Company: Apple
Date: 2014-04-08
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Mixed bag
Pros: I was overjoyed when I first started, within a month I was top salesman in my store without really trying, my enthusiasm and soft sell approach worked really well. It was my first job out of uni and I was ambitious and motivated by the prospect dangled in front of me of promotion to the creative level.

On the plus side Apple does train staff in many areas that will help you land future jobs, the working environment is casual and having Apple on your resume opens doors.
Cons: My starting wage was only £7.50 per hour (this was in 2008) and Apple doesn't pay commission which I think is totally unfair. I was selling upwards of £5000 worth of products a day (in a small store) and I earned just as much as the concierge who just stood at the door and said hello to customers. I was told I would be given a full time contract but that never came despite my hard work and consistent top sales - instead another part timer was hired. I asked to be enrolled in the creative training offered and a few months later a number of staff were taken for creative training (including the part timer hired after me) but I was left out with no explanation given. Perhaps they wanted me to keep their sales up instead. The middle management is terrible, even more so in the big stores in London where I worked later - Regent street for example, has 500 employees and in my interview my manager admitted he didn't know half the staff.

On good days you'll spend your time demonstrating video/music/image software and hardware with customers. On average days you'll spend your time selling iPhone cases to fat businessmen and dealing with a lot of angry people (especially in London)

I went in a few months from being the model Apple employee to the most cynical one because I worked hard but was not rewarded with a full time contract or commission.

I'll never work in Apple retail again.