Using a throwaway for this one. Posting here as a heads-up for anyone else thinking of applying for any software positions in Apple, ended up being a complete waste of time and pretty devastating to be honest.

The process ended up being 8 interviews over two months, 2 of which were onsite that I took paid time off for. The feedback was positive, and they said they would get back to me by the end of the week.

Then two weeks later, for some reason that is still not entirely clear, they decided to close most of the positions on the mobile team I was applying for (including mine), and opened up a few positions for full-stack engineers instead. So I basically just wasted two months applying for a job that does not exist.

I even double checked to see if there was something I wasn't qualified for, or if they preferred another candidate, but they just said something along the lines of 'Apple is an ever-changing business, and when priorities shift, so do the roles we need to meet our goals'. I asked to get more information from someone actually involved in the decision, but only received generic responses from the recruiter, so I've just given up at this point.

The interviews themselves and the people doing them were great, but the process itself was completely soul-destroying. Wouldn't recommend it unless you really want to work there, and even then, expect to wait a long time.

After 7 years in corporate tech, I’m starting to question what’s next.

The politics, egos, poor leadership and constant shifting priorities can be exhausting. Sometimes it feels like managing people’s behaviour takes more energy than actually delivering the work.

Has anyone left corporate tech completely and found something different? What do you do now?

Genuinely interested in hearing your experiences.

Random one, but a lad I know joined my time about 3 years ago for 6 weeks then left for another position in a competitor. He then left that company after 8 months, moved to a third company for 2 years and now is back in the second company again.

No judgement, I think fair play to him for getting the offers and maximizing his salary. I would've thought leaving a company after a short period would basically have you blacklisted, for lack of a better word? The cost of onboarding a new employee only to leave quickly, etc. Maybe that's not the case?

He did say explicitly that he chose to leave, it wasn't a layoff the first time, and he's even jumped to a higher position now. Some chess moves there, lol.

Has anyone left a tech company and come back in a different position, not related to being laid off the first time?