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I like working for a comparatively boring tech company with stellar benefits and work-life balance. Apple makes great products, but they're not known for treating their people so well.
 
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Tech careers site Dice? Never heard of it.
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A colleague from a few years back used to work at Apple in California ( non technical, but not low level position either ) The benefits sounded disappointing TBH. No free hardware, just a small discount.

I value work / life balance. Apple is one of the last places I'd get that.. include a lot of major tech companies in that list too - they have good office percs for a reason - to keep you in the office.
I have to laugh when people complain about not getting free stuff. I work for a company in the top 6 of Fortune 500 ranking and we get nothing for free. No free meals, no free devices. We get corporate discounts on lots of things but nothing free. I don’t understand why people think they should get free stuff from their employers.
 
Based on what, revisionist history?

Just so I'm clear are you suggesting that TC is on par with SJ as Apple CEO? If so I think your version is more revisionist given the iPhone is still Apple's bread and butter and TC's main products: AW and AirPods are still asterisks on Apple's balance sheet. HomePod looks to be interesting but incomplete as a system, iMac Pro is 100% niche. The current MP was a disaster from the start and it may be only next year there is a replacement to go back to the future. Touch Bar with its emoji keys is a gimmick, not a productivity enhancer.

We also know from multiple sources how SJ pushed engineers to achieve what what at the time thought to be "impossible." On the other hand more so than not we hear TC dismiss a concept because "it's not technically possible yet." There is no "wow" in any of the special product launching events anymore. At best it's a "hey, that's kinda cool." Mostly it's "Woah! it's how much?"

I guess my confusion is, and no TC support has ever given me a credible answer, how exactly has TC pushed Apple forward the way SJ did in the 00's -- not earnings, but as the premier tech company that others copy? I don't recall any "big ideas" out of Apple recently or even borrowed ideas made insanely more usable. Please educate me.
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Who were these 5000 people? Actual people with a valid opinion, or random 13 year olds?

Based on your comment it wouldn't matter. It seems if they are not in sync with your thoughts they must be immature kids without a "valid opinion."
 
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Well, you're not understanding the difference. Consumer =/= employer. Same thing I say about consumer vs. stock owner. When prices increase for a device, that's bad for the consumer unless you like paying more for no reason, but for a stock owner, increasing profit margins is good.

Cook is good as an employer and also for stock owners. For consumers, he's honestly not moved the needle. Really, he's just a bean counter. The sooner he goes the better for Apple overall. Same thing that happened to Google and MS. The 2nd in command that takes over for the original founder just never does a good job. They were there to compliment the founders flaws. The 3rd CEO to follow gets a chance for a clean slate and has fared well.

Good analysis. I do wish a certain CEO was humble enough to step down. Sadly, I agree that Apple has lost its consumer centric focus. It’s become an animal of immense political, social and financial power and frankly breached its historical moorings in too many ways. Cook is a world class primadonn fueled with power and money. He’s not likely to surrender his throne until either time or entropy force his exit.
 
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I don’t understand why people think they should get free stuff from their employers.

Probably because the upper floor execs get all sorts of perks and sets the example. But I think we all understand ultimately who one decides to work for -- if they have a choice -- depends on a multitude of decision points, benefits package being one of them, which may or may not be equal among other "pros" or "cons" on their list.
 
I wonder what's the benefit for working for Apple. Free mac computers? Iphones?

The benefit is you get $500 off an iPhone or Mac once every 3 years. That can be paired with 25% off once a year, 15% off 3x a year or 10% off anytime.

There are stock options at the end of each year. It varies by position, but for retail it was 10 shares for 1 year.

You can get stock for 80% of the lowest price in a quarter based on deductions from your paycheck that you must sign up for.

The health insurance is very good. The 401k is meh. You also can get $250 in gym memberships refunded to you.

There are a bunch of random discounts on everything from BMWs to Sonos speakers.

Overall, the benefits are good. The management is diverse. But they also love to poach random managers, which at the retail level kills the chance of upward mobility. Also, since Jobs died, the ethos has gone from take care of the customer to focus on money and what’s right for the business.

For example, I once had a regional manager who would walk up to trainees and tell them to pick a customer out and give them a free iPod. I literally saw him go get the iPod, give it away for free to a kid and watch the kid light up like a Christmas tree. If a warranty was a month out of warranty, we’d cover it. If you needed anything, we’d try to accommodate you.

After Jobs death, it slowly transitioned away from that. I eventually worked phone support and got pressured to keep calls to under 12 minutes. And I mostly did once I got fast enough minus an outlier call. But even though my numbers were good, they had me listen to long calls and complained about how long I was taking and had me write up what I could have done better.

