Apple

Soul sucking company. Dont work here for the money and the prestige of saying you worked at Apple. The culture is toxic and operates from a place of distrust. It is anything but supportive. Run away from here as fast as you can.

Has a very competitive stinge. If you are a go getter, prepare to be bashed into the floor. Literally!

I was a retail employee – training was amazing back in the day. My original store was awesome, super encouraging teammates, I was the first female genius, and was a beautiful atmosphere to be a part of, especially out of college. However, after transferring stores for an opportunity to work at corporate, my requests were denied every time… saying I was too valuable and they wouldn’t allow me to even interview. Why would the management staff deny my dreams? Thankfully I worked for some amazing start ups after my career with Apple ended and it brought faith back into being a female in IT.

I worked at headquarters. Impressive campus. Good pay.

Great place if you are recently out of college. Lots of attractive perks and the pace is fast. Everyone looks trendy and cool. Be prepared to work all night.

Not a learning culture, but one that operates from fear. I was told, “when I want your opinion I’ll give it to you”. I loved the jealousy in my friends eyes when I said I worked at Apple, but hated the cutting words and nasty remarks that were part of the public daily-beat-down in the office. Another great saying is “we will beat the brilliance out of you, its the Steve Jobs way”.

Most empowering thing I did was to leave this toxic culture.

This was a really positive environment for what could have been a terrible job. Everyone was very supportive. Growth and training are highly encouraged. Doing customer support is a tough job, but they know that and value their staff. There are great perks, and fantastic people. Ultimately, the job wasn’t for me. But I learned a great deal and value my time there.

I worked in ATG for Apple from 1993-97, it was my first job out of college and my first time living abroad. At this time R&D at Apple was alive and kicking and I had the great privilege to work with some of the early pioneers in tech. As a place to launch a career in Silicon Valley it was a gift that has just kept on giving. 20+ years later what I appreciate most about that experience was the exceptionally high bar on quality, process and creativity.

I worked in an Apple Store in a mall. I was one of the first employees added to the retail staff in 2003. It was an exciting, energized place to work. We all felt that we were part of something bigger, as the company was growing and launching exciting new products. However, in terms of “equal pay” all information about salary and salary reviews was “confidential” so that it was not evident whether women were paid equally to men–I believe that men with families were compensated differently than women. There was opportunity for advancement within Apple, yet reflecting on that, only young men were encouraged and several have since gone to work for corporate in California. The retail store by it’s nature is not a family-friendly workplace–you could request when you could work, but once scheduled you had to be there. Overtime, the store atmosphere changed with a change in management and a change in the size of the staff. It grew so large that I really wasn’t enjoying it anymore.

I worked in Sales for Apple in their educational division. The culture was cutthroat and internally competitive. Their idea of training and development if “here go click on these interactive modules”. Several colleagues were literally good ole boys who had been with the division for over 15 years and had biases towards working moms. One even touched my buttocks in a hug when we first met that I brushed off as accidental, but later realized couldn’t have been. There wasn’t necessarily anything illegal about what i experienced, but the culture was permeated with Sexism. You can survive well as a woman if you act like a man and deny that you have any personal life and personal comittments whatsoever. Nothing progressive here about work/life balance, which was sad and surprising.

I spent 11 years at Apple in the sales division. Apple was and always has been the yard stick to measure other technology companies against, and rarely do othesr measure up in any category one could define. Although I worked at Apple during the rapid growth of the early 90’s, and even the difficult times of the late 90’s, I can say assuredly that it attracts the most creative, energetic and talented people and works hard at keeping a shared culture of ‘changing the world’ alive. However, there was still present an undercurrent of a male-dominated culture. The organization was very flat, but women who reported to women tended to still report to men. I was field based and local offices were more sensitive to women and their families. The benefits were excellent and at the time ground-breaking. Personally, I dealt with very expensive fertility treatments and they were covered by the great health benefits package. Yes, healthcare benefits have changed but the company valued people and providing more than basic hc aligned with providing the very best to the very best people. I still believe the power of the brand provides a compelling reason to accept offers from Apple. It has truly made a difference on my resume!

