Apple Uses the “Rule of 3 E’s” to Find the Nation’s Top Talent

For the 15th year in a row, Apple has topped Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list. It’s yet another bragging right for the trillion-dollar company. But behind all the awards and accolades are the brilliant minds of its thinkers and doers: past, present, and future. Because the future of any company depends on today’s hiring choices. 

Apple is also one of the most sought-after companies to work for, with thousands of hopefuls vying for one of its coveted positions. In part because joining the ranks of Apple is an achievement in itself because Apple does an incredible job of finding top talent-even amid an onslaught of applications. 

While the process of initially fielding incoming applications can be streamlined with AI, which is built into the leading job boards, AI won’t help you find the next Steve Jobs. In fact, selecting the right candidate after the final round of interviews commence is where it can get truly difficult for any employer.

Apple employs a simple solution that makes fielding interviewees and choosing the right candidate-no AI required. It’s an easy strategy that just about any business-of any size-can use. 

With these three things, you can not only find top talent but land a great fit for your role and organization. The type of candidate who will require the least amount of training, yielding the maximum amount of efficiency in the least amount of time. 

It’s the “Rule of 3 E’s,” expertise, ease, and employability. 

As evident as it sounds, your first line of defense when fielding candidates is expertise. However, there’s a difference between expertise and experience. Just as there’s a difference between expertise and education. And with ‘degree inflation,’ many companies are leaning more on skills-based hiring. However, with the popularity of inflated job titles, it’s not always easy to know whether someone’s work experience really indicates that they have what you’re looking for.

Upon first glance, every resume will tell you experience and education, but they’re not necessarily going to give you a transparent read on a candidate’s degree of expertise. To find this, the nation’s leading employers and most innovative companies and CEOs, such as Elon Musk use the two hands test, where a candidate needs to have two things: first-hand experience and hands-on testing. 

Unlike expertise, ease is something that you can’t read on a resume. Granted, this isn’t a bad thing. After all, your interview time shouldn’t be spent reading over a resume-it should be used to get to know the candidate better and to get a read on them in terms of how well-suited they are for the job. One really easy way to gauge a candidate’s readiness is by how easy the interview is for them. 

For example, it’s the ease with which they respond to questions. How effortlessly do the answers come, or is it a struggle to find a suitable answer? Ideally, a candidate is candid, and when they are it will be evident that the answers are rolling off their tongue rather than rattling their brains. 

Employers like Apple recognize the fact that the right candidate doesn’t simply have the skills and expertise required to do the job. But the right demeanor, character, and culture fit for successful careers within the company. 

To find candidates that are the perfect fit, Apple uses real-life tests within its interview process to test employability. For example, it often uses group interviews to mimic the competitive nature of working within some of its teams. Or asking candidates bizarre questions mid-interview, such as “is a coconut a fruit?” to test a candidate’s ability to roll with interruptions and indulge the curiosity of others-something that can happen frequently within an office. 

By using the “Rule of 3 E’s” you can more quickly weed through candidates and more easily find the needle in the haystack. However, that doesn’t mean that you should rush the hiring process. Be sure to take your time upfront to find the perfect fit. Doing so will help you, in the long run, to acquire more qualified and well-suited staff, making the onboarding and training process easier and reducing your employee turnover rate.