Touchdown a job at Apple isn’t straightforward—however in accordance with CEO Tim Cook dinner, individuals who possess 4 particular qualities are more likely to seek out themselves within the working.
Talking on the College of Naples Federico II in Italy in 2022—the place he obtained an honorary diploma in innovation and worldwide administration—Cook dinner informed college students that it was necessary for incoming staff to care in regards to the world round them.
“We have a group of people in the company that really want to change the world, that want to enrich people’s lives, that want to leave the world better than they found it,” he mentioned. “It’s that kind of feeling that drives people to do their best work and I’ve seen it happen again and again, and the results are just unbelievable.”
He then delved into the precise traits Apple seeks out in new hires, revealing that the tech large prizes 4 traits specifically.
Collaboration
A serious ability anybody hoping to work at Apple wanted was the flexibility to collaborate with colleagues, Cook dinner informed the viewers in Naples on the October 2022 occasion.
“We believe that strong individual contributors are really key, but two strong individuals that work together can do amazing work, and small teams can do incredible things,” he mentioned.
“So we look for the ability to collaborate with people—the fundamental feeling that if I share my idea with you, that that idea will grow and get bigger and be better.”
Reiterating that completely different viewpoints assist concepts to blossom, Cook dinner famous that collaborative processes have been answerable for Apple’s capability to create new merchandise.
“It’s not that somebody goes in a corner or a closet and figures out something about themselves, it’s a collaborative effort,” he mentioned.
Creativity
Creativity is one other trait Apple seeks out in would-be staff, Cook dinner added.
“We look for people that think differently, that can look at a problem and not be caught up in the dogma of how that problem has always been viewed,” he informed college students. “And so [we look for] somebody that will kind of walk around the problem and look at it from different angles and use their creative juices to come up with solutions.”
Curiosity
“It’s a cliché, but there are no dumb questions,” Cook dinner mentioned, as he mentioned Apple valued curiosity and sought out individuals with an inquisitive nature.
“Curiosity is about being curious about something to ask lots of questions, whether you think they’re smart questions or dumb questions,” he mentioned. “It’s amazing when somebody starts to ask questions as a kid would, how it puts pressure on the person to think through the answers really deeply. And so, we look for this innate curiosity in people.”
Experience
Lastly, Cook dinner famous that Apple wished individuals with related experience to hitch its workforce.
“If we’re doing something in industrial design, we need somebody that knows industrial design and has a skill set in it either from their college days or through their work days,” he mentioned.
Cook dinner instructed that folks with these 4 traits had gone on to achieve success at Apple, and that the corporate would subsequently proceed to rent those that might convey these attributes to the desk.
“Those are the things that we look for in people, and it’s been a very good formula for us,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, he famous that doing nicely at work was a two-way avenue, and that working in a job that left you unfulfilled was not a recipe for fulfillment.
“People have to work for a reason bigger than themselves,” he mentioned. “So you want to have a vision for a company that is about serving the customer and somehow improving their lives. You want to do it in an ethical way.”
With out these substances, he argued, no sum of money would make a job value doing.
“There’s no gravitational pull from that—the gravitational pull is always, What are you doing for other people?” he mentioned. “And with a purpose like that, it’s amazing what people will do from a work point of view.”
A model of this story initially revealed on Fortune.com on October 3, 2022.
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