Becoming part of Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL apparently takes over workers’ lives and their way of thinking. An article in The New York Times details the secret Apple University, which new employees go through as part of their intake and training. Fittingly, co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs began the program, which is designed to pretty much transform employees into perfect Apple-ites.
Apple employees share
Three unnamed Apple employees shared details about the secretive training program. The “courses” offered at Apple University cover a variety of topics and are tailor-made for each position. And apparently, Apple even has “really nice” toilet paper too.
Apple reportedly has its own full-time instructors, editors and writers for the courses. They create and teach them, with some of the teachers coming from some of the country’s top universities. Yale, Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley are all represented at Apple. Some of them still work at their respective universities while also teaching at Apple.
Apple workers sign up
An internal website gives Apple employees access to the list of classes that are available. They sign up for the ones that are aimed at their positions and backgrounds. The newspaper said founders of companies that Apple recently acquired may end up having an entire course devoted to them. In other words, Dr. Dre and Jimmy lovine would probably be signing up for that class, if it’s offered, as Apple acquired their company, Beats Electronics.
Some courses offer case studies regarding some of Apple’s most important business decisions. For example, the company explains why it decided to make iTunes and the iPod compatible with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows operating system. Executives hotly debated whether they should do that, with Jobs adamantly saying they should not. However, he finally gave in, and the result was massive growth for the iPod and iTunes, upon which Apple later built its iOS ecosystem.
And of course there are multiple other courses focusing on various topics, like “What Makes Apple, Apple” and “Communicating at Apple.” The company offers the courses year-round at a special part of its campus called the City Center. Even though the courses aren’t required, classes are usually full all the time.
