Made a profile on Apple.com years ago and let it go inactive. Nothing actually happened until a friend of mine submitted a referral. After I polished everything up on my profile I got a phone call after a month (write a great and personal cover letter, they WILL read it). She set up a phone interview for a few days from then. The phone call came about an hour late (lateness will be a thing with Apple). I was freaking out but it was a short screening and pleasant. He asked briefly about customer service experience and my relationship with Apple products, we talked about current events as well. It was very casual and they like when you can converse about anything. Then he told me he would have someone call to set up an interview with someone he had in mind for me. The next day another person called and set up a one on one interview the following week. She picked someone randomly so the phone interviewer didn't actually set me up with anyone in particular. I went to the store, checked in and waited about 15 mins. I met with a nice floor manager who took me to a place in the mall with couches. It was nice and casual. He focused on my relationship with Apple and the conversation flowed well. The other thing they're most concerned about was customer service but he didn't ask me pointed questions. It's a good sign if you can get the conversation to flow naturally into those topics. He made it clear that Apple typically starts everyone out as Specialist part time unless you're coming in with loads of experience in a particular area but that people get the chance to find what dept they like and are often promoted or switched to a more specialized role. This was the first time hey indicated what position they wanted me for. I was really excited. Then he had me do an unscheduled meet with another manager because he liked our conversation. I hung out in the store for about 15 minutes and met the other manager who is in charge of hiring and doesn't interact with the customers as much. Now this guy, this one wasn't easy to talk to. It really depends on who you get for interviews, what the last one liked the next one might not care about. He took me to a high traffic part of the mall, talked about himself until I found a segue to talk about customer service experience which was his main focus. Soon I had a feeling he had already decided he didn't like me on sight because he didn't ask me many questions. He asked if I knew someone from a project I work for (which if the answer is no, then the conversation ends there and it's awkward. if yes, you've got a good in) and then asked about how we do things there even though it was entirely unrelated to Apple. When it came time for me to answer he was terribly uninterested. People shouting in the mall or just passing by had him turning his head completely away from me. I got flustered once because I followed his eyes to the person he kept staring at while I was talking and apologized and he looked annoyed. But had I not apologized he probably wouldn't have stopped staring at the woman. If this was a test, it was a really bad one. If it wasn't, I have no idea who would survive an interview with him in a crowded mall. Eventually I just asked him about himself again and he was back into the conversation. Turns out he was a business transplant from a larger, generic type store. The others 'grew up' within Apple. You can really tell the difference and should adjust your conversation to fit. My experience with the guy completely changed my feelings about the experience. And it didn't end there. A few days later I got an email from him with the worst rejection I've ever gotten. Instead of being upset I just had to laugh to keep from crying because of course even this guy's emails would be bad. This was the first time Apple didn't communicate with me by phone or person. The email was completely macroed, in other words the message was a pre-made script pasted into an email with a simple keystroke. But whoops, the font of the crappy 3 sentence rejection was completely different than the part with my name (just my name, no greeting) and his salutation. He couldn't even bother to format it so it wasn't obvious he created and fired it off in 5 seconds. But everyone up until him was a delight. It was my first time enjoying an interview and working at Apple sounds even more fulfilling after talking to them. I'm planning on continuing to apply to other locations. Don't be discouraged if you haven't heard from Apple for a long time but keep your profile fresh and keep submitting to new openings anywhere you can get to.