Company: Apple
Date: 2016-08-12
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Working in apple retail
Pros: Fabulous products, really interesting and intlligent coworkers. Love being able to help people learn about their tech, whether mac, iphone, ipad or watch. Really amazing to see the apprehension turn into excitement.  I have watched an 80 yr old send their first email, to his granddaughter, and when she responded, his joy was priceless. Using icloud, I have helped grieving families recover photos of their loved ones.
Cons: Retail hours and retail salaries. Not knowing tour schedule more than a couple of weeks in advance makes it difficuly to plan for family needs, and of course having to be available every evening and weekend does not contribute to work/family balance. While salaries are ok for retail, after almost 7 years i have not reached the salary I earned in middle management 13 yrs ago. There also seems to be a glass wall between retail and the rest of the company.  With the exception of members of the genius team, I have seem very little chance for advancement beyond the retail division.  Especially as a creative, (trainer) the only options seem to be moving into a lead creative role or to retail management, both of which tend to be customer service issue roles, not instructional.