I applied online.

Strange half hour interview. Interviewer slightly late so not the best start. Then started asking me if we had an interview. I thought that was a bit bizarre. Questions that I was asked were reasonable, but the actual role was minimally aligned to the actual job spec. I'm glad I asked questions which highlighted those inconsistencies. Bit of a waste of time, but always good to get some interview experience.

It was also quite clear that engineers at Apple have their own area (e.g., the App Store person or the Library person). So it's probably not the place if you're seeking out variety in your work (even though the job spec made out that there would be plenty of variety in the role - didn't seem true from what I was being told).

My advice to the interviewer though: Let the interviewee speak. Jeez, he would not stop talking. When I mentioned something, he might challenge it and then continue talking for another 1-2 minutes. I didn't really have any opportunity to defend the points I was making, and by the time he stopped, he had moved the conversation on. I was trying to get a word in but simply couldn't without it coming across as rude. He definitely needs to work on it. Nice enough guy though, and glad I went through the process.

Finally - if individuals take the time to prepare for interviews (like I have), the decent thing that Apple could do is at least provide them with feedback. The UK is suffering from a jobs crisis, so it is extremely poor that I only received a generic email through a recruitment system when you could have actually helped me out. Please do better.

Tell me about a project that you've done recently.