Would you drop $ to get the foot in the door with Apple, even if it meant that you sacrificed some money to get a start with them.
I’ve heard there is great opportunity to develop within, so if you were offered a start would you take it??
Apple retail or ‘Apple’?
I certainly have no desire to work in an Apple store (your goals may be different).
In my experience retail sucks and yes maybe Apple retail sucks less but it’s still retail.
And if you’re talking ‘Apple Genius’ then that’s customer support and that sucks too.
Now if they’ve got an accountants position or a repair technician position out the back then I’d consider it but ‘drop pay’? That’s not happening.
It sounds like you want to, but have doubts. Let’s call it a passion you want to pursue.
That in itself probably answers half the question doesn’t it?
Of course there ere are lots of factors.
Where are you in life?
There is a world of difference between 22 living at home vs say, single father of 3.
How likely are you to get the progression/opportunities?
Its it wishful thinking or real possibilities??
How stable is the new job vs the old job?
The [less] important factors.
How is travel to and from the place vs where you are now?
Travelling 2 hours to work gets old very quickly… you have to REALLY like the job.
And finally the money.
Are we talking 10% down or 50% down?
Can you afford it?
How long will it take to get to what you want?
And even here there are a hundred other ideas bouncing around my head.
Travel is zero (at home advisor) pay is down a fair bit, but affordable, married with kids, in a strong financial position.
Current job is stable with a massive company, but not entirely happy at the moment, hence looking for greener pastures.
if it’s anything to do with retail or support i would run for the hills… and keep in mind you’d be in a very ‘American’ corporate structure - can anyone say team chants?!
Stores - no way. Couldn’t think of anything worse. I wonder what the turnover is like at Apple Stores, I’d imagine it’s rather high. Are they paid particularly well in comparison to other retail environments? One would hope they get more than say your average JB Shop Assistant, but I wonder if it’s much more.
The happy hand clapping at store openings/phone releases etc just embarrasses me. Why I’ve never been to one of those launches, the whole high five thing makes me want to curl up in a ball in the corner.
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At home advisors, hmm. You realise it’s basically help desk work, yeah?
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Yep, but it’s at home, Sydney traffic shits me to tears, saves a lot of time out of day, good chance to get my kids to school in the morning etc. before work would start, (after 9am)
Then I think this isn’t a question of whether you would take a pay cut to say you work for Apple then, it’s a question of whether working from home (for Apple or otherwise) is a better situation for your personal circumstances, given that you’ll be taking a pay cut.
And the only person that can really answer that question is you.
I’m more thinking of the future possibilities (more than saying I work for Apple).
I’m not really looking for zen advice, just if anybody thinks this may or may not be a good opportunity, at the end of the day it falls on me, I understand that, (i may not even get a job)
Anyhow you’re right I don’t need advice, I’ll make up my own mind at the opportune time, if it arrives.
Don’t underestimate how much it’s worth to you to improve your circumstances. I recently took a pretty sizeable pay cut for a new role, and it’s made such an improvement to day to day life - I couldn’t be happier about it.
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totally with you on the traffic thing, it’s gotten so bad that working from home may actually get 2-3 hours of your day back and save you a lot of running costs.
just keep in mind working from home has its own set of problems like interaction with other humans in a work environment which some people sorely need, others get by just fine without it.
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I wouldn’t think a stay-at-home job would be useful for developing the sort of network within the workplace that you’d need to leverage to climb the ladder.
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Sometimes just being part of an organization allows you access to opportunities that you would otherwise miss out on/not be aware of - IE Internal Only jobs.
Having worked previously in the government, I know I used to often see jobs come up on the internal jobs boards that were identified as Internal Only… Maybe Apple has similar such positions…
These are the types of things (internal opps) that i’m principally thinking of, using this (AHA) as a stepping stone to advancement within a large operation.
I’m in a very big company now, with a very good job,but advancement at this point (and distant) future is limited at best and unlikely, hence looking about.
Was about to write something similar!
Depending on “how much” of a drop in salary, the work from home factor is pretty good. If you haven’t already, factor the hours spent in transit in to your effective per hour rate currently.
When I was at Apple Retail, I worked and trained with a few people who were ex-AppleCare. The work was generally pretty painless, but expect to get bored. As you noted, internal promotions/transfers are reasonably common, and being in Sydney there’s a large corporate presence there already.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend against it for a while, but have a plan to get out of that role within a specified timeframe.
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Thanks for all the feedback, i’ll see what happens on Monday.
That’s great in theory, and if you were adding in extra salary to account for the extra time you had to spend away you would have more of an argument… (ie negotiating a pay rise for a job that made you travel more).
But calculating the time you would save and calculating what it’s worth is irrelevant unless you plan on using that time to generate alternative income. Otherwise you’re just earning less and can either afford it or not.
I was more thinking in terms of the more intangible values - in particular Snowman mentioned dropping kids off at school, stuff like that. Certainly I would put a value on avoiding peak-hour traffic frustration and commute times, but I don’t imagine I’d be thinking of it comparing to a full salary rate. In general terms though I definitely agree with you! 
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