“It’s not everyday an MG gets to talk about how they really feel to the public. I had an email conversation with one such Mac Genius about his job and his experiences. When I asked him about doing the interview, he thought is was a great idea, but the interview had to be anonymous to the point of not even his store or city could be revealed,” Chris Williams reports for PopSyndicate.
Williams reports, “From our conversation, I got the sense that there seems to be a kind of mythology surrounding MG’s. Customers needing help with their Apple products have the unreal expectation that MG’s can fix anything… for free. Customers seem to expect MG’s to be knowledgeable in everything. Mac Genius is more of a marketing term than actual Mensa status. Some former Mac Genii have websites dedicated to debunking unrealistic expectations and perceived attitudes surrounding this largely underpaid job.”
“The access to information afforded to MG’s can be tricky. Working within a layer of inside knowledge (at a company whose culture of secrecy is epic) can put an MG in an awkward position. On one hand, it’s the job of an MG to help the customer and make them happy, on the other, they still have to be the face of Apple which means sometimes pleading ignorance about a known issue to a customer. For instance, a while back Apple settled on a class-action lawsuit over some iPods of a specific model that used defective batteries. What are the odds that MG’s noticed a trend of poor battery performance? Chances are, they did but couldn’t say anything about it,” Williams reports.
Williams reports, “But the job isn’t entirely thankless. Quickly fixing a computer for a customer can make their day and that can be its own reward. Being appreciated goes a long way as it turns out.”
Williams’ interview with a Mac Genius here.
Underpaid is probably true, but I get the feeling that most of the people that are employed in that position are there because they like to do that type of thing. I know that I always kind of enjoy troubleshooting Mac issues, finding the solution, fixing it, and explaining to the owner what the problem was. On the other hand, I absolutely HATE troubleshooting Windows and PC issues.
Initial marketing plans from Apple proposed to have help staff wearing see-through tank tops with a hotline to specially trained female monastics under an exclusive contract. It was going to be called:
“Sheer Genius Bar Nun”
This is true. I used to work in an Apple store. The Customers think they can just drop off a computer and it will be fixed for free in a matter of minutes. It is very interesting to see the size of battles between customers and managers because of their expectations.
Tante Mount
Thanks for the giggle….made my day.
This guy sounds like a total douche bag. Certainly customers can be pains in the ass, but this guy sounds like the arrogant one. He’s a classic example of why people rebel against the Cult of Mac and think Mac people are jerks.
And he uses “literally” too much. He says “I’ve quite literally seen or heard everything.” Uh, no, he hasn’t.
Jerkstore…
I laughed at your name. Hilarious. Great Seinfeld episode…
I think the article/advice is useful. But I also think it’s a journalistic work – this guy had all the answers succinctly put.
Almost too polished journalism.
This interview reads like a fake interview. And the MG in question is an schmuck. The characters of High Fidelity were funny in the movie but a retail asshole is a retail asshole is a retail asshole.
Just had my 2ghz iMac G5 in for a Power supply replacement. Me and my 3 and 4 yo son and Daughter, we showed up 5 minutes before my appointment The MG looked at my iMac and verified my problem and in 15 minutes it was fixed and I was on my way. (Apple Store Rockaway Mall Rockaway NJ) Best experience. I also work in the IT Industry, I am the sole Mac Tech at a Lerge Ad Agency in North NJ. I support 200+ Macs alone. I know frustration. To all the Techs OUT THERE rule #1 is smile and don’t loose your temper. To all the customers BE NICE.
It’s true–I have worked in Apple service, and people really do expect their computers to be magically repaired and ready to pick up in an hour. For free. That was the number one source of frustration. It was very eye opening. Also, Apple’s wages for front-line employees truly are sad. I agree that satisfaction is a wonderful thing to have on the job, but could you make it on $7-$9 hr. if you don’t still live with Mom? Would you, considering the qualifications they want their employees to have? There are no incentives, no bonuses, no commissions. You could literally make more money working at a coffee shop. It’s all hype, and it almost makes me wonder if it’s by design, to stay staffed by the young, hip, and still living with Mom.
I love their products and have used the Mac for many years, but Apple is a corporation just like any other. If you aren’t working in Cupertino, then it isn’t a wonderful experience.
Rats — somebody beat me to the “Jerkstore” reference!
Mr. Personality’s frequent use of words like “prick” “shit,” “sarcasm” “fuck” and “condescending” when describing customers suggest a guy who may have tremendous technical knowledge, but was probably ill-suited to a customer service position in the first place.
Yes, customers can be a-holes. But there’s an art to customer service, and this guy sounds like he “literally” doesn’t have a clue about it. If there are more like him in the system, Apple should have a People Skills section on their Genius exam.
I will say I’ve apparently never had this guy wait on me at the Genius Bar — and judging by his “Nick Burns” attitude, I’m glad of it.
In other words:
All the Genuises I’ve dealt with: ProCare
This Guy: DontCare (and I’d give him “Windows OneCare Live” if it was an option.)
MW: Foot, as in what he’d have in his ass if he gave me this kinda static at the Genius Bar.
To “On the Contrary, Apple Redefines Wage Slave”
You certainly have made a blanket statement regarding the types of folks that work at the GB.
