the fire at any time, is not an agreement with apple, thats not "their" policy. That is state law in most states. Most states say an employer may terminate employment at any time for any reason. All apple is doing is restating what law says. In fact if I am correct the only state that is not at-will is Montana (and it is the most pitiful of them all, I grew up there and seriously almost no business provides even the slightest bit of customer service, you can't even get mcdonald's without feeling like you've been insulted - and the food is orders of magnitude worse than everywhere else. I think it has to do with the fact you can't fire anyone).

the point is? Normally I'm critical of overweening control on the part of corporations, but I don't really see a problem here. This looks pretty fair and even.

Can you really buy a "genius" for $35,000 U.S. Dollars a year? I think not. Especially not given the rate at which the Fed is devaluing the Dollar. Convert this to Pounds and the guys slinging fries at Wimpy's in Watney Market are probably making more. Welcome to the Third World America.

The guys I have met who work as Apple Geniuses are smart guys, but in watching what they do, it is usually not a real high skill job. Most of them are doing basic customer service for people whose iPod stops working or otherwise helping basic customers with basic technical problems.

This is not the caliber of job that a skilled IT person who goes out to businesses and solves problems, setups up networks and software systems, etc would do. The salary is probably, depending on where in the country this is, about right for a retail customer service position.

For the UK "3rd World" people, your tax system takes a lot more so you need to earn a lot more "slinging fries". You can't compare base rates -- you need to compare purchasing power.

I'm glad this guy didn't take the job. It's clear that this was all some kind of stunt to push traffic to his blog. Apple doesn't need people that will be so disloyal to the company as to post their offer letter online.

I'm sorry, but since when has posting an offer letter on-line become an act of disloyalty?

...do you have a job?

I believe "at will" employment laws were put into place to break the so-called Union Shop that forced you to join a Union in order to work at a specific place. However, the following entry in Wikipedia does not mention that so maybe I am thinking about something else.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AtwillemploymentActually I am thinking of "Right to Work laws"

I wouldn't even get out of bed for 17 dollars an hour. That's only 34k a year, assuming you get 40 hours a week. That's not even a good High School wage.

hahahaha!

Sounds like your standard interview to me. Yawn....

Sounds like your standard interview to me. Yawn....

Basically, to be a full-time company employee in America is to become a disposable cog in a sytem designed to grind cogs to dust in order to generate power for the company. The only "trickle down" effect of America's economic system is the trickling down that occurs as workers are pulverized by the system. American workers have been so beaten down for so long that they don't even feel the blows anymore--like a frog slowly simmering in hot water as the heat is turned up

Well Aviv, first of all.. I hope none of your future employers will ever search for your name on the internet, because this would be a perfect reason not to hire you in my book...

Personally, if what's written here is true and unbiased (the latter I doubt), then this particular Apple store's management staff needs to go back to school and redo their HR management... I can't remember for the life of me when the idea of an interview was to scare the employee.

The only things that are really interesting here in my opinion, are the sad wages apparent "geniuses" make, and the contract terms in several American states. I'm from the Netherlands, and much like in other European countries, you simply cannot just terminate an employment contract out of the blue here. The fact that an employer is allowed by law to do so, doesn't mean they have to in my opinion.

Apple has discretion as to what salary to offer potential new employees in any given role based on the individual's skills and abilities. It looks like this guy came in towards the bottom of the scale but if he proved himself he would be rewarded. I believe that Apple is one of the better (if not the best) employers in retail and this guy maybe has issues with his own perceived abilities rather than Apple's HR practices.

Yep, and make good money, too. But if I was offered a job and turned it down (for whatever reason), I wouldn't feel 'loyalty' to said company to not say anything about them.

And I would have a hard time taking a job where the people feel their time is so much more important than your own time that they make you wait 30 minutes past the time for an interview. I'm sorry, you made an appointment for a meeting. Show up on time, don't just stroll in half an hour late like you're just running behind at the genius bar. Its bad enough you do it to customers.

alansky- Um no. The workers are the key to our economic system. They are free to quit any job, any time. They are free to start their own business. With the free market- which includes a free market in employment- prices go down, people get wealthier. That's why even poor people have a DVD player, whereas 100 years ago they barely had more than one day's worth of clothes.

The employee and consumer really has all the power.

alansky- Um no. The workers are the key to our economic system. They are free to quit any job, any time. They are free to start their own business. With the free market- which includes a free market in employment- prices go down, people get wealthier. That's why even poor people have a DVD player, whereas 100 years ago they barely had more than one day's worth of clothes.

The employee and consumer really has all the power.

I'm glad he's posting this, if for nothing else than to highlight that Apple is seriously underpaying their "Geniuses" $17/hr is pitiful pay for someone with that skill set. As someone else mentioned, under normal work hours it amounts to like $35K a year (before taxes even!). Hardly enough to live on given the state of our economy. Perhaps he knew he could and should earn more and thats why he declined the offer. I know I would.

Then again, I think police officers make like the same amount yearly and they risk their lives (at least here in NYC) Teachers make less in many cases and they educate our youth. Something is wrong with our country when people like this make so little and we have sports stars who run around on a field playing a game making millions a year. We are an entertainment crazed and driven country. Providing a real service to the community or businesses? Who cares! We wanna see our sports stars, actors and singers entertain us!

Well put, nativeNYer!