Company: Apple
Date: 2008-05-22
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Lower your expectations when it comes to working at Apple!
Pros: The best reason to work for Apple was definitely the discounts; in fact, I plan to go back to work there, in a lesser capacity, in order to receive the discounts again.  Apple has the coolest technology out there, and as a fan of theirs for a long time, it was great to get first hand knowledge and experience on the latest products.  Also, when I first started working for Apple in 2006, there were a tight-knit group of employees who were "Mac-heads," and it was a great environment to work in.  As soon as Ron Johnson got word that customers weren't getting enough attention due to not enough employees, Apple started hiring everyone in sight, and the environment became what it is today.
Cons: The management is completely horrible!  Like I said before, the managers used to be good, but now Apple is hiring anyone and everyone with retail experience, which completely goes against Apple's plan for their retail stores.  Ron Johnson, head of Apple retail, originally designed the stores after luxury hotel chains in order to give quality service to its employees, but unfortunately, things have changed drastically.  I was even told by my manager that we had to start hiring people who used Dells and owned an iPod because "we had exhausted all possible routes" to find other Mac users who would be interested in working in the retail stores.  This was completely bogus because I know tons of people who use Macs and don't work at Apple.  

The recent employees hired and the management are all wrong for Apple.  My management even started distancing the true Mac users, like me, from working there.  Despite my full time availability, I was only given about 10-16 hours per week right before I left.  I was also told that other people would receive full time before me, even though I had been there longer than the other person being considered.  Talk about no motivation.

Everyone also felt extremely overworked and underpaid.  The raises were completely arbitrary, and the new hires weren't trained to sell Macs, just iPods and iPhones, so there were still the same number of people to help people who wanted to buy Macs, which just weren't enough.

Also, one of my managers had a problem with physicality.  This manager touched people inappropriately, and even physicially threatened to harm another employee..and still works there!