Apple reviews

I've worked as a contractor at a few Silicon Valley companies and was treated pretty much the same as staff employees. At Apple, that's not the case. They seem to make a point of differentiating between contract and FTE employees (badge only works certain hours, contractors excluded from events and small perks.) It feels petty when you can't attend team events that affect your work because you're on contract.

There's a decided lack of creative freedom, very little room for advancement, and atrociously bad management. Only certain people are allowed to have ideas, and many of us who were hired because of our creative background have to stifle our experience and just do what we're told. It also has the worst management I've ever experienced. I had 5 different managers in 18 months and not one of them every held a one-on-one with me. Even when I requested time with a new manager, they were too busy impressing their own manager to deal with the people who reported to them. It's sad to see so many great ideas never get off the ground because the people who came up with them weren't "important" enough. Plus there's this huge "high school clique" mentality of the cool kids vs. everyone else. If you aren't one of the cool kids, you don't get to work on the interesting projects, get noticed my management, or have any chance to prove what you can do.