Company: Apple
Date: 2015-09-24
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Benefits are decent, but don't get trapped here.
Pros: Coworkers are mostly intelligent and Apple provides some decent benefits (if you take the time to read the fine print).  Unlike a lot of other retail chains, you actually want most of the products being sold.  On top of this, there are a lot of discounts extended to Apple employees by 3rd part manufacturers that do business with Apple.  You have to sift through the pages of the Apple's Employee webpage (only accessible from the store's break room) in order to find out about these.  Once you're employed for over 3 months you earn a $500 discount for a single, large Apple product (iMac/MacBook).  It takes an additional 3 years to earn this discount again, so it's best to use it upfront unless you plan on making a career out of working retail.  There are also a set amount of smaller discounts provided to each employee, which reset at the beginning of each calendar year.  They make a small dent in the inflated price of Apple products, but are worth it if you stack them with the $500 voucher.

Some people would say "helping people" is a large pro of this job; you're fixing problems with iPhones and educating mostly incompetent consumers, non-stop.  I would disagree.  The high expectations put on the FRS's by Apple/management do not reflect the modest retail wage.
Cons: The customers.  Everything is an emergency when it comes to the customer's iPhones.  They want their phones fixed, and they want them fixed now, which for some reason causes your average consumer to lose their humanity.  People assume that it's Apple's fault that they dropped their device in the toilet (90% of the water damaged phones), or that the screen was faulty because they dropped it 10ft onto the concrete and it cracked.  Everyone else in line be damned, they're time is more important and they demand to be seen first.  People also don't understand the very basic principles of a warranty.  "I know it's out of warranty, but my 5-year-old phone isn't as loud as it used to be.  I didn't do anything.  Apple should replace it for free."

The FRS is not only responsible for taking these iPhone appointments every 10 minutes (a very demanding time limit per appointment), but are also tasked with teaching One-to-One customers with 30 minute and 1 hour personal training sessions.  The amount of knowledge you're required to absorb (mostly on your own time since Apple is only really interested in teaching customer service during training) is immense, and insures that you'll be discussing work-related issues during your breaks.

You have no downtime with this job.  On one hand, the day goes quicker when you're shotgunning tech support to 40+ customers, but it gets taxing.  The front of the store (normal "Specialists") who are tasked with working basic sales and the like, are given as much time per customer as they see fit.  If you want to spend your days interacting with your coworkers rather than rushing through appointments, take this job instead.  It pays a dollar or so less, on average, but is an entirely different experience when it comes to working at the Apple Store.

Also, the hours are erratic.  As a part-time job, the FRS position takes up ALL of your time.  This is because you're scheduled only a few hours per day, almost EVERY day.  It's hard to predict what your hours will be, week to week, which makes it impossible to schedule something in your free time.  You have to give a minimum of 3 weeks notice to get a day off, and it's not guaranteed that they'll give it to you.  On top of this, all the other FRS's are working a minimum of 5 days a week, and because Apple has to pay time-and-a-half on the 6th day, nobody else is allowed to cover your shift.