Apple

• Get to work with bleeding tech
• Week off for Thanksgiving/Christmas
• Youthful environment, with bright minds
• Good RSU package

Poor managers view subordinate personal career goals as their attempt to "climb the corporate ladder," and it's heavily frowned upon at the group I've been in and neighboring groups I've interacted with.

Below average base salary for the Bay Area.

Poor teamwork; it's all about competing against other engineers through a self-manufactured obstacle called "confidentiality." You only get to see what you are meant to see. Sometimes you want to look at the big picture to help you do your work; too bad. Sometimes you want to interact with key developers to see their design process; too bad.

Projects are cancelled left and right. I feel some are fake projects used to weed out leakers.

Expect to work 50+ hours a week to get anywhere. Apple doesn't see that overworking produces less quality code. They say if you don't spend at least 50 hours a week, you're not being a team player.

Extremely low morale environment.

Zero concept of what is good software. Some of these people never had to be a software janitor; they fail to see the repercussions of their code and don't write quality code.

Get ready to face high-ego developers who still think Apple is the best thing since sliced bread. It's their first job; expect them to not have a down-to-earth view.

Stop treating software as a second-class citizen. Listen to your employees. Get real managers, rather than these individual contributors who lost their minds working to get where they were. Allow more flexible vacation time.