Only 'talented engineers' can find this Apple job advert

Technology giants are known for using creative ways to seek out new talent, but Apple has taken things to another level by hiding a job advert in a secret part of its website.

Zack Whittaker, a security editor at ZDNet, says he discovered the Apple advert for a "talent engineer" while using a traffic analyser to see "what kind of personal data was sent along to advertisers."

The advert, which Whittaker posted on his Twitter account, says: Hey There! You found us. We are looking for a talented engineer to develop a critical infrastructure component that is to be a key part of the Apple ecosystem."

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The job was advertised on the web address "us-east-1.blobstore.apple.com", reports the BBC, but the link now leads to an error message. The broadcaster says "Blobstore is the name of a series of servers that belong to Apple."

Whittaker says it was "nice to have been asked" about the job, but he does not plan to take up the offer.

He says: "Apple is not looking for me, but someone who's far smarter and qualified, and who has better office etiquette."

"The use of puzzles and cryptic challenges to find people skilled in security stretches back to World War Two" when the codebreaking site Bletchley Park published puzzles in newspapers to find new recruits, says the Daily Telegraph.

Online puzzles are also used by the British security agency GCHQ, the newspaper says, which ran a nationwide campaign with "cryptic graffiti" as part of a recruitment drive in 2015.