Company: Apple
Date: 2008-06-20
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Check your creativity at the door
Pros: Great products and interesting look at what's coming up. It's kinda cool to be at the cutting edge of technology hipness.  Plus you get to use Apple products in your daily work, which is a definite plus.  There's a lot of excitement in the atmosphere from people who are truly energized by what they do.  The "coolness" of the corporate culture make it the kind of place where people are impressed when you tell them who you work for.  And the overall industry affection for all things Apple make it the kind of place where you don't worry if your company will be in business in 6 months.
Cons: There's a decided lack of creative freedom, very little room for advancement, and atrociously bad management. Only certain people are allowed to have ideas, and many of us who were hired because of our creative background have to stifle our experience and just do what we're told.  It also has the worst management I've ever experienced.  I had 5 different managers in 18 months and not one of them every held a one-on-one with me.  Even when I requested time with a new manager, they were too busy impressing their own manager to deal with the people who reported to them.  It's sad to see so many great ideas never get off the ground because the people who came up with them weren't "important" enough.  Plus there's this huge "high school clique" mentality of the cool kids vs. everyone else.  If you aren't one of the cool kids, you don't get to work on the interesting projects, get noticed my management, or have any chance to prove what you can do.