Pros: Many really great people to work with. Cafeteria is really excellent (and got better over the years). Frequent beer bashes and other events. Many opportunities for different roles at various times (though with fierce competition). Great benefits. The medical/vision/dental plan is really good, more sick/vacation than many places, 401k was good, the stock purchase plan was great, and the plans for buying Apple things offered great deals. Interesting and challenging work. I was very self-directed; management was really there to advise rather than direct, and good ideas/solutions are respected and rewarded. Exciting to be a part of something that was growing and influencing the industry. While it is a big company, it doesn't have an oppressive corporate feel in most departments.

Cons: Lots of pressure to deliver made for a lot of 10+ hour days. I was up working on things after midnight way too often. Self-directed While there were opportunities for professional development, they were hard to take advantage of since we were constantly overloaded. Many of my team weren't just checking email on weekends but doing a lot of work on Saturdays and Sundays, so I eventually was as well. Being self-guided is tiring and can be stressful. The level use of contractors was really disturbing, and their lack of investment in what they were working on showed in the end results. Pay wasn't up to industry standards, at all. The internal organization that develops software/infrastructure for the rest of the company is completely parasitic. Most people really dislike working with them; they were slow to respond, bureaucratic, rarely delivered the solution that was requested, and pushed back when requesting things. Some of the IT infrastructure is shockingly disorganized (though getting better). In Austin, there are a lot of career growth limits since there's sales, support, finance, and little else. Easy to get a little lost in such a giant company.

Pros: Compensation is good enough at Apple.

Cons: I think compensation could be better.

Pros: The company as a whole couldn't be better. The smartest people I've ever worked with.

Cons: Office Space was filmed in Austin for a reason. That will be your life, in the office 4-5 times per week, in a cubicle, with horrible management. The Demo Discovery team's management is condescending, unfriendly, VERY political, never celebrates big milestones, and plays favoritism with colleagues that have withstood the abuse for longer than others. Looking at you, Kishore. There is no team culture whatsoever; in fact, it's the antithesis of culture with blame shifting and needing detailed receipts for all of your work. This also applies to your interaction with other teams. We're expected to shift blame onto them and play these silly political games constantly, which will wear you down very quickly. Expect to be the sole engineer on massive global projects because management never fights for more resources, and the existing resources are too afraid to speak up before burning out. When that happens, you have several colleagues that haven't written a line of code or submitted a PR in many months but somehow get away with it, which exasperates the situation. Colleagues call in sick on a weekly basis or they take multi-month vacations at the last minute, and with the slimmest engineering resources you'll ever experience. Guess who picks up their work? You do. The contract EPMs are usually fantastic, but they leave constantly, either by choice or because of contract cuts. The full-time EPMs lack experience, drive, or even the most basic understanding of software development. They're in the way more often than not. They can't host calls without you, so expect to be on tons of calls, writing your own tickets, and not having standups more than once or twice a week. When those happen, it's just pointless chitchat and a time suck.