Ten years ago, I reflected on having been hired by Apple ten years before, when I was just twenty years old. “The Start Date“:

The day you start at Apple, be it as an administrative assistant or the CFO, you’re joining a proud legacy, and you know it. I still remember the thrill of receiving that offer letter. I grinned wide, stared down at the relatively meager salary I’d be earning, and signed away my agreement to start in two weeks.

That makes twenty years. Today, in fact.

Many of my colleagues from Apple in the mid-1990’s have moved on, as I did. But a very significant number of them remain. In a world where jumping from job to job has become expected of almost everybody, Apple maintains a curious lifelong employment appeal to many people.

Apple has always possessed ineffable uniqueness among its corporate peers. From the moment of its founding as a scrappy, barely funded home-made computer manufacturer, to forty years later when its value and influence are almost impossible to comprehend.

This year, many new young people will stare down at the relatively meager salary they’ll be earning, sign away their agreement to start in two weeks, and be in for the twenty-year ride of their lives.