Transcription
My how-to get hired at Apple videos are some of my most popular videos on my entire channel. They've got hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of likes, and if you look at all the comments, you'll see plenty of comments like these ones talking about people who have gotten hired in part using my videos to nail their Apple Store interviews. And every once in a while, I get a comment like this, in which people say, "Hey, here are the questions they ask me."
In today's video, I'm going to share what those questions are, and I'm going to teach you how to answer these questions. Let's go.
Okay, so the first question is, "Tell me about your performance in your current role." This is a great question for you because if you're prepared to answer this question, it really sets you up to sell yourself nicely. Now, when I, uh, when I advise people on how to answer this question, what you need to do is: one, quickly outline what is your role, what is your function, what are your responsibilities. Two, I would talk about your KPIs, or key performance indicators. So, what are you measured on? Maybe it's numbers of sales, maybe it's customers helped, whatever it is, but I would quickly state, "Here's what they measure me on on a weekly basis." And then talk about your performance. Ideally, you're excelling in your role. So, you can say, "I work at ABC company in this role. The way I'm measured on a weekly basis is I'm measured on blank, blank, and blank. And I would say, looking at the last couple of quarters, I'm in the top 5% of the people who are in my role in my district, right?" Something like that. And then you can go on and talk about what you really like in your role and specifically if it relates to what you'd be doing in the Apple store. So you could finish it by saying, "And what I really love about my role is I get to help people on a day-to-day basis. People come in and they're looking for help, and I get to use my customer service skills and my knowledge to make sure not only do they have a great experience, but I'm able to help them find what they need." That right there is similar to what you would be doing in the Apple store. So to recap: what are you doing? How are you measured? How do you do against those measurements? And why you like your role, specifically a role that is very similar, um, or describes similar responsibilities to the Apple store. If you do that, you're going to kill this question. You'll answer this question better than like 99% of people who get asked this question.
Next question is, "Tell me about a time you exceeded your own expectations." This is a challenging question because in the moment it is going to be really hard to just think of this, right? And just have a great example pop off the top of your head. That's really complicated. So, first I want you to sit and think about this, right? And think about a time where you did something, um, but you did something that like is super meaningful. The nice thing about questions like this is you actually have a lot of leeway. They're asking you for an example, but that example could be anything. So, if you have an example from work for a time where you did something that made a significant positive impact at your job, I would use that. If you don't have one of those, talk about the time you did something at school in which you exceeded an expectation. But it's really important here to have one ready to be able to articulate it efficiently. You don't want to ramble. You want to be able to tell them what you did and ideally you did something that made a huge impact at your job. And when you're talking about why it exceeded your expectations, you know, you don't want to be one of those people who comes off as not confident or cocky, but you want to talk to the thing, um, like a reasonable person. You know, "I had this, you know, this task that I was doing as part of my main responsibilities and I felt really good about my skills, but I was able to achieve this exceptional result. And for me, I was surprised because I thought I was going to be able to do great, but this was above and beyond my expectations." Something like that. And if you answer it like that, you're going to do great.
Okay. So this next question is, "Tell me about a time you had to work with someone who had a different approach than you." Okay, so first things first, "Tell me about a time when" that means you were being asked a behavioral interview question. And when you're asked a behavioral interview question, you need to use the STAR method. That stands for situation, task, action, result. It's just a framework to walk them through and make sure you cover every facet of the answer. Another thing that's really important when answering this question is you want to talk about how, uh, you enthusiastically embrace people who do things differently than you. And what I mean by that is not, "Oh, this person did a thing different, it was wrong, and I was like, 'Hey, person who's doing it wrong, you're an idiot,' right?" Like that's a bad way to answer this question. But instead you're like, "You know, I've worked with a bunch of people on different teams and I always appreciate when people have a different strategy than me because sometimes I learn something and I learn that I could be doing something more effectively." Right? That's a positive way to view the fact that someone does something differently. Now, this is a behavioral interview question, so you have to pull something from your past to answer it. So, I can't tell you exactly what that is, but again, be positive about the fact that people do things and approach problems and situations in different ways, and that's okay. Use a STAR method, situation, task, action, result, and at the end of the day, just make sure you're telling a story that is positive. Don't be negative about your teammate. If you're negative about your teammate, it's going to hurt your chances of getting a job offer. And if you can find a story that fits within those confines, you're going to nail it.
Next question is, "Tell me about a time when you had to learn something very quickly." Again, this is a behavioral interview question. "Tell me about a time when." Time when? Behavioral interview question. STAR method, situation, task, action, result. But I think the whole point here is working in the Apple store; there's the expectation that you're going to learn things on occasion, and they want people who like learning. So in your example, maybe it's something you had to learn for a past job, there was a new system and you had to learn it quickly because they were making a change, but you want to talk about how you were excited about it and that you love learning. Um, your answer could sound something like this: "You know, recently I worked for ABC company and I was a salesy associate, and we had a new point of sales system that they implemented and they did it pretty quickly. So, one day we're using the old one and the next day essentially we had to learn the new one. But I was really excited about it. One, I'm the type of person who loves learning new things, but two, they explained to us why we were doing it and I saw the benefit. So, I was really excited to learn that. So, it was one of those things that I came in early before store opening. I had about 30 minutes to learn it. I learned it. I felt really comfortable, and we basically moved into the new system and, um, you know, we never looked back and I really enjoyed it. Um, and I'm always looking for opportunities to learn new things and grow as a professional." There you go. That's a great way to answer it. If you answer it like that, they're going to love your answer.
Okay, so the next question is, "Describe what an excellent customer service experience is and give an example from your life." Okay, so a question like this, right? You need to first talk about what you think excellent customer service is. So, everybody's going to have a different way of describing this, but generally speaking, when you're describing excellent customer service, what you're talking about is making sure the customer's experience is really great. So, you know, you might say something along the lines of, "Well, for me, excellent customer service is making sure that you greet people with enthusiasm and let them know that you're happy they're there." And then whatever it is they need, whether they have an issue that needs resolving or they need help making a decision, you want to meet them where they are, make sure you ask questions to learn exactly what it is they need and help them find what they need or fix their issue while making sure along the way they have an excellent experience. You're catering to their needs. You're connecting with them. You're learning a little bit about them, and you're working really hard to make sure that you resolve whatever issue it is or you help them find what they need. Something like that, and then give an example of a time in your life. Now, this could be something you did or it could be an experience that you had somewhere. I think either way is okay as long as your foundation to the answer, explaining customer service and what excellent customer service is, makes sense, uh, isn't rambly. You know, it's it's an efficient answer. Um, as long as you do that, you'll be great.
Now, one of the things that I think is really important is that you make a great first impression and last impression. It's why I made this video. It's how to get a job in 6 minutes. And at the Apple store, even though I make Apple-specific content, you still need to be a good interviewer. This video teaches you how to be a great interviewer. So go watch that next.