Apple – “3..2..1...Burnout.”

Pros

- Sense of pride and excitement when the company announces the next groundbreaking product.
 - You get to work with very eager, talented people who love their jobs and work very hard.
 - You get to play with technology all day long.
 - For a problem solver, it's a dream come true.
 - The benefits are good, and the pay isn't bad either (though it's not stellar).

Cons

- The company sets goals high, which puts a lot of stress on everyone to perform.
 - Customers are generally stupid, demanding, obnoxious, or a combination of all three. This is probably also true everywhere else in retail though.
 - There are always fewer people working than are needed for the store to run smoothly.
 - Senior managers are apparently under very little oversight (other than performance based), and can pretty much do whatever they want.
 - Managers goals come from the land of make believe.
 - Constant pressure from customers, management, other employees, the company, etc.
 - Most Geniuses burn out after 3 months to a year, and the ones that stay on after that are either exceptionally talented, or are burned out husks that just like the salary and benefits.
 - Wild variations in pay for the same job, apparently arbitrarily decided by management.
 - You will come to have a crushing apathy for all things Apple. You won't want to touch your computer when you get home. When your friends ask you for help with their computers, you will throw up in your mouth a little.

Advice to Senior Management

- Pay attention to who you're hiring in management. Here's a hint: if you want to create a different kind of retail store, DON'T HIRE MANAGERS FROM THE GAP.
 - Offer employees a chance at something beyond retail. There's a lot of talent in the company being squandered on selling iPods all day long.
 - Give us the room to honor the commitments we've made to existing customers instead of insisting that we help the person right in front of our face at the time. If you want to run a repair business, WE NEED SOME TIME TO DO REPAIRS.
 - And finally, you need to double the number of staff at most stores. Customers can't find anyone to help them, get angry and confused, and have a terrible experience.