, I tried asking a sales person where the terminal is on a Mac. It didn’t have a shortcut on the dock, and I knew almost nothing about Macs at the time, so I didn’t know where to look and thought I’d save time by asking the sales person. The first sales person didn’t know anything and went to get a Genius. The genius didn’t even know what a terminal was and said Mac didn’t have one. Then, I just decided to dig around until I found it, which was about 10 seconds later in front of him.
Another time I had a question about Apple’s filesystem and how easy it would be to back things up off of a dead computer with another nearby computer or hard drive. He didn’t know what kind of filesystem OSX had, but he told me that the only way to recover my data from a computer crash is to bring it back to the Apple Store or mail it to Apple and let their Apple Care handle it. He also said that since PCs don’t have Apple Care, I wouldn’t be able to get my data back at all if a PC crashed. I guess he’s never heard of an external hard drive.