Comments on: Careers, Internships & You.

By: Cal Thixton

Cal Thixton — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:33:57 +0000

I still remember that interview with as we sat in the student lobby of some CMU building looking for Campus Consultants (CC’s, i.e. interns).

He knew who NeXT was and what we were doing and he was definitely interested in joining us; I didn’t have to explain things, he had done his homework. We needed campus liaisons/advocates who were quick on their feet, independent and energetic, so we looked to students to leverage our very thin field sales force. And quite right, as bbum mentioned, we did consider this a cheap way of vetting new talent. NeXT’s interview process, now Apple’s, found over a hundred CC’s 20 years ago, none were washouts. Each proved to be a superstar with many going on to hold key positions within Apple today and in the industry with others moving on to start up their own firms. Leverage what you know with who you know to land job you can’t wait to get to every morning (as SJ would put it).

-Cal

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:22:52 +0000

Slightly off-topic, perhaps, but could you write a post some day about the software development process at Apple?

Do they do code reviews, how much automated testing is done, how are version control and configuration management handled, etc.

By: Just Someone

Just Someone — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:55:23 +0000

“One thing about filing bugs: many a new hire has joined Apple and had bugs they submitted assigned to them to fix.”

That’s probably the best reason why someone should join Apple or any other company.

By: John C. Randolph

John C. Randolph — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:49:08 +0000

Let me add a bit of advice about going to work at Apple. I don’t have the stats, but my impression from seeing many friends join the company while I was there, is that most Apple employees didn’t get the first position they applied for. If you don’t get the gig, don’t take it personally, just apply again and eventually you’ll end up in a spot that’s probably a better fit.

-jcr

By: bbum

bbum — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Heh. So true.

I did contracting work for NeXT as a front line developer support engineer after having spent a few years playing “stump NeXT” with some friends; we would find the most obscure, hard to fix, but often quite visible to the users, bugs in NeXTSTEP and file bugs.

“Our bug system can search on originator. Here, let me find all the bugs you filed before you joined.”

“The system also has the ability to mass assign bugs. For example, I can assign all of these bugs to you by clicking here. >click<”

“Wow! Lucky you! Your first day and your bug queue is already quite full!”

By: John C. Randolph

John C. Randolph — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:43:47 +0000

One thing about filing bugs: many a new hire has joined Apple and had bugs they submitted assigned to them to fix.

-jcr

By: Ned Deily

Ned Deily — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:53:28 +0000

And don’t let the current economic situation scare you off. Because the costs of internships are so slow and the paybacks are so high, many of the best companies make it a practice to hire interns even in tough times.

By: Peter Bierman

Peter Bierman — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:32:50 +0000

All so true. My internship at Apple was probably the best opportunity of my life so far. And your advice about not being afraid to use connections or contact someone directly is spot on. Having someone vouch for your enthusiasm, intelligence, or skills will push you far ahead in the line.

By: ssp

ssp — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:26:59 +0000

Not every job or internship is in the IT ‘industry’.

Speaking to friends who study/studied social sciences suggests that your statement that internships are a way to get paid and get to know people rather than just being exploited as cheap labour deserves a big qualifier.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:26:46 +0000

Great advice! One of the bigger regrets of my career was that I never really pursued an internship when I had the chance. One thing that I hear frequently enough to alarm me is the belief that an internship will interfere with school. Having turned down a WWDC student scholarship once so that I could take the final exam of a summer elective bio-optics class, I can honestly say that while the class was cool, life after school has definitely been cooler.