Apple

You get to see the product road map up to 6-8 years out, and it can be fun playing with new technology. You get to make awesome designs for great people.

You will learn a lot. Take advantage of their school reimbursement programs and any skill programs offered.

It will be the highest design standards you will work with in your career. Material, tolerances, and finishes must be perfect.

Max out your stock options and 401k when vested.

You will learn cutting-edge design methods and have excellent standards and practices.

Overtime is good; this can even go to double time in some cases. Having an extra 2-4 hours of overtime a day adds up. Just make sure to pace yourself and take care of your health.

There is always something to do.

If you love the brand, it will draw you in, and you will have a role in bringing Apple's products to life.

Your work will have an impact on millions of people.

You will do the work of a higher-paid position, so it will be nice to get that experience.

If you are doing good, use this to get a higher position elsewhere; it will help you advance your career faster.

Management tends to be very self-centered, not as much focused on growing your career but in growing their own. This can often cause tension as lots of people are vying for the attention of higher-ups.

Expect to do all manner of tasks to help the team and your manager. Some will be menial, but they will lead to more fun and complex projects over time. Make sure you do all your basic work before seeking to get to advanced work.

There is not a lot of ownership of responsibility in management. Often they will kick downward. For example, if they made a call on a design direction and it turns out that the higher-ups do not like it, they will blame the worker following their request in my experience.

Do not count on accountability. However, I would recommend if your manager is rude or does something out of line, let Apple HR know immediately. It will save you a lot of hassle down the line.

Politics is huge at Apple. Pay very close attention. People will pretend to be your friend or interested in your work to make a connection.

If you get too popular with higher-ups in a different team, management can punish you, even if you were doing your job. Have a pulse on politics. Rank is big at Apple.

Apple's biggest flaw is they rush themselves to the breaking point for no reason. Often cutting already tight timelines for small reasons rather than give someone an additional 8 hours to refine a design. They can set the deadlines and standards, but they often push people far beyond reasonable limits, and in some cases, the deadlines can be changed just as easily as they are set.

In some cases, I have worked 28 hours straight on a prototype that could just have easily been moved out one day. This creates a scramble culture where you will be under a lot of stress often. You will be blamed for not doing work fast enough when often you are given timelines that are not physically possible. In those cases, be prepared to set expectations so you will not be taken advantage of.

The average day is 12 hours. During a build, it typically goes until the project is done. This, mind you, will get you a 'meets expectations' on your review. Doing above-average work is average for Apple standards. You need to go above even that or have a good political connection for the next level.

Often, you will have to leave the company/position you are in to get a promotion of any value. It's such a waste that Apple does not help grow people's careers, especially after investing so much time into them.

You will often be asked to do the work of others and get no credit for it. Even if you do your own exploration, be careful, as your manager may take your idea. Document everything you do; this will help.

You will often be pushed to commit everything to work and be accessed at all hours of the day. Be careful in how you set boundaries, as this can often lead to you not being seen as serious.

You will often do the work at a higher level than your current position but not be paid more for it. You will often help people make extremely complicated projects and get no real recognition for it.

Recognize ambition and try not to make the career development of others about advancing your own career. Help build others up rather than try and take credit for the work of others.

Listen when people tell you something is wrong or if the person you manage is being bullied. Seriously, listen and help.

When you say you will push back and help with insanely tight deadlines, actually do it. I cannot say how many times we would have a meeting where we would all say the timeline is impossible. Our manager would say, "Yep, I'll bring that up when we meet." Then we all met, and they would not say a word when the designer laid out their expectations and timeline.