Company: Apple
Date: 2014-12-10
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Apple Retail is an entirely separate entity
Pros: - Benefits cannot be matched by any other employer (PPO plan) 
- Great employee discounts on peripherals and phone plans
- Relative to other retail stores, this is one of the best to work for
Cons: - Retail ages ware barely enough to be able to buy computers, even with the discount, rendering the discount almost useless. They're really great as favors for friends/family who have jobs that pay more than yours. 
- Management is extremely skilled at giving you the runaround (also known as Feedback) when it comes time for promotion or a lateral shift in positions. Interviews either end up going cold with no response, or some "surprise star candidate" will swoop out of nowhere to take the position you desire so dearly. 
- Glass ceiling. Extremely little room for advancement. Someone has to either die or get fired for a spot to open up. There are pretty much 2-3 positions you can move into before "management' is the next step, where you get a nice little raise to get yelled at by more customers and deal with disgruntled employees who have no future. 
- Resume killer. Once you've spent enough time in retail, you're essentially silo-ing yourself into that industry. Recruiters will see your experience as retail and generalize you as a retail salesperson, despite your own perception that you do not work at Macy's, Best Buy, Urban Outfitters, etc. If retail is your career choice, you're in the right place. If it isn't, you're screwing yourself. 
- Methodologies to provide customers with "options" for service are really just an euphemism for coercing the customer to conform to the workflow that Apple has set out. You are taught to repeat the same "option" repeatedly until the customer gives up, and agrees with you. That is NOT successful negotiation. It's not truly a choice if you can only provide the option to take it or leave it. That is called communism/socialism/totalitarianism. (ps. This is America.)
- False perception of creativity. Apple positions itself as a company that breeds creativity. Truth be told, the retail store is merely a delivery mechanism for distributing products. As an employee, you have no impact on product development, processes, etc. You are merely a drone whose role is to hand customers product with a smile and collect payment. (The finger doesn't tell the brain what to do. The finger does what it's supposed to do.)