Company: Apple
Date: 2017-06-14
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Good place to start, will give you the basic skills you need to move on
Pros: I came to Apple not even being an apple user, and not in tech at all. I needed a change and just wanted a job to get by while I figured out what to do with my useless journalism degree.

I started as a Family Room Specialist.
- Apple trained me in hardware and software troubleshooting for iOS devices
- Pay was pretty O.K. at $16 an hour, considering most other retail/customer service won't pay you that at base starting

After some hard work- you can't just chill, it is very competitive -  I was promoted to a Mac Genius. 
- They gave me insane amounts of training, sent me to Cupertino, and gave me a $10 an hour raise.

Main pros summary:
- Apple gave me invaluable experiences in peer to peer communication and customer service 
- They gave me technical training that I never would have had the opportunity to get without them.
- They sent me to Cupertino for three weeks, all expenses paid. I got the opportunity to be on Apple campus with engineers(inspiring)
- AMAZING benefits. Health insurance. 401k matching. Stocks. Gym memberships. Discounts. You name it.

Because of Apple, I became passionate about coding. I am now working as an iOS Developer full time and absolutely in love with it. I can definitely say this would never have happened without Apple.
Cons: - The Mac Genius salary should be better. They lose a lot of talent and passionate people because of that.
- They no longer offer California Genius training. You now do it online. No inspiring Cupertino trip.
- Management became so stringent and numbers based that you barely had more than 5 minutes for an appointment and were often worked beyond mental capacity by being forced to troubleshoot 3 customer's devices at once(customers also hated this).
- Genius Bar overbooked and understaffed... not really sure why.
- You are constantly being watched and given feedback, to an almost alarming degree. Stressful.