Apple or Best Buy

colemic

From a managerial perspective, I would rather hire someone from apple, (all tech requirements aside) just because of their commitment to the user experience, and if you can thrive in that environment, then you know how to deliver a superior customer service experience.

If you really 'get' and understand customer service (and can demonstrate it) then many places will teach you the technical.

JMO.

zafeer20

I applied to be an Apple in home advisor I got a call for an interview a few hours later and its $17.50/hr good benefits etc the only thing is, is that I have to switch all of my classes from on campus to online, would this be worth it?

TomkoTech

Only you can answer that. Some people need the traditional teaching in order to learn. Myself and many others are better with self study. If you can honestly keep to your deadlines and learn on your own there is nothing wrong with doing online.

tkerber

zafeer20 wrote: »

I applied to be an Apple in home advisor I got a call for an interview a few hours later and its $17.50/hr good benefits etc the only thing is, is that I have to switch all of my classes from on campus to online, would this be worth it?

Wow... 17.50...

That's as good if not better than most L1 Help Desk positions / IT Support roles.

Here's a little slice of my story for you to maybe help you decide about switching classes. Three years ago I got offered my first IT gig from a guy who was taking a night class with me (he happened to be a lead desktop tech at said company). At first I wasn't interested because I wanted to make absolutely sure I had a degree first and school was #1. I later finally accepted the full-time position and was glad I did. Today I hold a Sr. Analyst position with a large tech company and have doubled my salary.

Going to school online and switching all your classes isn't fun. However, if you can pull it off, it will really put you ahead of your time by the time you graduate. You'll already have established experience and possibly a successful career. If I wouldn't have switched my classes and taken that job I would probably be on these forums asking for employment help.

zafeer20

I see, I appreciate you sharing your story with me. My parents are telling me to not switch I try to tell them that this will be worth it in the long run but they think a degree will automatically get me a nice job out of school. Which it wouldnt without experience, im trying to build some now while I go to a community college. How would you rate the switch between on campus to online? Was it harder, easier? Could you give me some advice on that please. Thanks a lot!

MeanDrunkR2D2

In a CC setting, going online won't be as bad compared to going for your BS. Basically you would have to hold yourself accountable and manage your time fairly well and not get lazy and procrastinate until the last minute. Generally, online courses can be harder since you aren't in a classroom setting, but it all comes down to your study and work habits. If you study and work hard and learn great on your own, it's a good move to go online. If you find yourself stuck on the topics and need more help learning the studies, then a more traditional approach would be better.

You are correct in stating that just a degree won't get you everything you want or need when it comes to finding a good job after school. I focused primarily on school and didn't work as much as I should have (and should have kept the helpdesk job I did have as it would have helped me break into the field easier). It took me nearly 3 months to find an IT job after graduating with my BS in CIS and I also had to move to a larger metro area to find that. And even then, that job wasn't what I thought it would be and I left that position after 6 months and spent another 4 months until I found and got a better position more in line with what my goals were. So it took me nearly a year after graduation to actually find a decent position.

zafeer20

I guess I will talk to my parents and peers who have taken online courses at my campus and see how it is. If this doesnt work out I will just go to Apple and become a sales specialist study for my a+/n+ and get a help desk job hopefully.

TomkoTech

Your school doesn't offer night courses?

zafeer20

My school does all the way up until 11pm, I dont know why they want me to switch my schedule to all online as I would have a schedule I dont know if it would be on call some days. I am going to give the person who called me yesterday a call and ask a few questions. Because I wouldnt mind taking some of the easy classes online but go to campus for 1 or 2 of the difficult courses.

zafeer20

I just dont know how to explain this to my parents, I try telling them but they are foreign so they think a degree is everything and experience doesnt matter. Whenever I would explain myself they would just get mad.

