>> Think about it the other way - you could have been a janitor for Apple and your new employers would be none the wiser.
> There's no way the janitors are Apple employees. Standard procedure at big companies is to hire contractors for janitorial and food services.
Maybe so, but retail clerks definitely are Apple employees, so the point stands.
Personally, the word "associate" by itself brings to mind Walmart store workers [1. If I didn't know about this practice of Apple's, and an applicant's job title came back as "associate," I would raise suspicions that they were trying to pass off a stint in Apple retail as something grander.