Apple Hiring 'At-Home' Tech Support Personnel

A document seen by the people at Cult of Mac reveals that Apple is planning to hire about 450 “At Home” technical support staff in various cities across the U.S. Apple's new-gen staff will do the work of technical support right from the comfort of their own “ergonomically fitted chair” – an actual requirement for the job – instead of performing the task in a centralized call center, like most companies today.

“As a company who’s motto is ‘think different,’ our ‘work different’ philosophy offers you the opportunity to work independently in your home office,” the document allegedly reads. “You will receive all the wonderful benefits of working for an amazing company without ever leaving your home.”

Applicants will need a “private and quiet workspace; an ergonomically fitted chair and desk; a dedicated phone line; and an Internet connection (both of which would be subsidized by Apple),” the Mac-focused site claims. “Mac and Mac OS experience strongly preferred,” the ads reveal.

In the same report, Allison Wroe, executive director of marketing at HDI (a support industry association), is cited as saying that “At Home” support staff is “a huge trend right now [as] it offers companies lower overhead, and staff have great job satisfaction.”

According to another expert in the field, 10 to 15 percent of all helpdesks are now virtual. The person in question is Maggie Klenke, a partner at The Call Center School in Lebanon, Tennessee, which offers training and consulting services. According to the Cult, Klenke believes that companies like Apple can recruit highly specialized staff without having to find them all in one city, using this method.

“Tech support is particularly good for this application because it’s so hard to find an army of people with those kinds of skills all clustered in one community,” she shares. “You can get the cream of the crop instead of the average high school graduate and trying to train them. I see it as a real plus.”

The document reveals that Apple plans to initially recruit 150 “At Home” staff in July, continuing to do so through September in and around Orlando, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; Orem, Utah, and other cities.