Tim Cook reveals the four qualities he looks for in new Apple employees

Apple seeks employees with creativity, curiosity, expertise, and the ability to collaborate, with Mr Cook saying it’s a ‘very good formula’ for the company

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Tim Cook has revealed the four traits he looks for in prospective Apple employees during his 11-year tenure as chief executive of the smartphone giant.

Mr Cook told graduates from the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, that Apple seeks employees with creativity, curiosity, expertise, and the ability to collaborate.

“It’s been a very good formula for us,” he said, as quoted by CNBC. “It’s not like somebody goes in a corner or closet and figures out [how to build technology] by themselves.”

Mr Cook said that Apple looks for “the fundamental feeling that if I share my idea with you, that that idea will grow and get bigger and get better, and that [collaborative] process is how Apple creates products.

We look for people that think different — that can look at a problem and not be caught up in the dogma of how that problem has always been [solved],” he continued.

“It’s a cliché, but there are no dumb questions. It’s amazing when somebody starts to ask questions as a kid would do.”

However Apple, like many other technology companies, has been slowing down hiring amid an economic turndown that could become a recession.

The slowdown in spending was not a companywide policy and would only affect certain divisions, Bloomberg reported, and should not affect the launch of its mixed-reality headset, something that is scheduled for 2023.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent at the time.

Google, Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, and Tesla have also slowed down hiring, with Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saying in July that the economic downturn might be one of the “worst … we’ve seen in recent history” and that “realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be [at Meta]”.

He continued: Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,"