My Cover Letter for a Job Application at Apple: You will be missed Steve

I believe the best Cover Letter I can write is based on my love for Apple.  I can’t tell you I have ever sat in line for days waiting for a product launch because I don’t have the luxury of living in the US and our “quasi-Apple” stores in Honduras suck to say the least.  However, I can say 3 things with great pride:

First, that I have been an Apple fan since the Apple IIe, simply because that’s around the time I was born and have recollection.  We used to spend summers in San Francisco at my uncle’s house.  He worked for United Airlines and had a simple house but not without his Apple computer.  My fondest memories of summers in San Fran were programming those cheesy loops used to make hearts and faces on the screen by printing out characters in a certain order; and the other, playing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego!  God I loved that game.

Second, that i have been shunned for being an Apple user and I enjoyed it.  Although I used my first Apple at my uncle’s house in the 80’s, I didn’t buy my own first Apple MacBook Pro until 2000, just before entering my MBA program.  As a business school, it was all about pragmatism, and compatibility issues and out dated versions of software were all but damning because everyone made fun of me.  A professor joked about me having paid a Coke’s worth for “that ugly thing” as he put it and still gotten change in return.  He joked about how its resale value was zero and how Apple would die just like betamax, since it was one of the case studies we worked on.  I remember how in reviewing that case study we were told how when 2 competing technologies tried to dominate the market, the winner was the one that was able to surround itself with accessories which made it indispensable.  And 10 years later Steve Jobs went ahead and did just that!  Id like to meet that professor again and show him my shiny new 2011 MBA, a market breakthrough product, not a follower.

And third, that I love Apple products, am a fan-boy, love converting people, believe our products are a work of Art and would buy my milk from Apple if you had a Milk Division.  I can appreciate the customer attention to detail Apple has.  Its not really customer service because a service almost implies something that is paid for and in return, because of the commitment acquired by the employee, he provides that service.  I live in a country where even franchise-trained personnel doesn’t provide good customer service.  This is my life 360 days of the year.  Then all of a sudden I go to Miami and rush to an Apple Store, not always for a product, just for the experience.  I love walking into a place and have someone walk up to me and genuinely ask me if there is anything they can help me with.  Even if I didn’t have anything in mind before I walked in, I think of something, anything, just for the “feeling of satisfaction” I get when they solve a problem for me or recommend something that ends up making my life easier or what not.  That truly is priceless.

I love converting people because when I pick up my old iPhone 4 and show it to someone, I take off the banged up protective case in order to show the brand-new product still intact.  I remember I used to buy Ford trucks and people would ask me why I preferred them over Chevy.  My answer always came back: “Because of the quality of sound the door makes when you close it”.  It just tells you its a quality truck.  The same thing happens when you hold an iPhone or iPad or Mac or accessory…it just feels good.  I can feel the quality and appreciate the workmanship that went into creating that “device”.  Yet its not just a device, and I can tell because when I sell an old model to get a new one, the buyer gets his iPhone with the original plastic cover sticker still on the front and back, or white sheet of paper that comes with a macbook pro.  I do it because I want that new Apple user to become a fan boy by having the same experience I did when I got it new!

You know what, even if I never get a job at Apple, I would just like Steve Jobs to get this cover letter.  It would be enough satisfaction for me to know that he received this letter as a compliment and a big Thank You for how you have affected the life of this one customer and how grandly I think of Apple and its people.