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Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#31

Post by KuraFire »

mmatey wrote: post #24
KuraFire wrote: post #20

For the people working there, talking about it on a public forum is cause enough to get fired, and hiding behind an online alias is not going to give you enough protection. Apple is full of really smart people, who like their jobs well enough not to risk losing them so casually and for such little incentive. As for the process of interviewing: for a lot of the more interesting jobs at Apple, interviewing involves sig…

Ok this is the answer I was looking for - but a bit unexpected. I can certainly understand an NDA for working there, but interviewing? ok... As for comments farther down, it's a case of curiosity like I said - corporate/company culture, not their products. I think that's relative no matter what the company size is.

Imagine interviewing for a job position as baseband engineer in 2006. Apple had no iPhone in the market, why would they have needed a baseband engineer? Even a simple interview can sometimes reveal a lot about their product plans, hence the need for NDAs just for that early process.

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#32

Post by cosmicray »

There were 3 basic periods at Apple: the beginnings (aka Steve I), the Dark Ages (roughly '85-'97), and Steve Returns.

During the Dark Ages, Apple leaked internal information badly. One of the first things that Steve did upon return was try to clamp down (and fire people if necessary). He even had one of those WW-II posters "Loose lips sink ships" tacked up. And there is a certain truth to that. Competition has heated up (esp in the mobile space). Anyone and everyone would love to know what Apple is working on now, and what they will announce next month. Witness the kerkuffle with gawker over the iphone 4 engineering test device.

So people at Apple learn to say nothing, or move on down the road.

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#33

Post by zephyrfalcon »

xentronium wrote: post #12

I believe that they've got somewhat strictest policies on talking about internal stuff. Well, at least that's what some bloggers write about [1] and I haven't heard about any counter-proofs. [1] http://gizmodo.com/5427058/apple-gestapo-how-apple-hunts-dow...

Gizmodo isn't really an impartial source, though... :-/

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#34

Post by KuraFire »

krschultz wrote: post #30
KuraFire wrote: post #20

For the people working there, talking about it on a public forum is cause enough to get fired, and hiding behind an online alias is not going to give you enough protection. Apple is full of really smart people, who like their jobs well enough not to risk losing them so casually and for such little incentive. As for the process of interviewing: for a lot of the more interesting jobs at Apple, interviewing involves sig…

You can interview for all kinds of positions involving classified weapons and intelligence without signing an NDA , but Apple requires you to sign one? What could possibly be so special about their interview process? I guess they're worried about people gaming the system, but what stops someone from breaking the NDA to one individual going in for the interview and not online? Wouldn't that give the one individual a h…

As I said below, it's about the secrecy of the products & plans they're working on. Keeping those secrets is worth anywhere between $200 and $300 million of free advertisement a year (a conservative estimate, these days), so it shouldn’t really be such a shock they’d like to keep secret things secret.

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#35

Post by [deleted] »

KuraFire wrote: post #20

For the people working there, talking about it on a public forum is cause enough to get fired, and hiding behind an online alias is not going to give you enough protection. Apple is full of really smart people, who like their jobs well enough not to risk losing them so casually and for such little incentive. As for the process of interviewing: for a lot of the more interesting jobs at Apple, interviewing involves sig…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#36

Post by limmeau »

When Glyph Lefkowitz (of the Twisted project) was hired, he posted unboxing pics of his job offer to his blog (which has since been closed down). He praised the usability of the letter.

Second-hand mention in: http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/unboxing-an-apple-job-off...

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#38

Post by adamtj »

Whether it's intentional or coincidence, it's interesting how it parallels their products. There are approximately three people who work for Apple. They are the shiny, slick interface. Everything else is an implementation detail.

Jonathan Ive is like OS X. Nobody knows how OS X actually works, but they know the name and that it is why their screen shows such pretty things.

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#39

Post by darwinGod »

Regarding NDA's - Don't most companies sign some sort of an NDA with potential hires/ employees??Still, interview questions of most companies are available if you google well enough. But yeah, the difference is humongous- Apple doesnt seem to have the faintest thing similar to mini-microsoft :-)

Re: Ask HN: Why does no one talk about working or interviewing for Apple?

#40

Post by leif »

cosmicray wrote: post #32

There were 3 basic periods at Apple: the beginnings (aka Steve I), the Dark Ages (roughly '85-'97), and Steve Returns. During the Dark Ages, Apple leaked internal information badly . One of the first things that Steve did upon return was try to clamp down (and fire people if necessary). He even had one of those WW-II posters "Loose lips sink ships" tacked up. And there is a certain truth to that. Competition has heat…

I think the period names you are looking for are "A New Hope", "The Board Strikes Back", and "The Return of the Jobs".
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