N2IT

Come on APPLE! Just saying!

zafeer20

Im trying man haha, but this in home advisor position seems much better. It's just the online courses thing thats killing me

TomkoTech

Why do you need to explain anything to your parents? You aren't giving up on your degree. You currently have a job. What is changing other than the job to something more in line with what you are going to school for? I could see their hesitation or negative outlook if you said you were quitting school to only work. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

zafeer20

They think online classes are bad, they dont know my learning style or anything. This is a very good job opportunity for me she thinks I wont be paying attention to school if I take it which is not the case. CC is VERY easy I thought high school was stressful to be completely honest. I know when I transfer to a University I might have to leave the job but for the time being its good

N2IT

I liked the post about the guy who's friend is a now a PM for Apple. Now that alone made me want to take the job!

jeremywatts2005

If I were you I would jump on Geek Squad. Yes it sucks to be in the uniform and all but the experience is good. I know I was a Special Agent in Chicago and jump started my career that way. Previous to that I had been laid off from a company that I worked at as a Field Service Engineer on ACD phone systems and some servers. The product ended up being a dinosaur and I got laid off. For a year I could not find work. I did desktop deployments and whatever else I could get. Eventually I caught onto another field job working on point of sale systems, ATM machines and eServers. My career was going nowhere. I had an AAS in CNS and was working on a BS. I needed to get out of the proprietary junk I was working on. So I went to Geek Squad first as a Counter Intelligence Agent. I started working basic repairs and put my A+ and Net+ to work. That lasted a month. Then I interviewed for the Special Agent job since I had a lot of field experience.

I got the job and relocated to Chicago. I got into a little bit of PM, started managing some and got neck deep in servers and systems of all kind for small and medium sized businesses. I was interviewed and was offered 3 months later for manager to run my own Geek Squad Precint. I turned it down after I got an offer to work for FEMA on the Katrina disaster. I came in two days after the hurricane hit. After that my salary and position climbed to where I am at now. I have had a few twists here and there along the way, but Geeksquad changed my career for the better.

zafeer20

Thanks for sharing, im still waiting on GeekSquad to talk to me, the job has been up for about 3 weeks and its still under review. Alot of people applied so I have to wait in queue for my interview.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Whats the worst that would happen if you did take that Apple job and took mostly online courses? I'd assume that while they may not understand the concept and feel that it's not as prestigious as going to a classroom every day. In the end, the degree is still the same, whether you took online courses or not. Your degree will not say "ONLINE STUDENT WARNING!!!" in big bold letters. It will be the same as it would be if you went to a classroom every day.

If I were in a hiring position for a helpdesk, I'd take an apple employee over a geek squad every day of the week as it just looks better on the more important part of a helpdesk job. Customer Service and communication skills. Too many that work at geek squad tend to not be that great with those soft skills as the interactions between customers can be somewhat limited depending on your role with them.

stryder144

Here is my take: I work part-time for Geek Squad as a Consultation Agent. The biggest negatives that I have are the push for services and when our computer sales folks promise something that we are not supposed to do (such as spend an hour trying to configure someone's Outlook account). While I would like more time to fix computers, the experience that I've received has really polished my soft skills. Those soft skills have even prompted one of the Apple Stores to give me an open-ended invitation to work for them, should my weekends free up (full-time job starts on Sundays, which is no bueno).

Either way, if you go to either position you will learn some valuable skills...but only if you choose to. I know enough GS folks who should never, ever be allowed to think about, much less touch, a computer or interact with a customer. I have also experienced the condescension of Apple Store employees. If your outlook on life is to learn, have fun, and improve yourself through the experiences you have at work, in school, and at home, then you will be the type of employee that any good employer will want to snap up very quickly. Adding a major tech company to your resume will merely be icing on the cake.

Cheers

tkerber

zafeer20 wrote: »

I see, I appreciate you sharing your story with me. My parents are telling me to not switch I try to tell them that this will be worth it in the long run but they think a degree will automatically get me a nice job out of school. Which it wouldnt without experience, im trying to build some now while I go to a community college. How would you rate the switch between on campus to online? Was it harder, easier? Could you give me some advice on that please. Thanks a lot!

zafeer20,

Sorry for the late reply but I will tell you that going online/night classes is not too difficult especially if it's CC. I took both online and night classes and it wasn't too bad other than the social aspect. But the school I went to had an average student age of 31 anyways so I didn't really make any friends or go to 'parties' and social gatherings.

