Q&A With Apple Employees

Secure

With my leadership team? Not very. Other leadership teams? No issue.

I was let go despite outperforming my sales metrics and being a valued team member for several years.

Burn out. 50-60. Frustration. Lack of leadership.

Vibe is positive. Work hours ebb and flow as product launches hit. 45-50 is normal. Big launches mean 60 to 100 hour weeks.

Sad 60-80

We have excellent management. No leadership.

Management is strong. Leadership is totally absent. Their is no leadership, only management.

Non-existent

It executes extremely well.

VPs and Senior Directors call the shots. Directors and middle-management are instruments of policy, and the rest are functionaries driving to their plan.

Good people. Little autonomy.

Outstanding

Culture is pretty awesome here.

You have to wear your happy face all the time. There is too much micro-management, at least in AppleCare; very much dependant upon flawed metrics.

Absolutely. They are very open to that.

Yes

Yes but it won't be acknowledged 99.99% of the time

changes everyday and depends on the manager at our store. Mostly wear what you want as long as it doesn't cover the logo, but with certain managers you will get dress coded for wear skinny jeans, skirts, shorts, or god forbid: an undershirt

you have to wear clothes

around 1 week?

2 hrs to 3 weeks

Less than a week after a series of interviews, I had five separate interviews

Our store doesn't, but our employees work with hundreds of local shelters, food banks, national forests, etc.

volunteer days, volunteering in various programs

Lots of local volunteering, etc.

it took them about a 1month-3 months for retail

I waited a year till I found out many companies only hold for six months so reapplied and heard back in about four months.

It depends on what your skill set is. If you are looking to go from agent to manager - very hard since there aren't many openings. If you are going from agent to another position which isn't really a promotion but just a move to a similar level position but in a different area, then that is pretty easy. They allow you to move around as long as you don't have any opening warnings on your file, your manager says you can, and you want to interview .

hard

Apple has very limited # of levels, and so, each levels range widely in terms of experience and responsibilities.

That no matter what you are an what you do you are a part of the big pie that makes apple - and you get your rewards no matter if you are the CTO or just washing the dishes

Apple

Working on amazing products, knowing your effort goes to creating meaningful experiences.

Within the country, moves are usually fairly easy and always voluntary. But its possible as well to move into another country.

Pretty hard. Leveling is very broad and going to a different level is a big deal. But moving to a different team happens a lot.

when I decided to move out of state 4 years ago, I told my manager at the store I was working at that I wanted to transfer. It was pretty seamless. I met with a manager at my new store and a few weeks later I was working there. Only issue my pay was slashed about $4/hour due to the change in cost of living in the new area.

Allowed

Not even think about it, not allowed

No pets

Feedback, various things, time mainly, feedback from customers also

Who knows? It’s always changing

We are held to specific metrics and survey results. They have recently changed the survey to be more inclusive of advisor skills as well but its still not entirely a fair system at all.

yes to the background check

Yes to both

Background checks yes. Drug testing no.

Its a lot of fun to work in apple but its a lot of work as well. You are expected to work oncall and after hours / weekends. On the other hand its easy to get time off to do things.

They don't care as much about hours clocked in, as they are about you getting your job done. If you have to come in late because of a dental appointment, or leave early for a child's event, they are really cool about it. The MAIN thing is that you get your work done, and you keep up with your commitments. If you do your work, they are flexible about time. If you don't do your work, it doesn't matter how much time you are in the office. They don't care if you put in 60 hours, if you don't do the work.

Not very. You are expected to understand the culture. More of a sink or swim situation.

Most managers used to be engineers themselves so they have been there and know what you are going through. They are very helpful and understanding and try to keep as much bureaucracy away from you as they can.

Depends on the team. There are some excellent engineers there that direct cool projects. Unfortunately, there are also many engineers who get promoted to be terrible managers. Worse still, there is a bit of ageism going on, meaning that many managers don't stay long enough to grow into the role. Unless you are a super-star, you probably don't want to still be at Apple at age 50.

They are all healthy and well, thanks for asking.

Questions were scatter-shot at best. Many were incoherent or misguided attempts at "trick" or difficult tech questions.

What’s the soundtrack of your life ?

My interview wasn’t difficult,

This depends completely on the perspective you have, which is dependent upon the role you entered into.

Right down the middle. Other large companies might pay more. Apple benefits are good though. Yearly increases will barely cover inflation.

Competitive

Extremely average

Competitive

Lower than the competition.

No such thing.

Wouldn't know. Never had one.

Work from home - no team outings

College program pay is below industry standard. Great benefits even for part time.

18.00 - 20.00hr

$35K-50K from T1 to T2 in Technical roles at the Austin campus. I'm not sure about the non-tech roles.

Office vibe is okay, could be better.

driven with spurts of levity.

Reasonable