Apple picks a small percentage of lucky candidates from the stack, which are submitted online, of course, through Apple's web site. The company screens for "affability" and "self-directedness," not tech savvy: The latter can be learned; the former is innate. Then Apple invites everyone to a "seminar" in a conference room at a hotel. If you're a few minutes late, you're eliminated. The people who are offered jobs are often so happy that they burst into tears.
苹果公司只会在应征者中精挑细选出一小部分幸运儿，方式是通过苹果公司的主页进行网申。公司的屏幕上显示着“亲和力”和“自我定向”，而不是精通技术：技术是可以通过后天培养的，而亲和力和自我定向则是天生的。稍后，苹果会邀请所有候选人到某酒店的会议室参加“讲座”。如果你迟到了几分钟，那么你就出局了；而得到工作的人往往会激动得热泪盈眶。
And then the real indoctrination starts.
真正的洗脑现在才开始。
Training lasts for a few days to a few weeks.
培训时间长短不一，几天到几周皆可。
“We told trainees that the first thing they needed to do was acknowledge the problem, though don’t promise you can fix the problem,” said Shane Garcia, the one-time Chicago manager. “If you can, let them know that you have felt some of the emotions they are feeling. But you have to be careful because you don’t want to lie about that.”
曾经担任过芝加哥分店经理的Shane Garcia说，“我们告诉培训生，他们要做的第一件事就是承认问题，但是不要承诺可以解决问题。如果条件适宜的话，你可以告诉顾客在某些方面你也能感同身受。但你要小心，别对顾客撒谎。”
The phrase that trainees hear time and again, which echoes once they arrive at the stores, is “enriching people’s lives.” The idea is to instill in employees the notion that they are doing something far grander than just selling or fixing products. If there is a secret to Apple’s sauce, this is it: the company ennobles employees. It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose.
一旦培训生们来到实体店里，最常萦绕在他们身边的话就是“丰富人们的生活”。这一理念深植于员工脑海中，让他们觉得自己的工作不仅仅是卖产品和修产品而已，而是有更高远的目标。如果说苹果有什么秘诀的话，那就是抬高员工的价值。也就是说，如果人们觉得自己是在完成一个崇高的目标的话，那么钱多钱少也就不那么重要了。
This brainwashing, by the way, is extraordinarily successful, in many ways.
洗脑这招在很多方面都非常成功。
First, it allows Apple to pay its employees much less than they would make selling similar gear at Verizon stores or AT&T stores.
首先，苹果公司付给员工的薪水比同行要少。
Second, it's great for customers--and, therefore, for Apple's reputation. Apple "specialists" (Apple's brilliant term for its retail salespeople) are often the only human from the company a customer will ever interact with. The fact that these folks have been trained in etiquette and feel a sense of mission is a huge asset to the company. There's nothing that will destroy a company's reputation and image faster than a cadre of salespeople who look like they'd rather be anywhere but in the store.
另外，这对顾客和公司声誉都大有好处。苹果给销售员设置了一个响当当的职位名称叫做“专员”。很多情况下，这些专员是和顾客发生联系的唯一渠道。而专员们都是经受过礼仪培训和目标设立的洗脑过程的，因此对于苹果来说，是一笔巨大的财富。这些专员们恨不得哪都不去，就待在苹果的专卖店里，又怎么会做出任何破坏苹果公司声誉和形象的事呢。
