Company: Apple
Date: 2008-06-29
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

Some good products, massive internal problems.
Pros: You get to be part of a company that makes some of the most recognizable, and, in some cases, some of the best, products in the market today. Most people are proud to be there, and that's a plus. Also, despite the recent down turn, in terms of financial compensation, it's still very good in terms of stock options, and so on. Salary is at least OK.
Cons: Some of the people are not nice. They're effective in what they do, but they're not nice. It's one thing to be no-nonsense, but in my opinion one can still be polite and professional about things. There's a lot of politics, too much for my taste. But that's not the real problem, the problem is they see it as, at worst, a neutral attribute, and, at best, a good feature, which is puzzling to me. The biggest problem is the lack of process. The work gets done, but it's extremely inefficient, and, as with politics, some people actually see this as a feature rather than a problem. People spend a lot of time doing things that, were good processes in place, would not even be necessary. While people are hard working and put in a lot of time, they don't stop and ask themselves if they're doing things the right way. In a way, they're "disciplined" in doing many of the wrong things. The result is they keep hiring people, and they get burned out. In the words of one manager, every project is like a "moon shot". They're proud of this, instead of seeing it as a problem. After 30 years, making products should not be anything like moon shots.