But I can tell you a few of my classmates also had opportunities to get technical related jobs and denied because they had the whole 'finish first' mentality. A few of them are making less than 17.50 doing semi-related tech work and others are starting out exactly where you are today (in a entry level tech job that doesn't even require a degree)

Point is--times have changed and a degree definitely DOES not = a good job, especially in IT. A healthy combination of a degree, experience, and the right certs will get you far. PM me if you have any questions related to work load or working / going to school.

pcgizzmo

I'm suprised at the amount of people replying "Geek Squad". Geek squad in my area has a bad rap. There are also the You Tube videos of news stations breaking PC's and taking them in and Geek Squad not fixing the issue and charging for it. IMO troubleshooting is troubleshooting. If it's an application issue the chances are the application is running on Windows and OSX so this type of troubleshooting is cross functional. If you can troubleshoot an applicaton on OSX then chances are you can in Windows as well. OSX is Linux. Linux skills are valuable. Network connectivity is the same on both (TCP/IP)

Apple employees 50,000 people in the US. I don't know about Best Buy but I'm guessing it's not close to that many. Apple is a technology company primary and retail secondary. Best Buy is a consumer electronics store. There is more upward momentum for a technical person in a technology company the size of Apple than there is a consumer electronic store like Best Buy unless you want to be a Geek Squad manager or work as an IT person for Best Buy corporate.

Cisc0kidd

Among independent IT techs I know GS is dispised. I would definitely take the Apple job over anything at GS.

stryder144

Sadly, GS has a well-deserved bad image. The store I work at, oddly enough, has a great rep, so we get people driving an hour or more to come to us instead of closer stores. Unfortunately, if the GM of the store doesn't care, then no one else will. Ours, thankfully, would rather we correctly fix a problem, regardless of the cost in man hours. Very refreshing and the only reason why I accepted the position.

zafeer20

Looks like im going with Apple, benefits and pay are better than GS. I got a call for an interview for the sales specialist position I guess I will do that and then I have to wait until December for the at home advisor position. I have to wait until then because thats when the semester is over for school and I will be enrolled into online courses the following semester.

PDFOUR

zafeer20 wrote: »

Hey guys im looking for some advice, I got offered a job at the Apple store. I am currently a computer salesman at Best Buy. I applied for another position at Best Buy (Geeksquad TEA) that position is paid $11-12 hourly and I would just be educating or teaching people on how to use their devices, pc's, mac's, etc. At Apple I think I would just be the normal salesman I would earn $15.50 hourly, the only thing that I am hesitant on is experience. I think the TEA spot would be better on a resume as opposed to the Apple associate. I am about to take the test for my A+ in the coming month and then I will be moving to my Network+. I hope to get a helpdesk early next year anyways, what should I do for now? Thanks
(The TEA spot is not certain as it is jumped on whenever a position is open, so also answer the question if I dont get TEA job should I still stick with computer sales or Apple sales.)

Cliffs
-Work at Best Buy
-Offered job at Apple
-Apple pays more($15.50) Best Buy ($11-12)
-Best Buy experience looks better than Apple in my mind due to the position (Educating vs. sales)
-Plan on doing helpdesk early next year
-What should I pick

Take Apple. I use to work there, you will have the opportunity to become a Genius ( Apple Tech), you will get training and become Apple Certified. Apple also has much better benefits than Best Buy hands down. In addition to that, while you work at Apple, get your A+ Cert. By the end of your journey, you will have an Apple Cert and A+. Companies always are looking for someone who knows Apple. You will be shocked on how many IT pros have Apple computers in their environment and have no idea how to deal with them. It makes you more valuable imo.

