Apple

It is true you get to work with some of the smartest people ever. I've never met a dumb person at Apple. In my line of work, you get to see all kinds of problems and get to solve them. Remote work is authorized Mondays and Fridays. In forums where people of the same rank work through problems together, everyone's voice is generally heard and respected, and everyone works through the problem together.

Perks are good but mediocre in terms of comparison to other big tech companies. Unlike those, you still do have to pay a little for insurance premiums, but they aren't expensive. Dinner for Operations folks is provided if you're there between 7pm and 8pm. If you live in the Bay Area, many shuttles or transit subsidies are provided. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in extracurricular groups and meet with a lot of people outside of your immediate expertise. Hours are generally flexible.

Despite the cons that exist, it is truly a privilege to work here (whether it's for a short or long time), and it's cool to be a part of building world-class products.

Really bloated management, particularly in operations. All the managers are smart, which is respected, but ultimately they are very detached from what and how ground-level work operates. Some of the demands aren't aligned with other managers, which creates extra work. The work-life balance isn't often respected, and it's evident that there are a lot of managers who are afraid of making decisions. This results in lower levels being tasked with those decisions to shun the accountability.

While they market the work as "the best work of your life", you do find yourself spending a lot of time on meaningless initiatives, slide decks, over-reporting, and pre-flight on pre-flight. This is evident in all orgs now. Sometimes the work does really exist to just placate middle and upper managers. While it's great to work on some of the best products ever, you do feel like a tiny cog that makes a marginal difference in the customer experience. There's a lot of dogma, and unlike how the company pushes its Think Different culture publicly, internally it is very cult-like; that is, there often is little to no room for going against the grain. Questioning any leadership direction is slowly becoming frowned upon.

I've been getting good performance reviews. Nonetheless, many will attest that moving internally is very difficult now and requires just as much effort as moving externally. Who you know may get you a foot in the door, but it provides no real advantage as you have to run through the gauntlet with every internal and external candidate. It is very equitable, but a far cry from the small company culture it used to have.

Other than being here at 7 PM, you have to pay for all meals here.

Find methods to increase the potential of employees to gain new real skills that Apple actually uses on a daily basis, whether it be rotations or partnering with other groups, not just surface TED Talks or keynote slides. Re-evaluate where employees actually enjoy working and what they excel best at and find ways to accommodate that; this would increase retention. Determine where the waste is in terms of excessive management and how that impacts lower-level employees and make conscious efforts to reduce it.