Apple Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

people are awesome
products are great
the environment is like no other place in retail
the benefits are really good even por part-time

Cons

deal with some really bad customers at time, sometimes tough to grow if managers are not on your side, hard to get to corporate through here

Pros

The people you work with at the retail level are pretty amazing.

Cons

Even though its a good work environment it's still retail at the end of the day.

Advice to Senior Management

Apple's retail arm can sometimes feel like a dead end job. Find away to keep the excitement about working for this company alive as you go forward. Sometimes I feel a little disposable.

Pros

Apple is Apple. Working there and garnering your blue tee shirt is enough to make anyone jealous. It is extremely hard to get a job here, but once you're in, it's the best.

Cons

Apple is Apple, but retail is not exactly what you'd think. You're either literally offered promotions, or you're not. You can work as hard as you can, and magically, people with lesser experience will be promoted before you. If you can be among the magically promoted few, all the more power to you. If you're not, you will definitely know.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to take experience and overall knowledge into account when deciding promotions and hires. There is not a process for promoting from within. I have been at Apple for two years, and I have not seen a clear way to be seen by management as someone worth promoting.

Pros

It is the greatest place to work in the world

Cons

The number of people who come to the Apple Store is sometimes overwhelming.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

they treat their employees with respect.

Cons

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing

Pros

I love working at Apple retail. I'm a sucker for new technology, and right now, Apple is leading the pack with new tech. The people you work with are interesting and generally fun to hang out with, inside or outside of work. The employee stock purchase plan is a nice bonus, especially recently.

Cons

All Apple retail employees are expected to perform at a very high level, but we are not paid more for good performance, nor do we usually make more money than comparable positions at other companies. A workday can be stressful because of the high number of people coming in and out of an Apple Retail store each day.

Advice to Senior Management

Think about ways to reward your high performing employees, whether that's better opportunities for advancement (not just in retail, but also at the corporate level), or higher merit pay increases. Allow your employees to negotiate their salary with you. Pay internal hires as much as you would an external candidate.

Pros

People! They say the people are the soul of the company, well, they are also the heart. Learning! There's always something new to learn and theres always someone eager to learn it that wants you to teach it to them.

Cons

Yes, it's retail and the hours and staffing are not always what you need it to be. This is your mcguyver challenge! How to be in the busiest store in town, serving the most people, giving them the experience of a lifetime. That's why they hire good people - we try to figure that out.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time on the floor. Know what the front line is like. Be there for staff, customers and most of all yourselves to gain an understating of why we call it "the front lines".

Pros

The Products & The People

Cons

Hard Work sometimes dealing with Demanding Customers

Advice to Senior Management

Remember to care about employees however many Managers already do

Pros

An exciting place to be if you love Apple technology. Every day is different but at the same time everyday could be a challenge. The realm of customer service here usually goes above and beyond to keep customers happy. Apple follow its motto very well of the customer experience being the most important part of its DNA. The cultural is lose and eccentric and you will make many many friends in the long run. Management is also more eager to communicate with you as a group because of constant change in technology and business plans.

Cons

Because of its retail nature, expect a lot of disorganization, ambiguity, and constant changes throughout your day. Some days will leave you feeling high and that you changed the world, others can leave you feeling down and question your career path. Nice customers make up for a third of your conversation while the other 2/3 sounds like they own you because they are here to spend 4 digits of dinero. Busy seasons from Nov-Jan and from Jun- Sep are the most strenuous. Every year, traffic increases and it always feel understaffed. Turn over is high among internal employees. Management are always busy with customer service issues so they don't have time look out for your development. As a result, if you don't fight for it, likely you will be left behind to always do sales. Sometimes it feels like the ones who are most friendly with the managers, are the ones to move up quickly naturally because managers don't have time to get to know everybody in the store. It can also sometimes feel very red-tape, every move-up requires a formal interview and assessment of your skills. They even interview you formally if you want to transfer between stores. There are no bonuses and salary increases are mostly 3% unless you significantly changed roles.

Advice to Senior Management

Get to know your employees by scheduling touch-base time and keeping up with it every 3 months as it was suppose to be. Hire more and hire often. Open positions to the whole store fairly and let others know of the positions instead of just offering it to the ones who have been the most friendliest to you.

Pros

The people - almost everyone is happy to help, and happy to be there. Absolutely amazing products, and customers who love the products.

Cons

In the retail division, the pay is low, discounts are few and for the amount of money the company makes, they need to treat the front line workers (retail employees) with better incentives.

Advice to Senior Management

Substantial monetary incentives for retail employees. More NFR/Free products. Larger discounts on Apple products. In the retail division, encourage employees to make the move to Corporate.