Company: Apple
Date: 2015-03-18
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

I drank the apple juice long before they hired me.
Pros: - Great benefits, passionate coworkers, almost cult-like culture (but it works)
- I've never worked an event like a product launch, and I doubt I will at any other company. I still go wait in line at ridiculous hours because I love the energy and passion of the employees and customers alike. They were the most magical (and only) 18-hour-days I ever worked.
Cons: - Very little regard for work/life balance from management and scheduling.
- Not much room for advancement if you're interested in leaving the customer service world (i.e., you're not trying to climb up the leadership chain). People come in bright-eyed and excited about working for Apple, only to realize that it's still a retail job. An amazing retail job, but still retail. Truly: The best way to get a job at Apple corporate is to leave the retail scene and apply a year or so later.
- If you worked in tech support (the Genius Bar, the Family Room in general), you were usually working with a manager who did not have the skills that you had. The Family Room is made up of people who are trained to diagnose and fix issues--and when customers challenged the options we gave them, sometimes leadership would side with the customer without fully understanding a diagnosis.