Company: Apple
Date: 2018-02-22
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Apple IS&T - Rewarding and challenging if you dive in!
Pros: The group that I worked in truly values its' employees, as does the company.  It's clear to me that if you are a high contributor in your group and take advantage of the Apple benefits, you will be compensated accordingly and feel like you are valued.  This will require a work-life imbalance, so be willing to sacrifice weekends or evenings if you want to be a high contributor and receive larger raises, cash bonus and RSUs.  Otherwise, raises, cash bonus and RSUs will be smaller or non-existent.  You can't "coast along" here or become stagnant.  If you do, compensation will suffer.  I had the time of my life working at Apple, and if not for a 2 hour (each way) commute to work each day, I would absolutely still be working there.
Cons: In order to live in Silicon Valley where you can raise a family, it is extremely expensive.  I had to live a 2-hour commute (each way) away from Sunnyvale in order to own a good house in a good school district.  As a high contributor in my group, I made a substantial amount of money, but it was not enough to live close to work.  Living in Silicon Valley is not a problem unique to Apple, but that's the biggest pain point that I had.  I willingly gave up many evenings and weekends for Apple because I loved working there and I was 100% behind the mission of contributing to the building of Apple's wonderful products in my area of expertise.