Company: Apple
Date: 2016-04-08
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

At Home Advisor - Its Not Pretty
Pros: BENEFITS
You will have excellent benefits here. I've had a few procedures done and did not have to pay anything out of pocket. By far the absolute best, most affordable benefits I've ever had.

DISCOUNTS
Without getting into too many details, I will say that the discounts offered to the employees are reasonable. I have definitely used mine and I'm grateful for them. I've always loved Apple products so this was just icing on the cake.

WORK FROM HOME
There are a lot of scams out there concerning working from home. This is one of the few opportunities that truly offer a job that you can do from the comfort of your home and actually make money. Its not invasive and they really allow you to be independent. You're not really micromanaged per-say.. but just know you will not be able to "pretend" you're working.

SALARY
I would say that what I got hired for is well worth what I'm paid. I no longer feel that way because I've been cross-trained on so many things and have not received a raise. I am way more valuable to the company then when I first started.. therefore, I feel I should be compensated for that value. I believe that it would be fair to increase the pay, per skill. But overall, the starting pay is well above the minimum wage. I'm able to live comfortably and I'm able to do things that I enjoy that I wasn't able to do with the previous pay with other jobs. 

PERKS
You get a lot of perks here at Apple. I'm unable to go into details, but the company does really take care of their employees from a "material" and "health" standpoint.
Cons: CHANGES, CHANGES AND MORE CHANGES
Things change all the time as with any business, however, with Apple, some of their changes can affect your overall position and pay. For example, you can be hired as a Chat Advisor, but if the need permits, you'll end up on the phones. Another example is, you can be working on night shift, but then end up on day shift if the need permits. Nothing is set in stone. You can be moved around or changed to go somewhere else at any moment. Apple does not care how it affects you. 

ONGOING TRAINING WITH NO PAY INCREASES
You will get hired for one thing.. but you will be crossed trained for everything else. They're goal is to have all Advisors knowledgeable about all products. They want everyone to be able to float around and provide support anywhere needed. I had been working two months on my own and my stats were horrible. I was still trying to get familiar with what I was trained to do. However, despite my lack of knowledge and ongoing horrible stats which clearly showed I was not ready to take on new products, they trained me on two other products within a month of each other. I did not receive a pay increase. I was totally stressed out and was about to quit several times. I expressed my anxiety to my manager but they were not able to assist me.

MANAGERS ARE PUPPETS
I have nothing bad to say about managers other than I feel so sorry for them. You can tell they really want to do something different other than what their superiors are advising them to do. There is ALOT of pressure on them. Their managers are pressing them to get this done by this date with each member on their team. Most of the time when you take a problem to them, they will not hear you out. They will only make excuses as to why something is the way it is. I really do believe that is how they're trained. So I don't blame them. Don't expect your manager to be able to assist you with much. They are not trained to do that. They are trained to protect the brand - which ultimately means, if its not affecting the customer, they really do not care. The only thing they are concerned about is your stats. Anything outside of that they really don't care about. 

YOU WILL DREAD LAUNCHES
Launches are suppose to be a exciting time, but if the customers you support are directly affected by the launches, you will eventually hate them. I hate whenever Apple launches anything new. Although they test and test and test the product/software, it never works straight out of the box. Apple is a industry giant, but when it comes to product releases, I have yet to experience one that went smooth. Customers go absolutely nuts. Business owners scream at you, curse you and all kinds of things. Its terrible! iTunes and other non-technical departments do not have to deal with launches. 

STATS WILL KILL YOU
I really don't want to get much into this, but I will say this: It is very hard to have good stats. A customer can chat in, you help them, chat back in and the next person don't help them - the customer gets YOUR survey and mark it negatively based on what the other Advisor did. The customer can chat with you, you send them to the Apple Store, they have a bad experience at the store.. but then use the survey from their interaction with YOU and complain about their store experience. Yes, you can get penalized for what someone else did. I understand how this could happen, but there should be a way for the managers to correct this. The reason this is so important is because this affects promotions, salaries, EVERYTHING!! Currently there is no way to move a survey to the correct person that the customer is complaining about. If its your survey then its your negative mark even if the customer was not complaining about you.

THE STUCK SYNDROME
Because Apple offers such a good pay and good benefits/perks, if you decide that you hate working for Apple, but you don't have a degree or experience to be able to leave the company and find a job that will pay you the same, you'll be stuck. This is exactly what has happened to me. Since working for Apple, I have moved and purchased a car. I thought this was my dream job and that I would retire from here one day. Now I wish I had not purchased anything or moved. That way, I could have at least found another job - still moved and purchased a car based on that income. 

When it comes to Apple, please give yourself at least 6 months to a year before making any major life-changing decisions. This will give you enough time to decide if this is a place you can tolerate or even thrive in. For me, it isn't. I'm job hunting as I work.