Company: Apple
Date: 2014-02-10
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Not what it used to be
Pros: Good name for your CV, quite a decent salary. Very friendly co workers many people I am still in contact with, opportunity to learn if you want. Fun store meetings and good treats and food on special occasions especially product launches! 

Some opportunity for career progression within store, but if you want to go to the corporate side your better off quitting and reapplying!
Cons: Training has become really lack, instead of teaching staff about the actual product (especially mac) the focus has been shifted to customer service focus. They treat you like children i.e. you have to ask permission for toilet breaks, ask to go on lunch break which are often scheduled far to early on in your shift (School like culture). 

The management are extremely fake and patronising, speak to you as if you are 10 years old. Although there are no direct sales targets, they are extremely focused on the feedback received from customers so they can look good. Some of the best staff put on performance plans as they are claimed to not be innovative enough! Too many managers on the shop floor at one time simply baby sitting. 

There used to be a relaxed culture that resulted in the staff delivering amazing customer service as they were generally happy, but now everyone is forcing themselves to look busy in a bid to avoid being approached by a manager. You have to act fake the whole shift, so actors this may be a good role of choice!

Also the staff discounts are rather stingy, only one real discount per year per product. No bonuses.