There are folks from different age groups and backgrounds, like any job. And they don’t make $7-9 an hour. Your facts are wrong so in the future if you know not of what you speak, then shut the hell up.
On the flipside, Mac Geniuses have to go a multi-week training camp in Cupertino where they learn about everything-Apple, plus they have to take certification exams and tests. Maybe there are real Mac Geniuses in stores, and the rest are slightly-above-minimum-wage retail salespeople. Unfortunately, the salespeople are the ones in the front fielding questions, while usually the Geniuses are way in the back behind the bar.
I was paid OK as a Mac Genius. About $18/hr which isn’t horrible, but nothing to write home about for the amount of crap I had to deal with. Managers were okay… when they weren’t giving the store away.
Customers as a whole were a bunch of winey iPod carrying a-holes who didn’t understand why they had to wait in line when all they had was “a simple iPod problem.”
I didn’t mind dealing with the Mac users generally. They were cool and typically happy to have you help them. It was the switchers who had iPods who were alittle tougher to deal with.
I like the people I worked with, but I grew to hate dealing with the general public (iPod users)
“Underpaid is probably true, but I get the feeling that most of the people that are employed in that position are there because they like to do that type of thing.”
So anyone that enjoys their job should be underpaid?
It is sorely needed that someone set up a blog where user rate the performance of the so called genius.
It however shoould have a button for “absolute jackass” as in Justin a the San Francisco Market St store
macromancer — i take it that Jimbo‘s point was that enjoying your job can compensate to a certain extent for reduced wages, not that one is entitled to less if one enjoys one’s job.
Put more directly, financial incentives don’t exhaust the range of incentives there are for any particular job. This seems true.
On the Contrary, Apple Redefines Wage Slave
if you accept a job that has been described to you and the pay has been explained then you have made a choice and you are contractually obligated to perform that duty for the said amount. The amount paid does not reflect your performance. Your attitude does. I know of highly paid jerks and of highly motivated volunteers –
It doesn’t take long working retail to find out that many customers feel free to treat you like you just ran over their dog a few times. I think that’s true for retail across the board, no matter how nice the store.
mac user 47
it is hard to generalize and it is most often flawed.
I have work as a retail clerk in over 5 countries and the culture and academic education of the clientele makes a huge difference as to how one is treated – as a whole, we in the US give and terefore receive lousy treatment
My favorite MG encounter was an arrogant, conceited, and “forner unix systems admin”.
I had mistakenly rebooted OSX off the the CD & failed to restore my original user. I ran into permissions barriers accessing files from the old user. After literally verbally humiliating me he got to work in the command lines in terminal & got the job done.
Some genius; I figured out a day later I could have simply drug & dropped the files from the CD backup disk I had burned.
Dunno whether the guys at the Birmingham UK Store were MGs or not but FOUR cheers to them.
For politeness, knowledge, helpfulness, taking a prob off my hands and generally being top people.
It was its own reward for Apple — I ended up buying topline MB Pro. Meantime the old dead PB has remarkably come back to life and is a useful No2 tool.
Also for Apple, I spread a smile and good PR.
😎
Mac Genius? Isn’t that any oxymoron?
Gotta love people who say they are underpaid. If that is true, then why are they working where they do for the wages they think do not meet their abilities? Why don’t these “underpaid” people go find a job that pays them more instead?
Answer:
Because the market bares out value that’s why. If they had the skills and abilities to go get a job for six-figures+, they would, but their skill-set does not equate to that. So Apple, like the rest of the market, pays them what the skill-set bares out.
Some people may work at a job that is below their skill-set because they enjoy the type of job they have. But these people know they have choosen a lesser wage for more free time, or any number of reasons (save for teachers, who knew going in they have choosen a low-wage profession – never mind the 4 months off a year – but continue to cry about their earnings, but never their benifits or time off, but I digress…)
If the worker is grumpy about their lack of earnings, they need to be honest with themselves, because deep down they know if they were truly worth more than their salary delivers, they could:
A. Get a job that pays more for their abilities. Highly educated and/or successful people are always in demand in this or any country.
B. Start their own business. You can do that you know! No one has to be a “slave to the man.”
C. Move to Europe and get 6 months a year in vacation, make lots of money… only to see 80% of it flow back into the system, delivering a completely lack of motivation, and soon realize why the EU has perpetually high unemployment rates…
In Summary:
Everyone – quit crying about how much you make. Wanna make more, do something about it. If you know you can’t because your abilities don’t equate to a better job, then shut your pie-hole and understand you are not that “special” and live with it. But I should hope people are more motivated than that and thus go do something about it.
So for all you “I deserve more” cry babies, quit pretending you live in Darfur, are oppressed, and have zero opportunities, when you live in the USA which is rife with possibilities!
So, what does a Mac Genius get paid?
Steven – Underpaid???,
you can still think that your society undervalues/under pays it’s mac geniuses. Just think of the quality mac geniuses that we could have if we valued them more. Unfortunately, we don’t really value great mac geniuses, and we don’t get the top candidates for mac geniuses and mac society suffers as a whole. I agree that we can’t say that an individual mac genius is underpaid.