That’s not horrible, but literally the time between calls is about 10 seconds. Literally, I was on the phone for 10 minutes, got off, typed up notes and had to be done within a minute and another call was ringing within 10 seconds.

Apple is a good company where the focus is on metrics and not experience and that makes me never want to work for them again no matter the pay.
 
I haven't shared any of my thoughts? I'm questioning the validity of the entire exercise.

But you did. You wanted to know if the people interviewed were kids or people with a valid opinion. That is your (pejorative) thought whether you realize it or not. It makes a statement about what you think of the survey.
 
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But you did. You wanted to know if the people interviewed were kids or people with a valid opinion. That is your thought whether you realize it or not. It makes a statement about what you think of the survey.

Learn the difference between a question and a statement.

Hmm, I think the issue here might be that you don't understand hyperbole.
 
Just so I'm clear are you suggesting that TC is on par with SJ as Apple CEO? If so I think your version is more revisionist given the iPhone is still Apple's bread and butter and TC's main products: AW and AirPods are still asterisks on Apple's balance sheet. HomePod looks to be interesting but incomplete as a system, iMac Pro is 100% niche. The current MP was a disaster from the start and it may be only next year there is a replacement to go back to the future. Touch Bar with its emoji keys is a gimmick, not a productivity enhancer.

We also know from multiple sources how SJ pushed engineers to achieve what what at the time thought to be "impossible." On the other hand more so than not we hear TC dismiss a concept because "it's not technically possible yet." There is no "wow" in any of the special product launching events anymore. At best it's a "hey, that's kinda cool." Mostly it's "Woah! it's how much?"

I guess my confusion is, and no TC support has ever given me a credible answer, how exactly has TC pushed Apple forward the way SJ did in the 00's -- not earnings, but as the premier tech company that others copy? I don't recall any "big ideas" out of Apple recently or even borrowed ideas made insanely more usable. Please educate me.
You're not clear at all, so there's that. Then you proceed to expound on your incorrect assumption. You would have been much better served by asking what my thoughts were. At a minimum, it would have saved a lot of keystrokes. It also would have saved you typing that opinion.
 
How much money does a regular Apple salesperson make nowadays? I remember back in the day it was 30K before tax. I used to work as a real estate agent and saw their tax returns. I was shocked, frankly speaking! I assume it would be no more than 35K now, which is extremely low for that amount of workload and all the requirements.
 
Because SJ will never die. ;)


Or because he is doing a mediocre job. He 100% knows how to gin up the revenue which has been FANtastic for us shareholders. But as tech fans and fans of Apple products his tenure is rather mixed. He's really more of a caretaker keeping the iPhone brand relevant than someone like Jobs that really lived to change society though tech.
 
But I don't understand ... every time I got into my local Apple store the employees seem blissfully happy attacking everything Microsoft does as horrible, unimaginative, and stealing all of Apple's ideas. I thought Apple was the best place to work on earth and every other tech company was horrible .. could they be strung out from the sugar in all that Kool-Aid ? :rolleyes:
 
Speaking from experience with Apple Corporate, I know they are not an ideal employer compared to similar competitors. When you work somewhere for long hours, day after day, whether or not you get a free computer, iphone, ipod, etc., is not primary factor when it comes to happiness at work. I can't speak for Apple Retail though, as those employees appear to enjoy their jobs.
 
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You're not clear at all, so there's that. Then you proceed to expound on your incorrect assumption. You would have been much better served by asking what my thoughts were. At a minimum, it would have saved a lot of keystrokes. It also would have saved you typing that opinion.

OK. But what am I not clear on so I can clarify? All I read above is you complaining about my post to you. I think I asked a fair question regarding your post. I did not do it in a demeaning or sarcastic way -- at least I don't think I did -- but got no real answer from you. Care to start over?
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It wasn't at all rhetorical. It was hyperbolic, sarcastic at a stretch.

OK but if it was either of those then that hyperbole and sarcasm was aimed at the survey, no? That would be making a statement. You are admitting your post was not a neutral question. People use hyperbole and sarcasm to exaggerate a point, not to ask an honest question.
 
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OK but if it was either of those then that hyperbole and sarcasm was aimed at the survey, no? That would be making a statement. You are admitting your post was not a neutral question. People use hyperbole and sarcasm to exaggerate a point, not to ask an honest question.

Do you have an answer to my question, or are you just going to keep telling me what I am saying?
 
Apple employees get a much better discount for themselves. When I worked there, it was 25% off, and then another $500 on top of that. I think a Macbook Air was $250 with the discount.
No. There is and was not "$500" on top of that. Maybe on an old item you got a specialized deal, but by no means is your deal any type of policy, at least for U.S. based Apple Corp. employees. Not sure about retail.
 
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