Apple Assessment Tests

Careers at Apple

As a global business, Apple is the largest IT company by revenue and is best known for the iMac, the iPhone, and the iPad, as well as a range of wearables and products for in-home connectivity.

Apple has offices around the globe, and with more than 150,000 employees worldwide in a range of career positions, it is a destination career for those who want to work for a global tech leader ahead of the curve.

Careers at Apple focus on bringing individual imagination to innovation using collaboration as a tool. Unlike many other large corporations, the structure of Apple remains functional - which means that the leader of any department is someone with skills and knowledge in that area. No ‘pen pushers’ who haven’t been in the trenches, which makes for more collaboration and inclusion.

Finding a career at Apple can happen wherever you are in the world, whether you are looking for retail work in the local Apple store or want to be part of product development in the corporate offices. Alongside many locations in the USA, you can also get involved in Cork, Israel, Japan and Munich among others

Career areas at Apple include:

• Apple retail
• Corporate functions
• Design
• Machine learning and AI
• Software and services
• Marketing
• Hardware
• Sales and business development
• Support and service
• Operations and supply chain

There are also varied internship and retail opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Benefits of Working at Apple

Aside from the obvious boon to your CV, working at Apple comes with many benefits. As a company, Apple prides itself on diversity and inclusivity - which means structuring a pay and benefits programme that is as individual as the people they employ.

Alongside a competitive salary, some benefits of working at Apple include:

• Medical plans for both physical and mental wellness
• Support for fitness
• Family support including childcare and elderly care
• No gender wage gap
• Charity giving matching, including donations and time
• Paid time off
• Stock grants and discounts on stock purchases
• Pension and income protection
• Discounts on Apple products as well as third-party services

Apple firmly believes in the benefit of continuous learning and provides ample opportunities for personal and professional growth, with the Apple University providing seminars, video lessons and other resources to support the growth of the individual in whatever way they want to go.

If you want to apply for a career at Apple, bear in mind the values that the recruitment team want to see in candidates:

• Accessibility
• Environment
• Privacy
• Supplier responsibility

To begin the hiring process at Apple, you will need to start by looking at the Apple Careers site. All the available opportunities are listed here, and you can search for the right role by keyword. If you want to be more particular, you can filter by location, keyword, teams, products and services, or required language skills.

Once you have found a job that piques your interest, in the job description you will find all the information about the role.

After the summary of the role, there is a list of key qualifications, aptitudes, and skills as well as any additional requirements. If you are ready to apply then you can start the process.

If there isn’t a role that jumps out at you, you can put forward a basic application with a CV and if there is a role that is suitable then the recruitment team will be in touch.

Apple Online Application

Before you start an online application, you will need to create a profile. You can do this using your already existing Apple ID, or create an Apple ID.

In the online application, you will need to include an up-to-date CV, tailored to match the requirements of the role. You will need to provide some contact and basic demographic details in the application form, and for some roles, you will need to answer a selection of motivational questions.

The free-form style of answering motivational questions can be daunting, but you know why you have applied for the role and why you want to work for Apple, so be honest and relate it to your personal values and your future plans.

Apple Aptitude Tests

Apple is one of the few multinational tech firms that does not really rely on online aptitude assessments as part of the recruitment process - but for some roles, you can expect to take them as a form of pre-screening.

The pre-screening assessments are used to help filter applicants when there is an overwhelming number of qualified candidates.

Technical Test

If you are applying for a role that needs a certain level of skill, then you might be asked to complete a technical test.

These are most likely in software or development roles, such as coding or specific knowledge of a programming language, for example. Quite often, these are structured as a realistic work-based scenario or problem that needs solving with the skills that are being tested.

These are usually short assessments that are used to evaluate your proficiency and make sure that you have the required level of knowledge and skill to be successful in the role.

Situational Judgement Test

When you are applying for a role that requires interaction with clients, customers, or other employees, you might be asked to complete a situational judgement test.

The situational judgement test is structured with questions that are based on realistic work scenarios, with several possible courses of action that could be taken to solve the problem in the question.

The reason for the test is to establish how you would respond if you were faced with a similar problem in your daily work. This is an assessment of your work behaviours and personality traits.

The answers that you give in the situational judgement test are compared to an ideal candidate profile to show that you match the requirements for future success.

Personality Test

The personality testis used mainly to assess candidates for culture fit - making sure that they will be comfortable in the type of working environment that their role is in, and that they could be successful based on strengths, weaknesses, motivations and fears.

An example of the importance of this could be that a candidate has applied for a customer-facing role in the service department, but dealing with conflict is not one of their strengths. This might mean that they would not find the work rewarding and would be unhappy.

Personality tests do not have any right or wrong answers, and they are usually self-reporting which means that you have to dive deep to describe yourself based on the statements provided. In most cases, there is no time limit to the personality test, but you should try to answer quickly using your instincts (but bearing in mind the competencies and values needed at Apple and for the role in particular).

Apple Telephone Interview

The telephone interview is often the first opportunity that you will have to speak directly to the recruitment team, and for roles that do not need aptitude testing the telephone interview is an important part of the screening process.

In the telephone interview, you can expect a bit of a discussion about your education and experience as described in your CV, but the focus of the questions will be competency-based.

These questions will test you based on your experiences, so you will need to provide examples of when you have demonstrated various skills like teamwork, leadership and innovation.

To prepare for the telephone interview, look at the required skills and think of examples. You should practice giving these examples in a succinct yet detailed way to give the recruiter everything they need to be able to take you to the next stage.

Apple Assessment Centre

For some roles, the final stage in the recruitment process is the Assessment Centre. This usually takes place in an Apple office but can take place via video link.

During the day, you will be under constant assessment for a range of different aptitudes, but specifically, the ‘soft skills’ that are hard to evaluate in other ways. These include communication, teamwork, leadership and innovation. You can expect to take part in a number of exercises and activities both as part of a group and individually.

• Group Exercise - as a team, you will need to work on a task or a case study to form a conclusion or solve a problem.
• Written Exercise - this is an individual activity, and you will be provided with a written brief and necessary information to provide a recommendation based on a case study.
• Role Play - this is a pair activity, where you and a partner will act as Apple employees while a manager or recruiter plays the part of an Apple customer.

Final Interviews

In some application processes, the final interview is part of the Assessment Centre, but in others, this is a separate occasion.

The final interview is a face-to-face interview that is an extension of the questions in the telephone interview.

You will be asked competency-based questions to assess your work behaviour and the way you make decisions, your personality traits and your past experience.

In the face to face interview you will also be assessed on your confidence, poise, and presentation - so make sure that you are well prepared, dressed for success, and appear friendly and ready to answer.

There will also be an opportunity in this interview for you to ask some questions of your own, so come prepared with thoughtful questions about more than just holiday allowance or what your salary will be.