Company: Apple
Date: 2011-03-27
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

Not all it's cracked up to be.
Pros: You work for Apple. People think it's cool, and it looks impressive on a resume. I loved almost everyone that I worked with. You need to have a certain attitude to work at Apple, and if you fit in then you just fit in. Don't get me wrong though--although they do look for a certain attitude, our team was very diverse. I met so many interesting people there, and i still keep in touch with many of them. Pay was pretty good compared to other mall jobs. Discounts here are okay but not amazing, though the free MobileMe account is definitely nice if you own multiple Apple products.
Cons: Though I had lots of great customer interactions here, I also encountered a LOT of extraordinarily rude customers. I have had customers personally attack me (for example, dropping f-bombs on me when I told them that they'd need to wait 5-10 minutes to see a Genius, and telling me I'm incompetent even though fixing iPhones isn't in my job description) and almost cried in the Red Zone on multiple occasions. Managers push numbers hard--even though you don't make commission. We actually had a wall that had not only the best sales numbers for the day, but also the worst, which I find completely inappropriate. Totally inflexible scheduling. Although I was part-time, they worked me as many hours as possible and you need to request off work several months in advance, even if it's just one day. Then, my biggest gripe--there is literally no room for advancement here. They tell you that there is plenty of room to grow with Apple, but in reality, they hire outside the company for almost all of the management positions. There isn't much incentive to perform when there is little chance of growth. And forget moving to corporate--it's pretty much completely separate from the Retail division. Finally, the vibe here is (surprise, surprise) a bit cult-ish...there are special procedures for doing literally everything, even giving a compliment to your co-worker. You are expected to do your job and never, ever question the company or its motives. Plus, they've created this image for themselves that attracts all these ridiculously talented and educated people to work for them, when in reality they are vastly overqualified for their jobs. One coworker interned for NASA. Another was fluent in six languages. Yet another was an experienced music producer. And yet somehow they were all lured into working a shitty retail job--which, at the end of the day, is all this really is.