The master of Apple Retail, Jake Overkamp. My Jedi Master—Mr. Overkamp. Jake is part of the original Apple Store team in St. louis, Missouri — West County that opened in 2002. (R062) His role was key holder and he also did employee training. After the store opened, I interviewed along with 1,000s of other Apple geeks and scored a seasonal part time mac specialist role!
I was a 22 year young college kid.
There were only 2 women hired at that time. Myself and a woman named Becky. Why only 2? It’s not because of anything else but the fact we loved our Apple products and that really wasn’t the norm, then. (The iPod wasn’t even available for Windows yet.) We were warm hearted, layman’s terms speaking, creative professionals who thrived on providing the best customer service to our customers.
So my first day on the job at Apple I said to Jake: “Hi Jake! What’s does all of this wall of product do?!” I asked. 😱 He smiled then led me through the intimidating wall of accessories and software boxes, training me on what the products were used for. Learning about what each product could do gave me the confidence, desire, and excitement to keep learning more & to share my knowledge.
I later asked Jake if I was doing a good job learning the technology. He said that I asked a lot of questions but never the same one twice.
Today I am falling in love with learning how to code at The Flatiron School and learning code in the Xcode platform. I am now building my first iOS App!! I am using an Apple training guide. It is a meal tracking app that allows you to upload a photo of your food and even rate it!
Jake went on to become a Genius, then a Lead Genius and now he is a lead Creative. You should totally take a Today at Apple class with him. 👊
It was overwhelming learning all the new technology! It’s so much fun though! Isn’t that what life’s about? Finding your passion and stepping into the unknown?! Having someone that cares help you along can be a big help too. Thanks Jake.
ty heather marie