July 15, 2014 - 11:06 AMT
Apple seeks ‘enthusiastic’ retail employees to test OS X Photos app

Apple is seeking employees from its own retail stores who have shown in enthusiasm for photography to test the upcoming OS X Photos application and iCloud Photos feature, 9to5mac reports.

Apple reached out to retail employees offering such a “career experience,” and here is the message to retail staff as provided by multiple retail employees: “We are seeking a technical and passionate photography enthusiast to join our Quality Assurance team working on Photos for OS X. You will be part of a fast moving team of specialists tasked with delivering the next generation of photography tools for Apple.”

Apple typically offers career experience programs for retail employees that have worked at Apple for at least one year. These opportunities allow employees to try out various positions within Apple Corporate, typically ranging from marketing and engineering on existing products.

The new OS X Photos app is launching on OS X Yosemite early next year as a replacement for both iPhoto and Aperture. As we have detailed in the past, OS X Photos will essentially be the enhanced iOS 8 Photos.app optimized for a keyboard and mouse/trackpad. It has basic editing functionality and integrates at its core with the upcoming iCloud Photos feature.

These particular testing positions will require re-location to Apple’s California headquarters, but Apple, in the past, has offered many testing programs to retail staff that do not require moving. Apple has offered versions of OS X Mountain Lion and OS X Mavericks as well as iWork for iCloud to employees prior to the public release.

Apple utilizes retail employees for these efforts as a method of further intertwining the culture of both major parts of Apple’s employees base and in order to provide a wider, yet still mostly controlled, testing environment.