Company: Apple
Date: 2016-04-16
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

At Home Advisor
Pros: Benefits and Time off are by far the MOST impressive thing about working for Apple. When there's an illness in the family or you're sick, they definitely step up and take care of their own. The customers are mostly nice and fairly well educated people; however, you will get at least one person calling in a day that will try to make your job harder just because they can. Management is mostly awesome. I've met one or two people that can be a little too aggressive and impersonal. The pay is the best in the services industry, starting around $15 an hour for employees directly employed by Apple according to glassdoor. Also, as an At-Home-Advisor, you are considered corporate rather than retail. This has a huge effect I can't go into at the moment but it definitely makes a huge difference in what your job has to offer. Also, if you don't like one department, you can transfer to another department. You may have to wait a while for that transfer but you can get it. There's also a wide variety of further career opportunities to open yourself up for once you get into the fold. This is probably the number one reason people stick around at Apple for so long.
Cons: Like most companies, there are cons. So I didn't give the full five stars. You're still dealing with customers who are either a bit uneducated or lacking in sophistication at times, so it is appropriate to learn how to speak to the 'salt of the earth' types in order to deescalate the situation. Sometimes, especially after a long call, you need to catch your breath and take a breather... but metrics doesn't like it when you do that. Not only is this type of approach stressful to employees, it also makes people prone to various physical and psychological ailments like sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, heart palpitations, drug/alcohol addictions, etc. Right now, they're saying we should be back on the phone and ready to take a call within a minute of hanging up. This is to compensate for understaffed departments and busy times of the day. This should be a temporary solution rather than a year-round expectation. I guarantee none of the people instituting this policy have actually had any real world experience fielding calls from customers. Otherwise, they might think twice about setting such an insane expectation. However, this isn't just Apple. The vast majority of companies fit this con. If this is the kind of work you're going to do, at least do it for a better wage, better benefits and with better time off policies. Speaking of which, you will be severely stressed out the first 2-3 months on the phones since training is usually rushed. The good thing is when you're starting out you can reach out to your "Senior Specialist" and they can help you out with any calls you weren't fully prepared for in training (I'll give you a hint... it's most of them).