Apple reviews

For all the positives, it can be an incredibly frustrating place to work, too. Most obviously, but least importantly, some of the customer interactions can be intimidating, and scares off some people from the job. Actually, this didn't bother me so much -- when a customer is agitated, it's rarely *you* they have a problem with, so much as their frustration with the company as a whole and the product specifically. Focusing on the specific problems & needs usually quickly gets you past such customer frustrations, allowing you to come to a resolution to the problem that brought them in to begin with. That's fine, and you either get used to it immediately, or customer service isn't your best line of work. The bigger frustrations all had to do with the company itself. Lots of specialists try to get promoted to Mac Genius (or Creative), but there really isn't any credible way for most Geniuses to move up with a technical role within the company, other than to try for a rare job at corporate offices in California or Texas. The company's secrecy is pervasive, and all information comes down from On High -- you often have a dim idea of where your own store is headed, nevermind the company as a whole. There's little opportunity for good ideas to trickle up from the ranks, or for peers to collaborate with each other across the chain -- rather, marching orders come down from the top and everyone expected to get on board. For a technology company, they're startlingly reluctant to "eat their own dogfood" -- you often end up being officially instructed to do things in a "sneaker net" kind of low-tech, labor-intensive way when some of the company's own products could have potentially been making aspects of the job much easier.

The downside to working at Apple? Everyone wants you to fix their iPod! But seriously, There is one thing that I think really could use improvement, which is providing scheduled time to study material on iLearn or the the Grown Your Own programs. I am in the Grow Your Own Creative program and I find it very difficult to find time to study the GYO material while I am scheduled to work in the store. When I am on the clock I am supposed to be on the floor working with customers. Things are rarely slow enough to leave the floor to study in Back of House for more than a few minutes. We are not supposed to review study materials on our lunch break because we are not on the clock and should not be engaged in any work related activity. It's a bit of a catch-22. Btw, when I say that we should have scheduled study time, I'm thinking of maybe an hour a week. Nothing extreme.