Company: Apple
Date: 2017-05-21
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former

Decent place to work but don't overstay your welcome
Pros: -Good culture of education and training.  You will learn a lot about technology.
-Great benefits (Lots of vacation days, stock @ 15% discount, full health + dental, pension, etc.)
-Good pay for a retail job.
-Decent work/life balance (rotating days off and start times, expect to work every weekend)
-Culture of feedback.
-Some chances for advancement.
-Exciting workplace that is mostly fun.
-Most people you work with are easy going, artistic, and committed to doing a good job.
-Part time employees hard full benefits
Cons: -Career advancement has a hard ceiling cap.  
-In spite of what Apple will tell you, you work in retail.  Other companies see it as retail and in the tech industry you are still a glorified Apple geek.  Depending on where you look for jobs afterwards, it may or may not help you.
-Leadership roles are 90% external hires. 
-Little recognition for individual contributions.
-Actual employee development is a joke.  Apple will gladly give you a lateral move, pay you the same, and then tell you its a promotion.
-Company does not make enough effort to retain senior employees.  If they have a chance to squeeze you out of your pay grade during a transfer, they will try.
-Company is cutting back on career experiences (eg. no more Genius training at Apple campus, replaced with online video training)
-Employees that are bad for the team and culture are not reprimanded or let go. People that are bad seeds poison the culture and make the workplace miserable.
-Dealing with demanding customers that break their devices and expect Apple to replace things for free.  Expect a LOT of customer arguments.  I cannot count how many times I have witnessed customers making employees cry because they are such demanding jerks.  
-Work/Life balance.  Your start times and days off are always different.  Its very hard to have any consistency with your not at work life.  If you are a parent, this is a nightmare.  Pray your significant other has a 9-5.
-Cost of Apple products and services keep going up and no kickback goes to employees, even though the price increases are touted to reflect to quality of "our people."
-Employees hired now are making significantly less salaries than employees hired 5+ years ago.  
-The retail side is a great place to start a career but don't overstay your welcome.