MeanDrunkR2D2

PDFOUR wrote: »

Take Apple. I use to work there, you will have the opportunity to become a Genius ( Apple Tech), you will get training and become Apple Certified. Apple also has much better benefits than Best Buy hands down. In addition to that, while you work at Apple, get your A+ Cert. By the end of your journey, you will have an Apple Cert and A+. Companies always are looking for someone who knows Apple. You will be shocked on how many IT pros have Apple computers in their environment and have no idea how to deal with them. It makes you more valuable imo.

And that is the truth. I've been in many corporate environments, and every one of them had a very small amount of Mac products that we'd have to support. It was a nightmare if you never really played or messed with them in a corporate environment. I took the lead on any issues that happened with the Macs because I wanted to understand why they didn't work well and how to make them work somewhat decent. It's a bit of a learning curve compared to the MS environment. The other guys I worked with would avoid them like the plague unless it was an iPad, but that was mostly just setting up email on them. When it was more involved and I had to use security programs launched from a macbook I took that over as well when my boss up and died on us. That was a huge learning curve, especially since I had to redo the whole set up for the program because it was all tied to my dead bosses personal itunes account. I'm sure that they have or will soon realize that the new set up is tied to my own personal iTunes account since I left that company a short bit ago. (no, they don't have my password and will eventually realize that they'll have to figure out what the hell I did to update the software and get it working again. It wasn't easy and took me a solid week of research, testing, etc to get it working.)

And as others said, GS doesn't really come across well in the IT world, mostly due to ex co-workers who did work at GS and were fairly incompetent when it came to a corporate environment and how to fix things. Not saying that all are, but too many feel like they were the expert at their store and would be pretty much obnoxious about how much they knew from GS. Thing is, they didn't know much and were far behind even recent college grads with no professional experience mostly because they would take the time to listen and learn and not act like they knew it all.

N2IT

@ Mean - I agree GS usually doesn't come across well from what I have seen. Apple on the other hand you can continue to move up to who knows where you end up. I wouldn't be adverse to transitioning into a non IT role if it was with Apple. Apple is one of those companies where the benefits, name, culture > your role.

zafeer20

Update: I did 2 out 3 of the interviews. I got called for the final interview yesterday. This is for the Apple Specialist position aka sales associate. I am going to be here until December then hopefully move on to the advisor job. Thanks everyone for all the feedback, we're all going to make it brahs.

pinkydapimp

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

And that is the truth. I've been in many corporate environments, and every one of them had a very small amount of Mac products that we'd have to support. It was a nightmare if you never really played or messed with them in a corporate environment. I took the lead on any issues that happened with the Macs because I wanted to understand why they didn't work well and how to make them work somewhat decent. It's a bit of a learning curve compared to the MS environment. The other guys I worked with would avoid them like the plague unless it was an iPad, but that was mostly just setting up email on them. When it was more involved and I had to use security programs launched from a macbook I took that over as well when my boss up and died on us. That was a huge learning curve, especially since I had to redo the whole set up for the program because it was all tied to my dead bosses personal itunes account. I'm sure that they have or will soon realize that the new set up is tied to my own personal iTunes account since I left that company a short bit ago. (no, they don't have my password and will eventually realize that they'll have to figure out what the hell I did to update the software and get it working again. It wasn't easy and took me a solid week of research, testing, etc to get it working.)

And as others said, GS doesn't really come across well in the IT world, mostly due to ex co-workers who did work at GS and were fairly incompetent when it came to a corporate environment and how to fix things. Not saying that all are, but too many feel like they were the expert at their store and would be pretty much obnoxious about how much they knew from GS. Thing is, they didn't know much and were far behind even recent college grads with no professional experience mostly because they would take the time to listen and learn and not act like they knew it all.

Yea i have to second that. I had apple certs and skills early on in my career and i can tell you it definitely set me apart from my competition and allowed me to get some great opportunity as a result. and those soft skills(sales) will be extremely valuable as well if you leverage them properly.