[OneState]

Does anyone have any idea what the salary range is for the Mac Genius position? Does it vary by location, experience, etc? I heard a rumor that it was around 60k a year, but that seems really high for a retail position.

I wonder what kind of hours you have in a job like that. Are you expected to work weekends? Do you just stand behind the bar all day and answer questions? I'm sure there will be plenty of times when the store will be slow and you won't be answering any questions. My guess is you'd be expected to upkeep all the Macs in the store and make sure the latest software is running on all of them.

I also wonder how many Geniuses (sp?) there are per store. I'm sure they all work on opening day but probably only 2 are there during normal working conditions.

Any thoughts?

p.s.
I'm considering applying for the NY store.

[jeffhot]

I'm sure that knowledge itself is reward enough. Not to mention the perks of a job well done! I recommend that you keep thinking about it until whatever fleeting chance you had is completely gone.

[phantomdragonz]

i hope a store opens near me i live in boulder colorado. there is a brand new VERY cool mall less than 3 miles from where i live i want to work for apple. Apple is my god! i would like to be a genius also and the perks are just beeing there and well what are the perks (other then the obvious) like discount/free????? damaged comps or whatnot

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

I somehow doubt that you would get paid anything more then 35,000 a year for that job. You could go in for an interview and ask them though.

[- - e r i k - -]

Isn't it enough that you get to put "Mac Genius" on your resumee?

[ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: - - e r i k - - ]

[daimoni]

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
<STRONG>Isn't it enough that you get to put "Mac Genius" on your resumee?

[ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: - - e r i k - - ]</STRONG>

I've been doing Mac related work for over a decade now and have put "Mac Jedi" on my past few resumes. For real. This usually gets a chuckle from the hard-core *nix people I tend to work with. But I think they can relate... they know I'm serious (and passionate) about what I do.

But I don't think I could afford to take a pay cut to become a mere "Mac Genius"

[Workers Comp Wampa]

If you take a poll here 90% of the members here would THINK that they are a Mac Genius.

That includes all the 13-17 year olds here.

Geeks are usually Mr. KnowItalls.

[OneState]

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
<STRONG> You could go in for an interview and ask them though.</STRONG>

Thats the trick....GETTING an interview. I don't know if I can. I applied, just so I can't say that I didn't. I just feel like the competition will be stiff. I'm a web developer now and although I've been working with Macs for over 11 years I haven't had a job as any kind of Macintosh administrator. I did have 2 jobs as a Mac tech support specialist but those were over 3 years ago.

My point wasn't "what are the benefits because I'll only apply if they're good", my point was "out of curiosity, does anyone know since I probably won't even get as far as an interview"

Although 35k a year would be a big pay cut to take....but it IS Apple.

So anyway, they have my resume now and according to Think Secret the store won't even open till Spring. If I could just get a phone call back that would make me really happy. Wish me luck

[applenut1]

1.) mac genuises make much more than 35K a year. 35K is about the starting salary for a full time sales associate. salary is also based on the area the store is in. NYC is of course quite expensive so the salaries at the SOHO store will be considerbly higher than at other stores so far.
2.) when applying for the mac genuis spot, if they are interested, they will first call you can ask you a handful of questions. I think somewhere around 20-25. from what I hear most are quite basic if you truly are an apple know it all but they throw several very difficult ones in as well. if they like what they hear from that call they will then call you in for an interview. and then if the like yo after that you go for another interview and then I think that's the final test.
3.) they apparantly don't tell you the salary until the final interview. and when they do, don't be afraid to say you were expecting more. from what I have read they will attempt to match what you want as long as they really want you.
4.) the SOHO store is opening next year so don't worry if you didn't get a call yet. I'm sure they aren't rushing like they did with the ones that have opened already.
5.) mac Genuises get sent to Cupertino for training for a week which is pretty cool

[OneState]

applenut,
Thank You!!!
That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Wow, 25 questions from Apple, how nerve racking!! But I think it will be a good judge of how well I know my stuff. Oh well, if I get a call I'm sure you'll all hear about it

Thanks again applenut, I appreciate it.

[ironknee]

ok so what do you think the questions are?

here's 5

1) So can you explain the MHZ difference?
2) My 12 yr old daughter wants a flower power iMac...where can I find one for her? She's dying.
3) Why is it called OS ten and not OS X?
4) How safe is wireless network? Will it be a health issue?
5) Can I buy one of the Think Different posters that are hanging behind you?

[- - e r i k - -]

My interview...

1) So can you explain the MHZ difference?

Yes. (Goes on to explain the MHZ myth)

2) My 12 yr old daughter wants a flower power iMac...where can I find one for her? She's dying.

I'd try eBay... but if she's dying, will I ever be able to sell it?

3) Why is it called OS ten and not OS X?

To avoid the embarassing Oh-esSex pronounciation.
I'd rather ask you: why is it called Oh-Es-Ten-Ten-Point-One???

4) How safe is wireless network? Will it be a health issue?

Pretty safe. It's hackable like almost anything else. But will improve.
No health issue.

5) Can I buy one of the Think Different posters that are hanging behind you?

Why would you want to buy them, aren't they yours?

[tooki]

FYI: I had a phone interview with Apple recently, they ask the type of question like "You have a Mac with a blinking '?' on startup, what do you do?" "What is good customer service?" etc.

