The cover letter that landed an interview with Apple

Update: I wrote a follow-up post talking about my interview.

I applied for a Specialist position at two of Portland’s Apple Stores that landed me an interview. Here is what I wrote:

Hi, I’m a Mac….a Black MacBook to be exact.

My master spent an extra one hundred dollars just because I’m different, I’m glad he did because I think we’re a perfect match.

We spend all day together designing and building websites that look good and rank well. We even created two presentations about social media for 120 people at a local chamber of commerce – that was awesome! We also make invoices, build forms, and keep track of our customers without a hiccup.

We’ve also been spending a lot of time together looking for jobs lately – I didn’t realize how much hard work goes into finding a job, which is why I want to recommend my master for a Specialist position. I think he’d be the perfect fit for a position like this at your Apple Store.

I think he’d make the best Specialist, why?

1) He really believes in us. Ever since I’ve shown him a better way, he talks all the time about me and my family to his friends.
2) Because he’s great at making technical stuff easy-to-understand. He’s spent countless hours helping his mother-in-law with her MacBook. If he can help her, he can help anyone I assure you.
3) He cares about what’s best for his customers. He’s not interested in just selling a product, he wants his customer to have the right product.
4) He loves working with people. Remember the two presentations we gave? The people loved him.

I could go on and on, but he meets every criteria you have under the Specialist Job Description web page.

I’m sure you get a lot of candidates who would *love* to work at one of your retail stores. I’d like to share a story with you that I think will show you the difference my master can make to your company.

While in the Pioneer Mall Apple Store (Portland) he observed an Apple Specialist helping a little old lady learn how to import photos from her digital camera to iPhoto. He could see the little old lady didn’t understand what “delete photos” meant (once iPhoto is done importing) and the Specialist was having a hard time assuring her it was okay to delete the photos (in fact the Specialist was becoming frustrated). My master saw their problem and stepped in to explain things a tad different. She got it instantly – all she needed was a different explanation.

I think my master has just the right balance of everything you are looking for.

Now, I don’t like the idea of my master being away all day, but if it means helping the “other side” convert, I’m all for it. I hope you’ll call him.

Yours truly,

Bob Potter’s MacBook