Is Mac Experience Essential?

[Pignut]

Don't worry. This is not a Mac vs PC thread.

I am looking for a job but am finding it hard to get past the starting gate as almost all vacancies require "Mac experience". In fact many even describe what appear to be graphic design roles as a "Mac Operator".

The college I attended ditched the Mac as they didn't want to support both platforms and I have a PC at home. The only significant freelance work I've done was at a company that used PCs so I feel a bit snookered.

I was told at college that it is the general design / Adobe CS skills that matter, as opposed to specific Mac knowledge, though my experience seems to contradict this.

As I don't know anyone who owns a Mac is my best option to try and get hold of a used one to teach myself the basics?

Then there's the whole problem of software...

I'd rather not fork out a lot of money (that I don't really have) on a Mac but I can't really see any other way around the problem.

I'm also a bit worried about all these extra Mac skills that the industry requires! I worked in IT for many years and found that I could learn what I needed to know about an OS or package reasonably quickly. I've tried to stress this in some job applications but without success. (Maybe I smell? Maybe I'm just a bad designer?)

Have any other folks come across this issue or is it just me?

[El Peligroso]

If you are confident enough in your ability to pick it up quickly you can embelish your mac experience a little. I hadn't used a Mac for years after finishing uni as I have a PC at home too... I just made them aware of the fact and it didn't seem to make a difference to them.

There isn't that much difference between the two really anyway, the programs are the same it's just the keyboard shortcuts that take a bit of getting used to.(cue the torrent of abuse from the macfanboys ) So as long as you do well in the mac test (pretty much every interview will entail a short test on the machine) you should be OK.

[Toon]

Originally Posted by Pignut

Don't worry. This is not a Mac vs PC thread.

I am looking for a job but am finding it hard to get past the starting gate as almost all vacancies require "Mac experience". In fact many even describe what appear to be graphic design roles as a "Mac Operator".

The college I attended ditched the Mac as they didn't want to support both platforms and I have a PC at home. The only significant freelance work I've done was at a company that used PCs so I feel a bit snookered.

I was told at college that it is the general design / Adobe CS skills that matter, as opposed to specific Mac knowledge, though my experience seems to contradict this.

As I don't know anyone who owns a Mac is my best option to try and get hold of a used one to teach myself the basics?

Then there's the whole problem of software...

I'd rather not fork out a lot of money (that I don't really have) on a Mac but I can't really see any other way around the problem.

I'm also a bit worried about all these extra Mac skills that the industry requires! I worked in IT for many years and found that I could learn what I needed to know about an OS or package reasonably quickly. I've tried to stress this in some job applications but without success. (Maybe I smell? Maybe I'm just a bad designer?)

Have any other folks come across this issue or is it just me?

I would say as long as you have full knowledge of the CS suite - PS, Illy and Indesign it doesn't matter what setup you're on it's easy enough to adjust

[Pignut]

Thanks for the responses.

Originally Posted by El Peligroso

...So as long as you do well in the mac test (pretty much every interview will entail a short test on the machine) you should be OK.

And there's the rub! I have never used a Mac so I don't even have anything to "embellish"

So if you put me in front of one I doubt that I could do anything. I know it's essentially a question of learning the OS and getting used to the CS keystrokes, which I should pick up reasonably fast but unless I can learn a few basics (running an app, opening files, navigation etc.) I'm stuck.
Anyway - I'm sure that if I stick at it I'll get somewhere. For now, my applications will continue to have the
"...although I do not have the required Mac experience mentioned in the vacany, I am confident that...."
lines!

[Kelly Creative]

Nip down to your local Apple store and have a play (Although don't spend all day there and don't kiss the machine when you have to leave, they don't like that)

[Pignut]

Originally Posted by Kelly Creative

Nip down to your local Apple store and have a play (Although don't spend all day there and don't kiss the machine when you have to leave, they don't like that)

I say, that's a bit devious!
But then I could at least say that I'd briefly "used" a Mac.

You know what, that idea is almost brilliant in it's simplicity!
Are you some kind of evil genius?

Of course the whole "falling in love with it" thing is a different matter altogether. I'll do my best to resist.
Thanks.

[Kelly Creative]

evil yes, genius no, inspired most deffo!

[El Peligroso]

Originally Posted by Pignut

For now, my applications will continue to have the
"...although I do not have the required Mac experience mentioned in the vacany, I am confident that...."
lines!

Whoah there... never put on your application that you don't have the relevant experience they are looking for. Wait for them to bring it up, tell them what you do have experience of in your application. If they do ask if you tell them you have a little experience but it was a while ago but it wouldn't take me long to get back in the swing of it.

If you state your experience using PS, Freehand, Illy etc. in years they may just assume you are using a mac

[LeadMagnet]

If you can use a pc well, you'll pick up how to use a mac in 2 seconds. What i'd do if i were you is just go to some apple store or some other place near you that sells macs. They'll have some on display you can mess with. Running apps and switching between applications is not complicated at all.

You can take a look at some of the standard shortcuts there and you'll see they're not that different to the pc.
The main differences are that wherever a keyboard shortcut on a pc uses Alt, it uses the Apple key instead. Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V are Apple + C and Apple + V etc too.

There is usually no right mouse button unless the mac is using a 3rd party mouse. Ctrl + click brings up the context menu instead. It's odd i know, but that's how they like it for some reason.

[Pignut]

Originally Posted by El Peligroso

Whoah there... never put on your application that you don't have the relevant experience they are looking for. Wait for them to bring it up, tell them what you do have experience of in your application.

I understand what you are saying but would feel that I was lying if I didn't mention that I didn't have a skill/experience that was a specific job requirement.

Maybe that's why I'm not working at the moment!

(...or maybe it's just back to not being a good enough designer - that or the smell!)