Macgasm

Apple has recently created and added the positions of Market Leader, Store Leader, Expert and ASLP Associate to their job opportunities page on www.apple.com.

Straight from Apple, here’s what these new positions will entail at their brick-and-mortar locations:

• Market Leader: Help architect our future.  Be a leader of leaders.  Get ready for your perfect job, one that encourages you to think strategically yet stay connected with your teams.  Do you have premium brand regional or director level experience? If so, prepare to innovate, create and inspire.
• Store Leader: Store Leader may be the official job title, but Visionary is more like it. We’re looking for people with premium-brand retail store or district leadership experience who are ready to take it up a notch.
• Expert: You’ve gotten a taste of the retail life and you’re hooked — so much so that you want to take your game to the next level. Your friends call you an expert, a savvy confident professional who has turned a passion for sales into a career.
• ASLP Associate: In college you discovered yourself—as well as an amazing amount of untapped potential to lead. Now you’re ready to put it to the test and launch your career.

Let me know if you guys get sick of hearing this, but I used to work at the Apple Store. Therefore, I know the following about the Expert position to be certain:

1. This position was announced at an internal store meeting in October 2009.
2. When Apple makes changes to their retail stores, these changes take at least a few months to go into effect.
3. Since I left Apple (November 2009), I confirmed with an employee that the company has made no move to hire Experts.

I think the Expert position is a great idea. It’s hard to know the ins and outs of every Apple product, and these roving “Geniuses” will make it easier for walk-ins to have their products troubleshooted. I can also see new employees utilizing them as an information resource.

Here’s another thing about working at the Apple Store: it’s an organized mess. Every quarter, new initiatives are rolled out by the company as well as store management. Last summer’s initiative focused on “certifying” employees in products, software and operating systems. When I was first hired, training classes were held after-hours to teach new hires how to (for example) use the point-of-sale system at the cash register.

These initiatives never last (in my experience), which could be why Apple has created a Store Leader position. I think employees would benefit from one person controlling and maintaining initiatives in an otherwise chaotic environment.

As for Market Leader, it’s obvious. Apple’s retail side is growing at a fast rate, and they need more management at upper levels to support it.

ASLP Associate hearkens back to a similar program Apple ran in the past to train recent college graduates for retail careers. This program was put on hold when the U.S. economy failed in 2009. Since Apple has been a smashing financial success for the past year, it makes sense that the program is up and running once again.

Want that killer 25% employee discount? Start firing up your resumes.

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