Company: Apple
Date: 2014-07-22
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

High Stress / Low Pay - AppleCare At Home Advisor
Pros: - Work from home.
- Paid time off.
- Free Apple software (All products).
- Discounts on Apple Hardware.
- Discounts on associated companies' products.
- Discounts on Apple Certification tests and learning resources.
- Full health insurance, workers comp, etc.
- Paid sick time for doctor's appointments.
- Stock Options.
- 401K plan contributions.
- Looks good on a Resumé.
- Technical skills not needed.
Cons: - Low Pay; Pay is not based on skill or experience, but based on locale.  Raises are 1x/year, despite many new skills learned and responsibilities delegated between yearly reviews.
- High stress situations; working with frustrated people, time constraints, glitchy internal systems, and other departments that refuse to help.
- Uncontrollable situations reflect poorly on Advisor's records; customer surveys determine ½ of overall Advisor value in the company (with call time metrics making the other ½).  Surveys are filled by Customers, who sometimes use the surveys to evaluate other to vent about factors besides the Advisor's service.  Surveys are not 'weighted', meaning that a 'neutral' survey counts against an Advisor.
- Persistent internal system issues; internal system software is persistently glitchy, causing Advisor and Customer frustration.
- Management not helpful; Manager's job is to report to upper management, and take orders from upper management, to push Advisors to be quicker with calls, etc... focus on call 'metrics'.  Some management give helpful advice, others only stress that the Advisor focus on improving their metrics.
- Upper management disassociated from Staff; Upper management seems to like to experiment with staff by moving them around between Managers, not allowing them to get comfortable or have esteem in any specific team.