Apple Reviews in San Francisco, CA Area

Pros

Great products and people. Solid management structure and overall company direction. Great opportunities to develop career skills for other employers.

Cons

Low wages. Low wages. Low wages. So yeah, low wages coupled with little opportunity for career advancement out of retail into Apple corporate makes for an extremely high turnover ratio.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay the retail employees more! Seriously... twice as much across the board. It would hardly make a dent in your cash horde. They maintain Apple's high social capital through their daily interactions with the public, but are not compensated accordingly.

Pros

Great training at the start and continuous support throughout your time their.

Cons

With the number of associates they hire, it's very difficult to move up. Internet is available on all the computers making it awkward to kick somebody off so you can demo product for customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more support to those that are interested in advancing their careers with Apple. There is no need to micromanage. Don't make the internet available to everybody. It's a retail store not an internet cafe. There should be a way for associates to unlock the computers in case internet access is needed.

Pros

I wouldn't have been able to obtain the knowledge I got elsewhere. Definitely the most engaging thing on my resume.

Cons

Apple Retail is hit or miss when it comes to management teams. It can be a great experience if you get the right people!

Advice to Senior Management

Actually make the career path from retail to corporate legitimate. It really feels like a lie. No "programs" that will "eventually" get you there, give your own employees first dibs at the jobs in the company. As a mentor, I felt like I was lying when I said there was a definite career path to corporate.

Pros

- 25 % discount on one computer purchase a year
-Stock Purchase
-

Cons

-Discounts are not that great
-Management is a joke
-Pay could be better
-Requesting time off is near impossible
-Management is under trained and inadequate to the task
-Because you want grey hair

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more capable management. Its a complete farce.

Pros

Colleagues are some of the smartest, most creative, and amazing people I have ever worked with.
You get to meet many people everyday who you can connect with and network with.
It's busy a lot of the time so time flys.

Cons

Management is rather unorganized and do not know a lot about the products.
Pay should be better considering how well the company is doing.

Advice to Senior Management

In my opinion, a manager should be able to answer ANY question that I cannot answer myself.
Also, they should learn how to be in the mix more, rather than hiding around in the Genius Room or upstairs.

Pros

Work is Awesome over in Apple.

Cons

Dont have anything really with respect to the cons.

Pros

Innovative, rewarding, structured, inspiring, motivating

Cons

Long work hours and stressful at times

Advice to Senior Management

Spread work load during peak times

Pros

Up beat and talented staff.

Cons

MANAGMENT! they think they are kings.

Advice to Senior Management

let us do our job. We are trained and certified.

Pros

Far and few between in retail.

Cons

Everything from time off to promotion to raises to general respect.

Pros

The medical is good. Some perks are good. Lots of software, some incentives of products with discount, in a quarterly basis.

Cons

People are promoted ahead of you even when you have been working longer and as well. Politics.

Advice to Senior Management

I have NEVER seen a employee at my store promoted to Manager. At my store, Everybody leaves because of that. The "Experts" get better treatment than FRS'. Get better pay even when they don't know as much as the FRS team. That's my point of view at my store.