Company: Apple
Date: 2015-05-24
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

What a Ride...
Pros: -Decent starting pay

-Coworkers that are sure to become long-term friends

-Very laid back, lenient dress code

-Lots of opportunities to learn about product knowledge

-Benefits for part-timers are considerably more than what you'll find at another retailer

-Sufficient resources on hand whenever needed

-Fantastic training 

-Employee discounts were nice
Cons: -Complete lack of work/life balance. It's retail; say goodbye to weekends or plans outside of work. 

-Absurdly inconsistent hours. Many instances of closing the night before only to find yourself opening the next day. 

-Though pay is well for a retail job, the hours are scarce, resulting in bi-weekly pay checks that feel like they don't nearly compensate for what you have to deal with. 

-In my time with the company, I transitioned from a sales specialist to a "family room specialist," or a technician for mobile devices. There was no pay raise, though I took on a much more stressful role. This makes the store expect much more out of you with no added compensation. 

-Being part of such a renowned brand, the customer base can be terrible. Clientele often feel entitled and then take it out on the specialist that has the misfortune of breaking the bad news to them. This was a daily occurrence that really took a toll on morale and put stress on the specialist. 

-Often times, it felt like store leaders and managers force-fed and sugar coated the company way too much. Anyone who wasn't as enthusiastic about their job was immediately looked at in a different light. 

-No recognition from corporate other than an occasional "thank you" via video. With a company's face being its retail stores, they do a poor job making retail feel significant. 

-There is a clear and defined line between Apple Corporate and Apple Retail. Apple Corporate has a very secretive nature and has a poor way of executing "in the moment" training. 

-Awful system of attendance points for occurrences and requesting time off. Having to request time off almost a month in advance with no guarantee of it being approved is infuriating.