specialist

software engineer

genius

sales associate

manager

Apple

One of the best jobs I've ever had. Apple do look after you with lots of benefits. When I first started I was told you would be part of the family and looked after. I was so excited but nervous at the same time. For the first maybe 7 or 8 weeks things were amazing. Then they took a turn.

I started to notice that there were groups of people. Clicks as it were and if you were not in this group, you would be spoken about.

Someone who started with me got on very well with a lead. This was nice but as time moved on a few people noticed that this member received special treatment. For example, rather than serving customers, they could tidy the shop to avoid customers. I was tasked to work with this colleague and a lot of the time they went out the back for a drink or a toilet break. At the end of the day, we were both praised for our hard work. I had also finished a lot more work which this colleague took credit for. I do enjoy working as part of a team but when the team decide they will come to work to chill out, it makes it harder to deal with. 

After a few months, I was offered a chance to go for a role. There were two positions open and the colleague in question said he did not prepare for this interview and had no experience there. I've done this kind of work before but I was shot out. This colleague managed to get a third position that opened up out of nowhere. It was a good thing because after speaking to the colleague they explained to me how they didn't like customers. Another colleague was told he wasn't allowed to go for the role as there were too many men in the bar and they needed women.

There is lots of information thrown at you and sometimes it's a struggle to keep up. Last month I was coached a lot which is where someone listens in on you talking to customers. With this pressure, you can mix your words and after the chat, I was told I lied to a customer. I explained bearing in mind at this point I was pretty high on sales, care and business, and it's uncomfortable when you have someone listening in breathing down your neck. 

Some of the staff are truly lovely and great people. If you're out on the floor and unsure of what to do you can ask and they will help guide you through it. 

I did explain I needed hours and I was given extra hours for two weeks before being put back on my lower amount. We had nine new people join and suddenly they got a lot of hours above their contract. One colleague was telling me they have struggled as they've done 36 hours that week and they're only meant to do 20. I was a bit annoyed as I wasn't given the overtime even though it was agreed upon and disregarded.

I did notice one time I was pulled up for being 3 minutes late. One of the leads focused on ensuring I got pulled up on it. Another colleague arrived 15 minutes late earlier that week but nothing happened to him. Towards the end that same lead arrived 15 minutes late but nothing happened to her so it was at that point, one rule for one, one rule for another.

After speaking with a few people who had been in the store for several years, They explained the problem with the store is they give special treatment to one person and then different treatment to another. This means that nobody is treated like an equal. 

Overall was a good place to work. Had its highs and lows.

The interview process was very long and it took a total of three interviews & 3 months until I actually started working there. The training was very in-depth and I learnt a lot about how the company operates, products, their approach to serving customers etc. My contact was 20hrs but I worked more than 30hrs some weeks, but would mainly hover around the 25 - 30 mark.

The store I worked in was a very small Apple Store, nothing like the massive London or Birmingham stores and as a result it wasn't as "cool" as working in a larger flagship store there. The majority of the staff were nice, friendly and there was never any issues between anyone as far as I was aware. The majority of staff lie in the 20 to 30 age range. The management was ok, some "Leads" were really lovely and honestly cared about me despite me only working there for a few months. Some Leads were a bit more intimidating but still ok. The Store Manager was absolutely lovely and he would speak to all the employees like he was just on the same level as you, even visiting the shop floor and being with customers from time to time.

The job itself was fine, days could be action packed or really slow. When working a shift like 4pm to 8pm, it would be dead by 7pm. Most of the time I was dealing with customers and the store was small enough to have a mix of iPhone, iPad, Mac and Accessories customers. By far the best part was being "On Point" with an iPad and a radio and directing customers around with other staff members. The customers themselves were tolerable, I did have some very hostile people very occasionally but a Lead would step in if it got bad. Sometimes I did feel a little uncomfortable with certain people however. My favorite day there was actually one where I didn't interact with a single customer.

The thing that did annoy me was I had to essentially re-apply for the same job when my contact was nearing its end and for whatever reason they went off the interview rather than my performance when they decided to keep me or not. My performance was decent, but I borked the interview slightly so my contract was not renewed and as a result I had to leave, I was a bit disappointed but not heartbroken as I wanted to move onto something else related to what I studied at university instead of retail.

