Company: Apple
Date: 2014-11-13
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Started off well enough, but have become frustrated.
Pros: I really like that I can work from the comfort of my own home; I can set up my home office wherever and however I want so for me it is very comfortable and peaceful. I don't have to worry about commuting and I can wake up 10 minutes before the start of my shift and start work on time. I also found that I was able to eat better as I did not have to pack a lunch or go out to a restaurant.

I think the pay and benefits are pretty good for this line of work, you get overtime and holiday pay. You also get a decent amount of vacation and sick time.

There is some room for advancement and some control over schedule, but more on that below.

I personally find a lot of satisfaction in helping others and this job offers plenty of opportunity to do so. After finishing work most days I feel like I made a positive difference in the world, however some company policies stifle this (more below). As a Tier 2 or Senior Advisor you have a lot of empowerment to help others, much more than a Tier 1 advisor.
Cons: When on calls I am constantly stressed about my performance metrics such as call handle time, survey results, and conforming to Apple's call flow guidelines. It is upsetting to receive a bad survey over an issue that you did not cause or have no control over, especially when you did everything possible to correct the problem. 

The surveys and other other performance metrics are used to decide priority when bidding for schedules. One or two bad surveys can be the difference between working a good schedule or a bad schedule. To me, it is the difference between having time to spend with friends and family or barely seeing them at all. I have worked extremely hard to achieve good metrics and I am typically in the top 10-20% in the internal advisor rankings, yet this is still not enough to get both weekend days off.

Advancement is also a problem. I was able to move up to Tier 2 fairly quickly, but beyond this, it is much more challenging. There are a limited number of positions available beyond Tier 2 and there is such a vast amount of talent you are competing with for those spots. So far, in almost 2 years on my team of 18 people, only 1 person has advanced to a higher position. Admittedly, if you work "on-site" you have more opportunities available.

Another big frustration for me is that it as advisors, we have a surprising lack of tools to do our job. I would think that as one of the largest software and hardware manufacturers, we would have a range of diagnostics, tests, and utilities at our disposal to correct and handle issues that arise with customer's devices, but this is not the case. We have access to an internal knowledge base (90% of which is already publicly accessible on our support site), the ability to run very basic diagnostics on iOS devices, and access to some account information - that is all. We are also not given much information in regards to any "known issues" or bugs in the software. In short, as advisors we put in a position where we are fairly ignorant and blind, which often makes us look bad and doesn't do any favors for the company. Basically, we just have to make the best of what we have and use experience and logic to solve problems.

Perhaps I just had higher expectations that Apple would be a more progressive and resourceful company, but I think it suffers from most of the problems facing large organizations in that change is difficult and slow.