An interview with Brad: Former intern and future Apple employee
What's it really like to be an intern at Apple? To answer that question, we sat down with Brad, a guy with not one—but two—Apple internships under his belt. Now completing both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science at Stanford University, Brad will be starting his career as a full-time Apple employee when he graduates in 2006.
Note: We bring on many interns in a variety of roles and disciplines. This is one person's story.
Tell us about your first summer as an intern at Apple.
The first year I worked with .Mac, I was thrown right into the heart of things, given tremendous responsibility, and treated as an equal on the team. What I worked on was a program for detecting regressions. Doesn't sound like a glamorous technical project, I bet. And honestly, maybe it wouldn't have been if I'd been under strict supervision. But the amazing thing is that I was given free reign to design whatever solution I wanted to use to solve the problem of detecting bugs. So I learned Java Cocoa and wrote a graphical application that is now used internally as part of the build deployment process. I'm really proud of my work that summer, because it significantly sped up the development of the servers we were working on.
At one point, I had to present my project to Apple VPs-something I don't get to do in school every day, that's for sure. Well, the VPs approved my idea, and my summer project turned into a real product!
A large part of my enjoyment came from working with my infectiously enthusiastic teammates. I had a blast with a truly fun group of colleagues.
Then there were my fellow interns. Apple pulls together an awesome group of people, and it was a fantastic opportunity for me to meet and work with new friends.
So you'd just finished your sophomore year of college when you began your internship. Were you nervous about the level of responsibility you were being given?
I think my biggest fear—and I'm not sure how rational this was—but I was a long-time Apple enthusiast and Apple was my first technology crush. If you idolize something, you almost don't want to know it too intimately because it might shatter. Well, the short story is that I'm even more impressed now that I've worked at Apple. I'm completely enamored of the company, now that I know it from the inside.
Second was the fear that I would be in over my head. I started getting jittery: "No one's going to hold my hand. I won't have a list of bullet points to follow. I'm going to be given creative control!"
However, I soon discovered that I was given not just free reign to work independently but to ask questions. And it didn't take too long for me to realize that I was being supported and would not fail. Plus, once you start working on things and product development is underway, it's all just too exciting to feel terrified.
How did that first summer as an intern affect your performance when you returned to school as a junior? Were you able to apply a lot of what you learned at Apple?
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, after that first internship, I discovered I wanted to pursue academic interests that hadn't even been on the radar for me before. It shaped my course-load for sure, incentivizing me to take more challenging courses—to study material I was less familiar with. The internship also gave me the sense of direction I needed to focus on coursework that would be of practical value to me after I graduated.
I should make the point, though, that the bulk of my learning about my work at Apple happened there, at Apple. No amount of time in school could replace the months I spent interning.
This is why I instantly accepted the offer to intern for a second summer. I loved the .Mac group, I loved the work, and I knew I wanted to go back. No other experience compared to what Apple gave me.