Overall a decent job, would I do it again, maybe at a really nice Apple store like Covent Garden but the small shopping mall stores are a bit depressing.

Several years ago, Apple retail was a great company to work for. Things changed in the UK as growth increased. Wages went down or stagnated, staff became disillusioned as the jobs became tougher.

Employee benefits seem great if you use many of them. Staff discount is not amazing and often can only used once or limited within a given time-frame. Often, staff will be expected to put in unpaid hours so as to hit targets that affect your annual salary increases (usually minimal). Some managers will block your career advancement if you don't go along with them.

The company (in the UK) seems that it's a great one to work for but is badly let down by managers who are the usual characters you will find at any UK retail store. More often than not, the managers are poorly paid and totally are driven by their own ambition. Many DO NOT care about the best interests of their staff and will move from store to store or rotate roles within a location.

It is hard work being in any customer facing role especially the service side (repairs and support). Staff turn over can be very high at certain times of the year which is ignored as there is no shortage of applicants willing to fill the roles. Getting employed is pot luck depending on location and position applied for. Usually it helps if you stand out in some way rather than what experience you have.

You may be lucky to work alongside some amazing people but more often than not you get the same experience as working for other UK retail companies. Staff routinely take sick leave or skive at some of the larger locations due to poor management, scheduling issues and glaring salary inconsistencies (you are forbidden to talk about salaries).


I worked on the Service Parts Team which was a team I helped create in our store in particular due to the discrepancies in stock (esp. service parts). This was a team of 6 men and myself. We would start at 6 AM, counting all sellable, allocated and return parts and sorting out any issues that caused the numbers not to balance. Then posting and shipping out all returns to have them removed from stock. Accepting and posting deliveries to add to stock. It was hard work and required a lot of concentration. However, we brought our accuracy level to 99.96% by the time I left. In a store the size of ours (450 employees) this was a great accomplishment.

I learned how to use 5 different computer systems and the inner working of the store. How every action within the store affects every part of it.

Management tried very hard to be 'Apple.' Apple is a fantastic company and really set the mark high for customer service in the US. I think the UK management is striving for a similar goal but the cultural differences make it difficult.

My co-workers were some of the most brilliant, fun and interesting people I have had the joy to meet and work with. Any time it felt like it was going to be a rough day, we all helped each other through it.

The hardest part of the job was trying to explain to others how their actions on the sales floor affected stock on the inventory side. We created a 3 day training process to teach people on the sales floor what actions they could easily improve or avoid to make all of our lives easier and our stock more accurate.

The most enjoyable part of the job was definitely the people I worked with everyday.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Not many good things to say, training and development felt slow paced compared to the high intensity of the shop floor environment which requires attention to detail and understanding the flow of constant customers coming in and out. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management and some team members often stray away from picking up customers that are booked in for sessions with shopping or repairs, you will be sometimes doing work that does not fit into the criteria such as resetting accounts and showing basic system settings. Customers can be demanding and unaware of the store environment that has one to many sessions on-going

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Part good and bad, honestly the team can very friendly and warm approaching to new members of staff and being on standby to show you how things are meant to be done which is a great culture. However environment requires major changes because of certain standards that members of staff decide not to take ownership in and find other activities such as talking to eachother rather than whats at stake. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Depending on the day you work it can feel really stressful or each customer journey can be enlightening through your presentation of certain products. In this store you will mostly come across individuals that are having persistent issues and it is exhaustingly difficult on what step to take either booking for a repair session or without being shown the way of things and often management would see that as a weakness in approach to turn people away to Call Centre support rather than helping in store.

I really enjoyed the work - talking to customers about Apple products. 
They say they have a very flat managements structure, but in truth there are managers and employees, and the managers think they are different. Very few workers ever get promoted, despite having sort of manager-apprenticeships. Almost all managers are hired from other companies, so very few have any idea what it's like being on the shop floor. They treat employees like children, with very strict time management, "tellings off" and employees made to feel 'naughty' for being sick or otherwise taking time off. Managers are not paid particularly well compared to other tech industries, so you end up with mediocre middle management. 
No compensation for weekend or unsocial hours, all hours paid the same. Fast paced, high pressure, high level of skill and knowledge required on the shop floor, but you get paid less than a LiDL cashier. They know there's a queue of people wanting to work for Apple, so employees are dispensable. Staff turnover is very high, because once you realise how poorly valued you are, the gloss of working for Apple wears off. Lots of corporate fluff about how their greatest asset is their employees, but when you're told that by a woman who makes $75 million a year, and you get £8 an hour for making sales of £400k plus, it sounds pretty hollow. They make a big deal of providing fruit, donuts and pizzas at Christmas, but that's like £10 worth per employee, tops.

