Apple

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.

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.

Rein in the IS&T department hard.

Offer global clarification that it is a company policy that working on the weekends for exempt employees is discouraged, so that managers can't coerce employees into giving up even more of their life.

Balance the contractor/employee ratio a bit.

Offer better pay.