Company: Apple
Date: 2017-03-27
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Just OK. Maybe there is greatness there, but I did not experience it.
Pros: Smart people. Nice facilities. Fast paced work makes the day go by fast. Some opportunities for movement within the company.
Cons: Politics and maneuvering at middle-management levels. Work was too silo-ed with little "big picture" or strategy view, which made it feel "claustrophobic". 
There are clusters of people from other companies (ex: Microsoft) which are trying to "put the band back together" at Apple, and wasting time on empire building. HR is not paying attention and the "Apple way" is slowly getting diluted.
Many employees seem to only stay for the stock, and are looking/hoping for a better opportunity. They are not happy in their current roles. 
The secrecy makes it difficult to learn much about other internal opportunities. The generic job descriptions for internal opportunities make it hard to know if you'd like another role better, if it's worth changing roles.
Smart people, but most don't come in as experts in the job they were hired for. The interview does not reveal the nature of the work, and young talent is favored over experience. 
The new folks do their best, but often they don't feel productive or valuable/satisfied. I have watched engineers who are smart but young, as they "discover" the same solutions I've already worked on before because. It's a bit sad to see people believe they're re-invented the wheel, and it's wasteful & boring for those who went through the experience before. It drags down progress to wait for the young folks earn their stripes, instead of allowing experienced folks to push ahead. I can only assume that management thinks the younger engineers will come up with some bright idea for doing the same thing better. It rarely happens. Alternatively, maybe because Apple can't pay for talent, maybe they hope to raise it.