I worked for Apple just before Steve Jobs passed away. When I started I loved my job. I felt impowered by my store manager and I felt like I was equal to all employees. Then I moved to open a new store and was under new management. They were horrible! The team tried to make a difference and we started to get somewhere and then Steve Passed. The company took a turn In a new direction. Within a year half the staff that opened the store had left and moved on to other employment.

I worked at Apple in the ’80’s and ’90’s. It was an extremely exciting place to work. My experience was that the company culture was agnostic regarding everything if you were great at what you did. I worked with some of the most talented and exciting people in my career. I have great memories and still am close to many of those smart and capable people.

I loved the creative atmosphere and team environment while at Apple. I worked in their litigation department in Cupertino from 1990 to 1995. All the staff, with the exception of one male part-time paralegal were women, including all the attorneys, administrative staff, the director and general counsel. Some of the staff had children and occasionally there would be a child in a staff person’s office on a school holiday or early dismissal. There was great opportunity for advancement and I loved the recognition and rewards. I also received encouragement and support to advance my legal career. I loved working for Apple and I still feel it has been the best employer I have ever had.

I worked at Apple for many years through the low times and into the high times. The culture is unique. People there are intelligent, hardworking and dedicated to the product/company. If you are hard working and talented you will be rewarded with bonuses, mobility and flexibility. However you will work very hard. If you are on a project team with a shipping deadline you will have to work a lot of long days to make the ship dates.

In my time there I had two children. Balancing my life was HARD. I did work part time for a period and even job shared a management position. Competence was key. If the job was getting done management was happy. If it wasn’t then there were issues. I eventually left the company because I could no longer balance my life and family and I was burnt out. This is not a company that is designed for very long careers. It IS a resume builder and a chance to build skills and a network of outstanding peers.

Horrible place to work. Women are treated with no respect. Special projects given to only those in the boys club. Even the few women who are advancing put down women or they would not belong. Hours are rediculous. 24/7 during peak times. They own you. IT is the worst! Run by the same indian family. Indian men in power have the worst track record.

Apple hires indian contractors at less than a 1/3 of a US citizen. So we are left with contractors running the show with the bosses contractors they hired and got green cards for. Slave masters, Horrible!

i worked at Apple a long time ago. The thing I remember the most was the energy and the passion both the staff and the customers had for Apple and its products – its was contagious. I also remember there was a lot of internal rules around what we could or couldn’t do – so much so that there was a nervousness around ensuring you didn’t overstep. It was a work hard and enjoy the rewards culture but ensure you stayed within the guidelines kinda place. But the tech was always amazing.

Pretty good, but definitely not terribly supportive or offers career advancement to women specifically

I worked for Apple for a few years. It is a great culture. I did not feel any gender gap at any aspects of work environment at all. Everyone is supper smart, passionate about the product, and work extremely hard. There is no place politics and any kind of discrimination in Apple’s culture – everyone is too busy to work on excellent products.
Work-life balance is the only downside. Working very long days, long travels mostly to China, work on weekends, and no real vacation time (expected to stay connected).

I hit the glass ceiling in my group at Apple, so I negotiated a role where the work is interesting enough and flexibility fits my family for the next few years, but that experience is not the norm.

Hiring places so much focus on “cultural fit” that teams very often look similar to the manager. Gender is one example and since the great preponderance of engineering managers are male, well …. you get the picture.

Different teams have different levels of time commitment. In my experience, the compensation for the crazy hours is that those correlate with working on something that will ship to a huge customer base and you have the thrill of having created something new with exceptionally skilled coworkers.

I have been at Apple three years as a product designer and have really enjoyed it. Apple is unique amongst the companies I’ve worked for in that they will give you as much responsibility as you can handle. If you work hard and are competent, you’re not going to be sitting there doing the same job for years. I’ve always felt well compensated and supported by my management team, although the assumption definitely is that work should be a high priority in your life. Only in rare cases have I felt like being a woman has had any impact on my career, and Apple has taken care of it when that has happened (I had to report one man to HR, but he immediately shaped up after that). I took a nice long maternity leave without any judgement from my colleagues or management, and they were in fact quite supportive. As other reviewers mentioned, though, the overseas travel and urgent build cycles can be tough to balance with family life. To me, it’s well worth the opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues on cutting-edge products.

