Who am I kidding really? I was never really eligible for any position within Apple Singapore. I graduated with a BA in Communications and New Media, hardly something Apple Singapore wants. I don’t have a computer science degree, I don’t know Unix inside out, I don’t have call center work experience, The only vague Apple-related work experience is from my annual sales gig selling Macs to tertiary freshmen in the various polytechnics and universities, and well, all the nonsense I made Apple Singapore do for us when I was still president at MacNUS.
So yeah, on paper, I was no good. In reality, I am probably no good too.
I am probably really only half-decently-good at piecing together information from my various sources and churning out articles/posts that detail sometimes-decently-accurate information that Apple has no intend of letting the world know. And as any hardcore Apple fan know, that’s a surefire way to make the recruiters trash bin my resume the minute they spot my name.
During the first few years after graduating from the now-infamous-pro-PRC-anti-Singaporean NUS, I did try my best to get onto the interviewee list, and every single time I fail to get past the first/second stage. I failed the interview for the japanese language call centre support job “because I asked about what the 1-year contract entails”, I failed the interview for call centre support because I told them I was only available in one month, I even got cancelled for part-time work for processing Back to School Promo documents for the Taiwan store last minute, among other rejections at Apple (To my credit, the non-Apple interviews I went for are all pretty successful). I can’t even remember how many times I was at the Ang Mo Kio Campus for interviews already.
With all these rejections taking a toll on my confidence, “Applying for a job at Apple Singapore” eventually became “every few months, check the Apple Jobs site, send in a few automatic applications with the 3-year-old resume, and wait for a call”. And of course the calls usually don’t come.
Apple, Apple Singapore at least, does not seem to like to hire its diehard fans, usually preferring to hire “people with results” away from other PC companies through word of mouth, in particular IBM. It totally does not matter that their internal staff have absolutely no experience nor knowledge of the Mac platform, so long they can perform their job scopes, like sales or marketing, very well (to say the truth, their performance was suspect, but whatever).
It was thus music to my ears when the then Head of Education Sales informally offered to find me a job in Apple Singapore in my graduating year. He eventually did not find me a job. And sort of disappeared after that year.
As anyone around me for the past 8 years will know, I am a fanatic Steve Jobs supporter before I am an Apple fan, so maybe in this world where Steve is no longer around, my stubborn insistence on adding Apple Inc to my resume can end. I suspect I will still send in the occasional application, but it will not be the same.
I give up.
You can follow MacRyu at @ryuworks on Twitter and @ryu on App.net.
