Conversation with Dua Lipa - Apple boss Tim Cook reveals what the company really looks for in applicants
He is the head of the most successful company in the world: Apple CEO Tim Cook. When it comes to employees, the iPhone company can choose the best of the best. In an interview with singer Dua Lipa, the boss explained in person what really matters when applying for a job at the company - and what a somewhat strange-looking math problem has to do with it.
The interview was part of Dua Lipa's podcast "At your Service" on the BBC. After a brief introduction about his habit of reading hundreds of emails from employees and customers in the morning, they moved on to the topic of what kind of boss Cook is on a day-to-day basis. "I try to be a good boss," Cook explained with a grin when asked how he, as a rather quiet person, sets himself apart from much louder tech bosses - a clear dig at Elon Musk. "I try to be someone who really believes in collaboration. That our interaction of ideas can create a bigger idea."
1+1=3?
He also expects this ability from applicants, he explains later in the interview. "Can they really work together with others? Are they really convinced that one plus one equals three?" This principle is one of the cornerstones of working at Apple, he reported at the beginning of the interview. "We all believe in it at Apple," he explains the seemingly strange calculation. "That your idea together with my idea is better than the individual ideas on their own."
The trick is to transfer this to larger groups. "Not huge, but several people together. Then the ideas can grow exponentially," he believes. "My management style is therefore to encourage collaboration in this way."
A question of character
But other character traits would also feed into this idea. "Curiosity is something I really value in people. When you want to know how things work. How people think. The many why and how questions," he explains. "I love it when people are creative. We are looking for people who think outside the box. Ultimately, we want to develop products that people don't want to live without - and that they didn't know they needed." Only together would these skills really work. "All of this is what makes a good team player," Cook is convinced. That's why he doesn't see products like the iPhone as the achievement of individuals. Instead, he sees them as something that the entire Group can be proud of.
However, Apple attaches less importance to top degrees and the like. "We hire people from all walks of life. People with university degrees, people without. People who can program - or not," explains Cook when asked whether programming skills are a recruitment criterion. He himself would always recommend programming as a skill for everyone. "It's a way of expressing yourself. It's a global language - the only global language," he reiterates a recommendation that he already emphasized in an interview with stern(you can find it here). "But we also hire people who can't program. People who don't program every day."
But you can't join as a boss: "We have very detailed succession plans," he admits. After all, something could always happen. "I could walk over the wrong sidewalk tomorrow. But hopefully it won't come to that," laughs Cook. He himself can hardly imagine life without Apple. "I hope to be here for a long time to come," he emphasizes. But he doesn't want to reveal exactly who will follow him. "My job is to prepare several people to be successful in it," he explains. "But I really want that person, the new CEO, to come from Apple itself. My role is to be able to offer several to the Board of Directors for election."
Source: Podcast
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- During the interview, Tim Cook mentioned Elon Musk as an example of a tech boss with a different management style, noting that he prefers collaboration over individual brilliance.
- When discussing recruitment at Apple, Cook emphasized that programming skills aren't a necessary requirement, and the company hires individuals from various backgrounds, some with degrees and some without.
Source: www.stern.de