I’ve been with Apple 3 years now and love it. As another reviewer said, it’s really hit or miss as to whether you will excel and have a great time, or be out by the time your signing bonus vests. That said, once you are in, it’s pretty easy to move around, after a year or so. I have seen a number of women in middle and senior management roles; on the product side they tend to be more
Type A, aggressive, in your face sort of personalities, but that goes back a bit to the debate culture at Apple. Life is quite different on the indirect (versus direct) side of Apple. Lots of room for
growth and development; you are always challenged by new and interesting problems. Legal, finance, facilities, procurement, etc. are all very family friendly, reasonable and flexible. There are crunch periods, but on the whole, it is totally acceptable to schedule your work around family needs, including leaving early to do kid pickup etc. Some buildings are super quiet after 4pm.

Note – this experience may vary depending on the business unit and manager(s).
If you are prepared to advocate for yourself, you can eventually obtain equal / close to equal pay, but it isn’t equitable without doing research (amongst colleagues) and pushing the issue. Additionally, career advancement is not easy for women unless you have figured out the secret to identifying a sponsor and working your relationships. Based on the opportunities awarded for career advancement as well as security during a downsizing, being a white man is an advantage.
The corporate culture is extremely unique and difficult to navigate. There are many unwritten rules and many behaviors that are antithetical to other organizations. It is common to discuss the corporate culture as it is a large part of maneuvering within the company and managing cultural fit consumes a lot of energy.

Apple is a great company. Upward mobility is equally difficult for men and women.

I enjoyed the team environment at Apple (I worked in retail sales) and generous benefits especially for a retail job. However, to advance into my technical roles (Family Room) I had to jump through hoops to prove my ability to excel in sales. I interviewed numerous times, increased sales, attended additional training and after being denied the promotion many times when I was finally offered the move it was offered to me and 3 male coworkers who had not put in any additional preparation on their first attempt. I discussed this with other female coworkers and they expressed that similar things to happened to them, by the time they made me the offer I had already accepted offer somewhere else as I felt there was not enough opportunity. I left the company with a bad taste in my mouth.

I worked at Apple for several years and it is amazing company to be a part of! I love the culture and products I was able to contribute to. The benefits are really great too. However, the main downside I saw for women is that even though there are several women in management there was not a lot of support for women when they had children. I know several women who left Apple not because they didn’t love working their or want to continue being there but because they wanted to work part time for a short period while their kids were young. Mind you there are some opportunities to do this at Apple but women often couldn’t remain in the same job. You either had to find a department that had an opportunity to work part-time or quit your job. I really think Apple could step up their game significantly here and allow women the ability to switch to part-time at their current job. Overall I love Apple and it is through and through supportive of the entire gender spectrum but could make some small changes to make it truly a ‘family friendly’ supportive environment for women and their female retention rates would be much higher!

My experience at Apple was great. The people I have met was all great (even if I was there for only about 2 half months). I got the Apple job through an agency but the pay wasn’t great at all. Overall, it was great.

My two years at Apple has been a very formative one, especially as a first job out of university. What I loved most about my experience at the company was the work and people — I always felt inspired by hard working, truly dedicated, outstandingly smart colleagues. If you’re looking to dedicate a large portion of your life to work and don’t mind it (aka tough work life balance), this is the place for you. Yes, the secretive culture pervades throughout everything you do (had to sign multiple NDAs during my time there), so if you want open transparent atmosphere, this may not align. My work ethic and quality standard comes from Apple, and for that I’m grateful.

People here are smart, passionate, and most have aggressive Type-A personalities. Apple has been able to foster this unique culture in which some thrive, and some will be out as soon as the first signing bonus allotment pays out at 12 months. If you fit in, it can be a challenging and inspiring place to work. I have not had any negative experiences due to my gender. If you have children and want work/life balance, you need to luck out with the right role and management. Otherwise, most people do not make it home in time for a young child’s bedtime (7-8pm) or daycare pick-up (typically ~6pm). Since Apple products are primarily produced in China, a lot of people also spend a significant amount of time overseas (typically 2 wk stretches 5-8 times a year depending on your role). This also makes parent life sad and almost impossible.