Apple

Compensation and benefits are truly top-tier, with great stock grants and health insurance. You can work on products that impact millions of people worldwide. Colleagues are generally brilliant and passionate, fostering a strong engineering culture. Access to cutting-edge technology and resources is unparalleled. The company's focus on user privacy and security is commendable and a genuine point of pride.

There is an extremely compartmentalized structure. You often feel like a small cog in a vast machine with limited visibility. Internal processes can be slow and bureaucratic, hindering rapid innovation. Work-life balance varies wildly by team, with some groups having intense crunch periods. A culture of secrecy can stifle open collaboration and make cross-team projects challenging. Career growth sometimes feels more dependent on politics and visibility than pure technical merit.