The people you work with.
When it comes to the best aspect of working at the Apple Store, the people you work with emerged as a consistent theme. The camaraderie you develop with your colleagues and the sense of community and teamwork that comes with working at the Apple Store are a large part of why people like to work there, said four of the people Business Insider spoke with.
"You don't just have one or two people supporting you, you have 20," said one former employee who worked at the Apple Store for seven years until 2018. "For Apple, that's their strength, keeping their people."
The investment in your personal growth.
Apple also devotes resources to helping employees grow in their role through team building, trainings, and pairing them with a connection manager that helps them make progress toward their goals.
For example, Apple used to send new Genius employees to its campus in Cupertino as part of the training process, although that policy has changed in recent years."The Genius experience was the best thing that I ever did," said the former employee who spent seven years at the Apple Store. "It really connected you to the store and the idea of Apple."
Apple also uses the Lominger Competency model for retail employees, which is a set of traits, skills, and competencies designed to help you work toward certain goals. Rich Zeug, who worked at the Apple Store in a variety of roles for 10 years until 2017, said Apple kept Lominger materials in the store so that employees could use them to shape goals with their managers. "No other company can really speak to that level of development," he said.
Are you a current or former Apple Store employee? If so, we want to hear from you! Contact this reporter at leadicicco@businessinsider.com
The chance to move around and try different roles.
Other than growing in your current role, Apple also provides the opportunity for employees to move into new positions and try different jobs. It's not uncommon for employees to move from specialist roles to Genius positions, for example, as a few of the people interviewed for this story have done.
"As long as you work really hard, you get rewarded," one current employee said. "So there's the opportunity to even do experiences outside of your role."
It doesn't feel like you're just selling something.
Two of the people Business Insider spoke with said they felt like they weren't just selling products, but actually helping people make decisions.
"You're made to feel like a piece of something larger," said one former employee who worked at the Apple Store for four years and departed in 2019. "Your work is framed in a way where you see that you're helping people, and not just selling or fixing stuff."
Being part of Apple and its culture.
For some, the appeal behind working at Apple comes from being part of the company in general. One person who worked at the Apple Store for a year in 2014 liked "being on the inside" of Apple rather than "the outside looking in."
The previously mentioned current employee hopes to one day work for Apple corporate, and said the Apple culture is something "you seek to be a part of."
