Company: Apple
Date: 2015-10-09
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Great place to learn and grow
Pros: Apple is a great place to learn and grow. Definitely lots of opportunity to do challenging work. This definitely depends on the group you join, but my experience has been great. Yes it is very secretive, but if you don't need to know something, you don't need to know. Simple. Depending on the group, things can feel a bit isolated, as engineers may not talk to you if you're in your office crunching away, but again....this depends on the group. 

Surprisingly, Apple can feel like a startup at times, with certain processes feeling incomplete or certain projects feeling a bit rushed. However, this leaves a lot of room for innovation and growth. Engineers have the freedom to enhance projects and processes at will, which is great. See something you don't like? Make it better. With deadlines though, this is definitely encouraged to be done on your own time.

Work/Life balance? Depends on the group. Mine is perfect. In at 8 and out by 5. I am on call though, and I do tend to work at home a lot, especially when I'm working on enhancements or critical fixes.
Cons: Food isn't free...not even Apples or Tea. Considering food is free at pretty much all the other companies in the Bay Area, this is kinda of ridiculous (particularly the Apples).