Apple

Good, but not industry-leading, overall compensation.

Work with passionate and talented engineers who care.

Industry-leading hardware organization.

Company is focused on diversity.

Software (as opposed to Hardware) groups are, on the whole, generally broken.

Engineers are not empowered.

Top-down/EPM-driven culture.

Management only "manages up" and does not take care of their own teams.

Byzantine security culture, which adds 50% overhead to almost every daily activity.

Every engineer is basically an island. Expect almost no support from anyone.

It's impossible to actually get anything done, nor is it possible to "do the right thing".

Diversity push (which is genuine) does not extend to 'senior' people. The more experience you have, the fewer opportunities you get.

Every new hire is given a card that exposes Apple's innovation culture. It is a wonderful message. However:

• Empower your engineers.
• Work on creating a collaborative environment.
• Grow Apple through innovation, not by creating ever more elaborate walled gardens.
• Diversity should extend to experienced people.