- Lance Davis is a computer engineering student at North Carolina A&T State University.
- He shares the most important and meaningful things he learned while working as an Apple intern.
- This is Lance Davis’ story, as told to reporter Jenna Gyimesi.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lance Davis, a former Apple intern. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I completed two internships at Apple. The first one was an in-person Siri software engineering internship that began in May 2019 and lasted around 4 months.
I resumed the same role for a second internship in March 2020. This one was remote due to the COVID pandemic and lasted around 6 months.
I got my first internship through the help of a professor.
During my freshman year at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, I applied to more than 20 internships. But I didn’t get any of them, which wasn’t a surprise given my age at the time.
So I applied to a machine learning research program at Stanford instead. I worked alongside a professor and told him I really wanted to get a software engineering internship the following summer. He got one of his former students to recommend me to Apple.
I applied through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a non-profit organization that supports students at historically black colleges and universities. The Fund has an internship program and has partnerships with companies like Apple, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and the NYC Bar Association. They cover all industries, not just tech.
I was ecstatic when I found out I got the internship offer, and when I eventually connected the dots to the professor’s recommendation, I was really blown away. It felt great knowing I had someone pulling for me.
The energy at Apple Park, California was like nothing I’ve experienced before.
I really like history, and I was so excited to walk around the halls where the tech revolution all started. Apple is at the heart of Silicon Valley and working where it all began was very exciting and energizing for me.
There was definitely a busy and productive vibe at Apple, and everyone looked like they had somewhere to be. I got the sense that employees wanted to go out and change the world.
Being around full-time Apple employees was very motivating and I was in awe of the programming talent around me. It inspired me to step up, and I was really happy that I got to work directly with them.
Overall, the job was pretty chill. I started work around 9:30 A.M. or 10:00 A.M. everyday and clocked out around 6:00 P.M. Any free time I had was spent learning and getting better at programming, but I spent a huge portion of my time networking and getting to know full-time employees. I got their advice and wanted to make connections early on. I’m pretty social in general, and networking after hours was one of my favorite parts of the day.
Every intern works on a project, and my project was directly related to what the Siri software engineering team was doing.
I mostly worked with the full-time engineers and product managers on my team and didn’t spend much time with the other interns, but I still went to lunch with them almost every day. We also hung out after work frequently.
I either walked or took the shuttle to work. Some days I rode Apple’s campus bikes because I lived very close to campus. We had subsidized lunch as well.
When I was in-person, everyone was very busy, so you had to be persistent to get their attention
I had to be patient when I was looking to talk to connect with someone at the company. I’d send an email asking folks to grab coffee and I’d often have to follow up with another email or a
Slack
message. I couldn’t let opportunities go to waste just because the person seems really busy — everyone is busy. (I figured interns were probably low on their priority list.)
But once I got on their calendars, I was fully prepared to ask them to teach me something specific and not waste their time. For example, there was one director I really wanted to meet before the end of my internship. It was really hard to get on her schedule, but I was persistent and respectful and it paid off.
I kept meetings to around 15 minutes because it was way easier to get on people’s calendars that way. In my initial outreach email, I usually asked them if they were free specific days that worked for me because I didn’t want to risk not being able to make the time they suggested. The more availability you offer upfront, the better the chances of them saying yes.
I didn’t schedule any one-on-one on Fridays, but that’s just because of a company culture thing I noticed.
The most important thing I learned in my internship was Swift, a programming language developed by Apple.
Learning the Swift programming language gave me great perspective on how to build Apple products and how their devices and softwares interact with each other. The entire internship wasn’t Swift (I used Java and Objective-C too), but working for the company that made the programming language was definitely an awesome learning experience.
Lance Davis
In my remote second internship the following year, I felt like I was working on more advanced projects.
The second internship was a six-month remote role based out of Pittsburgh. I worked from March 2020 through August 2020 and worked with the same team that I had worked with the previous year.
I enjoyed it more than my first internship because my work felt more meaningful this time. I was really getting the hang of things since it was my second time working with the same team, and I knew what to expect and who to talk to. I felt just like a full-time employee because I was very independent and was involved in managing some of the projects.
I got off work a little earlier when it was remote because I wasn’t able to hang around a physical office. I finished my work by 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM every day. My manager didn’t pressure me to work crazy hours. They did a good job at making sure that I had a fun and fulfilling summer.
It was also easier to get on people’s calendars this time around while working remotely
I didn’t have to take into account how long it would take to walk somewhere or where someone was working. I sent them a message, popped something on their calendar, and hopped on a call. I really liked this about remote work, but I missed some of the more natural and social interactions I had in-person during my first internship.
That said, I also did a good job separating my home life and work life. I’m very conscientious of it and I always have been. I really tried to focus and stay on task throughout the day so that I could sign off when I was supposed to.
I think a lot of interns and students work harder than they need to, and that’s because they aren’t using their time efficiently — burnout exists even for interns. You really want to put your best foot forward as an intern, and if you’re burned out and not having a good time, that will show in your work.
My workload was very consistent. But because Apple releases a lot of updates and products on the same day, the workload varies throughout the year and some seasons are very busy. I heard that around September and Christmas is when things are more hectic.
I really tried to focus on learning above all else. Every day I’d wake up intent on growing and learning lots of new things. If I could absorb as much as possible every day, then I was doing it right.
If you’re considering applying for an Apple internship, I recommend talking about innovation during the interview process
I went through 4 rounds of interviews for my first internship and did one take-home coding assignment. Of course you need to know Apple’s products really well to get accepted, but I think the interviewers really liked me because I talked about innovation — which is really big at Apple.
At the end of the interview, I listed out all the ways I thought I could improve Siri. I think it showed them I was passionate about their products and that I could bring something extra to the table. I kind of felt like a 16-year-old Big Sean rapping on the spot to Kanye West and impressing him.
We also talked about my coursework, my career goals, and how I approach a problem, so I really recommend that applicants prepare to talk in detail about what and how they would change Apple products. And, of course, know your code if you’re going for software engineering.
Overall, I really enjoyed both of my internships and I learned a lot: I got to network with full-time employees, work on products I actually use in my daily life, and gain the experience I needed to push my career forward.
I’m currently finishing up my last year as a computer engineering student at North Carolina A&T State University. After graduation, I’m looking forward to building my first startup called Minnet, a social network where creators can receive tips and mint their posts as digital assets (NFTs).
My final piece of advice for hopeful future Apple interns is to talk to everyone and network when you can in a remote or in-person setting. You need to budget your time and separate your work and home life or you’ll burn out.
Are you a former big tech intern who wants to share your experience? Email Jenna Gyimesi at jgyimesi@insider.com.
