Company: Apple
Date: 2014-03-04
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

The best learning experience of my life! However, the company culture has radically changed recently.
Pros: The people that I worked with at Apple were incredible. I looked forward to going to work every day and the company really does value a diverse demographic for its employees and its customers. I'm haven't started looking for another job yet, but I'm sure skills that I've acquired there will come in very useful. I particularly learned a lot about communication skills and positioning of a product/ topic a certain way. Taught me a lot about patience, tolerance, organization, loyalty, and teamwork.
Cons: Growth, particularly in retail was extremely narrow. I had the highest metrics in my area and was a great resource to the team, but there was often tenure and politics involved in any promotion. Responsibilities are frequently increased in big increments but there wasn't nearly adequate financial compensation for the new responsibilities. After the loss of Steve Jobs, I believe the company shifted focus from the customer experience to generating higher numbers and impressing wall street. This became very evident in our budget cuts, resources and training that was provided, and severe reduction in headcount even during the busiest time of the year. Apple has also had a lot of success in convincing the public that its a green company; however, if you work just one day in the retail stores, you'll notice that Apple isn't really much of a green company at all. There is almost no recycling that occurs with the massive amounts of shipping and packaging for the products.