Mac Geniuses must have at least 2 years Mac support experience (e.g. Mac sysadmin), and AppleCare Certification. (Or at least that's what they told me the minimum qualifications are.)

I just took a job with a local Mac support firm, it'll pay me more than Apple would, and since it's not giant-corporate, I can move up more quickly.

tooki

[TheJoshu]

Originally posted by Workers Comp Wampa:
<STRONG>If you take a poll here 90% of the members here would THINK that they are a Mac Genius.

That includes all the 13-17 year olds here.

Geeks are usually Mr. KnowItalls. </STRONG>

As someone who falls into that range, let me tell you - I know that I'm not a Mac Genius, but I'll bet others in my age group are. If you grow up working around a piece of hardware, isn't there a good chance you'll know a lot about it?

My Mac Genius ability exists, but is limited to machines sitting in front of me. I cannot dispense advice for a computer that is not directly in front of me - I need to tinker. That's how I learned everything I know today: fiddle with things until they work. But this mentality isn't good enough to make me a Mac Genius.

[ironknee]

some more questions:

1) If I buy a PowerBook G4 Titanium, will it get me laid?

2) My wife uses our iMac for Internet chats. She's up all night doing it. Do I need to upgrade my iMac to stop her doing that, or divorce her? What about the kids damnit?

3) I start up my Mac and get a blank screen....no happy mac...however the cursor works....I can move the pointer around but still a grey screen....what happened?

4) Do you have any scotch back there? Is it ok if i warm my dinner ontop of my iMac?

5) My friends tell me that Windows is the standard and that there are more software on the PC side. I think they work for the New Sect of the Coming of the Armageden.

Anyhoo, I want to get porn, and my stock prices...Do i go with a PC or Mac?

[Eugene]

I seriously doubt a Mac Genius makes $35K+. A Mac Genius would probably do freelance consulting on the side in order to make a decent living.

My resmue is short, but sweet, and I haven't gotten any calls.

1) Plain and simple, MHz is not a synonym for performance. In depth, the P4 achieves outrageous MHz clock frequencies because Intel has lengthened the number of pipeline stages an instruction must go through to 20 stages. In comparison, a G4 has 7 stages. An Athlon has 11 stages. There are 3 consequences here. 1) Higher MHz can be achieved. 2) Longer pipelines introduce increased latency. An instruction has to travel twice as far to come out the other end. 3) Branch misprediction...when a processor's branch prediction unit (BPU) incorrectly decodes an instruction, the entire pipeline is flushed. Because the pipe is longer, more instructions there is potential for more instructions to be discarded from the pipe at any given time. Intel further gets around this huge problem by beefing up other parts of its CPU architecture. For example, the speed at which it communicates with the motherboard is 4x100 MHz. A G4 only communicates with its motherboard at 133 MHz. Intel has designed what it thinks is a very beefy Branch Prediction Unit as well. In addition, Intel's P4 is almost dependent on high bandwidth Rambus RDRAM for performance. If you buy a P4 with an i845 chipset and regular PC133 SDRAM, you take a considerable performance hit. In Quake 3 for example, you can kiss 1/3 of your framerate good-bye. All-in-all, the G4 is a much more elegant processor with a few drawbacks...memory bottlenecks and low clockspeed. The P4 on the other hand is a behemoth, a silicon monster which consumes twice as much power and requires just as montstrous bedfellows in memory bandwidth and clockspeed just to be viable.

2) http://products.smalldog.com/product/38978

3) Marketing. OS X is so named because a giant gel'd X is prettier than an equivalent "10." It's also a major turning point in Mac OS design philosophy. It's no longer Mac OS as you know it. It's a UNIX that just happens to run most Mac OS apps in a compatibility layer known as Classic. it's like the big black monlith in 2001, except it's blue. Mac OS X is the third giant leap for the Apple world.

4) As for health implications with an AirPort network. Do you own a TV or a microwave? An AirPort Basestation runs off an Orinoco Silver PCMCIA card. The card itself juices its half wavelenght antenna with 50 milliwatts. 50 milliwatts is not a whole lot, especially with the tiny antenna. If you were to mod your basestation and add a 6 foot omni (pole) antenna and mount it in your living room, then you could start worrying.

5) No you may not, but you can find complete sets of Think different posters off eBay. There are 4 sets in all, plus rare additions like the Einstein and Bob Dylan (removed from set 2, I think) posters.

1a) No, the glory hole is only available on the Power Mac G4 tower. It does come with Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator. Just surf on over to www.hotornot.com

2a) Upgrade your Mac or upgrade your wife...tough choice. Go to expedia.com, price out a decent get-away...turn on multiple-users and give your wife a limited account.

3a) If you get a blank screen, you may want to try zapping your PRAM. If that doesn't work, open your case and press the CUDA button. If that also doesn't work, you may need to replace the battery on your Mac's motherboard. These are the most common problems. Usually disk problems give you the flashing question mark on the floppy icon.

4a) No scotch, but here's a Dasani. I wouldn't warm my dinner on an iMac because it would block the flow of hot air out of the machine and overheat your iMac. Most dinners aren't worth that much.

5a) If you're a penny pincher who only wants to play games, get a PC. If you're interested in a UNIX platform that a novice can start off on, then get a Mac. If you are a creative professional that lives and breathes Final Cut or Photshop, then get a Mac. If you use Lightwave, get a PC. If you want to serve webpages and you aren't a UNIX guru, get a Mac. And so on and so on.

Weee.