“Apple Makes New Employees Work on Fake Products Until Apple Can Trust Them”, blared a headline—and many others like it—last January. In the Apple-watching world, it has since become common wisdom that the company assigns new engineers to “fake” projects in order to test their loyalty—that is, their propensity to leak—before giving them actual work. The claim took life with the publication of a book called Inside Apple, which claimed some employees were “hired into so-called dummy positions, roles that aren’t explained in detail until after they join the company.” Author Adam Lashinsky cited an unnamed Apple engineer who said he wasn’t informed of what he would be working on until his first day on the job. This expanded into a wider-reaching “fake products” claim made when Lashinsky spoke about the book at LinkedIn.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.