Company: Apple
Date: 2009-02-28
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

If you are considering a field sales job, do your homework.
Pros: This post relates only to corporate sales, not Apple stores, and not working for Apple Corporate in Cupertino. 
As an account executive, the group (e.g. Higher Education, K-12, Corporate or Channel) you work for makes a huge difference.   The products are great, and the benefits are great.  Customers love the products, and hence generally want to work with you.  It's a company you can take pride in at the high level.
Cons: Most of the sales managers have been in their jobs for 10-20 inside Apple. My manager was promoted despite having no experience working outside of Apple for the last 20 years.  The "good old boy" network was in full swing.  There was zero tolerance for "out of the Apple box" approaches business development, which is highly ironic for a company known for innovation.  
Our team brought proven concepts borrowed from other industries, with documented ROI, yet every attempt to improve processes was crushed by people who had been in their jobs far too long.  To make things worse, very poor performance is tolerated if the employee is a manager "favorite", while top performers suffered.  Many members of our group went for several years without a performance review, which then eliminated their chances for salary increases and promotion.