Mixed bag - Specialist Apple Employee Review

2.0
Apr 8, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I was overjoyed when I first started, within a month I was top salesman in my store without really trying, my enthusiasm and soft sell approach worked really well. It was my first job out of uni and I was ambitious and motivated by the prospect dangled in front of me of promotion to the creative level. On the plus side Apple does train staff in many areas that will help you land future jobs, the working environment is casual and having Apple on your resume opens doors.

Cons

My starting wage was only £7.50 per hour (this was in 2008) and Apple doesn't pay commission which I think is totally unfair. I was selling upwards of £5000 worth of products a day (in a small store) and I earned just as much as the concierge who just stood at the door and said hello to customers. I was told I would be given a full time contract but that never came despite my hard work and consistent top sales - instead another part timer was hired. I asked to be enrolled in the creative training offered and a few months later a number of staff were taken for creative training (including the part timer hired after me) but I was left out with no explanation given. Perhaps they wanted me to keep their sales up instead. The middle management is terrible, even more so in the big stores in London where I worked later - Regent street for example, has 500 employees and in my interview my manager admitted he didn't know half the staff. On good days you'll spend your time demonstrating video/music/image software and hardware with customers. On average days you'll spend your time selling iPhone cases to fat businessmen and dealing with a lot of angry people (especially in London) I went in a few months from being the model Apple employee to the most cynical one because I worked hard but was not rewarded with a full time contract or commission. I'll never work in Apple retail again.

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5.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I am inspired by the technical expertise I see at the leadership level. People are collaborative. And the work is really interesting.

Cons

Some business operations processes are not built for scale, causing a lot of wasted effort

4.0
Aug 28, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

We work with geniuses - in every department, We create innovative products that thrill our customers and create new product categories - who else can say that?

Cons

ZERO ZERO ZERO work/life balance. Execs have been saying for YEARS that they understand and will make it better. But in actuality, it gets worse every year! It is obviously top management LIP SERVICE because if they meant it, they could fix it tomorrow. They have hundreds of BILLIONS in the bank. If they REALLY cared about employee work/life balance, they could bring aboard the right number of folks to make that issue dissolve. Sick of hearing the lies. Just don't lie about wanting to fix it, when they clearly DON'T care

1501
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