During my time working at apple, i built literally life long connections. All that stuff they say about great teamwork and all these people you will meet and work with is actually the best bit about working there. The work is alright, basic sales stuff really but slightly glorified because apple believe that they are the best company in the world. The management team leaves much to be desired in some areas. Although some of the managers there are great, there are several that are totally biased, blind sided and in some cases even racist. Which i know is shocking in a company that seems to promote how greatly diverse the team is. The team is diverse dont get me wrong, but there are definite under the rug issues that everyone feels, and only some people are trying to change. 
You get an hour's lunch break usually around 4 hours into your shift (depending on the length of the shift) and they teach you all the tech stuff that you need to know, so dont worry if you dont know everything or anything before you start, they are just looking for outgoing and great personalities to add to the team. Hardest part of the job is probably the weeks leading up to when the new phones come out and you just get constantly bombarded with questions about what it will be and what is will look like when in reality the staff only find out on the exact same day as the customers.

I worked for four years at the Apple Store and during this time I worked in many roles, from shifting boxes, to training customers and staff as a senior mentor at the store. I learnt new things on a daily basis, but one of the most important things I learnt was to allow people the opportunity to talk, to listen and then how to offer advice as needed. Learning when to talk instead of listening is the hardest part of any customer service role. For the last two years I was behind the Genius bar fixing, and exchanging broken or faulty iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. It was rewarding, but also intensely challenging. Not every customer was happy to be there, and as the face of a company it was often hard to stay upbeat. The people at the store are absolutely first rate. You will never meet a group of people more motivated and inspiring. They are the reason I stayed so long. The best part of working at an Apple Store is when you get to train people to use there shiny new computer. They genuinely enjoy coming to the store to learn new things and to finish projects etc. We would learn faces and names and see them through their entire year. That was the most rewarding part of any job I have had so far.

I’m a base level sales specialist on the shop floor in Apple Retail. Compared to other retail jobs there are more benefits to working for Apple vs others. The base pay and benefits are slightly above average for retail, but this is because there is no commission or bonuses. After being with Apple for 9 years, I wish there was a commission or bonuses structure because there’s very little incentive to perform.

Going for a new job role hinges entirely on the interview, they try to remain completely unbiased and don’t take your behaviours (good or bad) into account during interviews. There are people in positions in my store who REALLY should not be there because they do not exemplify good customer service, work ethic, product knowledge or willingness to improve,  but they covered the points in the interview and that’s all that matters.

This is very discouraging to apply to new roles. Also along with the being no monetary incentives for performance and the base pay being above average makes it difficult to leave. It feels like there will be lots of opportunities to move up but in practicality it is difficult to do so which means you’re locked in with golden handcuffs.

I found it quite difficult to balance work/ life however Apple provides set hours which can provide peace of mind. Training is intense - but definitely well thought out. I felt slightly lost when I was finally on the shop floor but Team Members were really helpful. I feel that recently there's been a push to hire members from diverse backgrounds which is needed. But Apple were really fair to all who applied. Really surprised by how professional and well-thought out every aspect of the Apple store/ service is. Definitely give props to management! I learnt to take initiative and deal with irate customers while working alongside other departments of the Apple store (Genius Bar etc..). Felt kind of out of place at the beginning but then started to slowly get to know more of the team members (who are really nice!). Probably the hardest is balancing work and being a student - the job can also be overwhelming at times during busy periods and some customers can be impatient. Also, learning about the financing options was tricky at the beginning but became easier over time. The most enjoyable part was talking to customers and learning about why they were buying a certain product. This job has really built my confidence and to be hired by such an incredible company has really raised my standards. Definitely recommend working here.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Specialist 38 salaries reported	£14.55 per hour
Software engineer 39 salaries reported	£93,426 per year
Genius 7 salaries reported	£35,786 per year
Sales associate 7 salaries reported	£26,571 per year
Manager 4 salaries reported	£87,500 per year

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