Let me take you through all the madness that transpired from mid-march to the end of June. It seemed to be a beautiful dream, and a summer to remember turned out to be a dreadful couple of months. This blog will take you through the interview process with my dream company, Apple, and what followed once the coronavirus got out of hand.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021. It was around 8 in the morning. I was going through my usual routine of checking notifications on my phone. I came across an email on Outlook with the subject: “Hello from Apple: Internship…”. I was confused and a little surprised. I was not expecting to get any more internship calls from companies. I was flattered to learn that a manager at Apple was very interested in interviewing me for an internship. I had my doubts whether these people existed for real, and a quick search on the internet confirmed that I had a shot at an internship with Apple.
I was thrilled. I scheduled my interview 12 days from this day for better preparation. I wanted to do my best and give it a good shot. The following 12 days were full of anxiety, stress, hard work, and a lot of studying. During this period, I barely did anything related to the university courses. Every day, I would wake up and start doing Leetcode problems, watch videos on data structures, read about Apple Interviews online, and practice for the behavioral interview. I was confident with the preparation and research I did for this interview. Now it was time to wait.
Monday, March 29, 2021. I had my first interview with a hiring manager at Apple. I did not know if it was behavioral or technical, but either way, I was prepared. The meeting started on a great note. He told me about his team and what they do. It was a behavioral interview where he asked me about my projects. I think I did great in explaining while displaying how passionate I was about this position. My interviewer was also very impressed with my apps, as well as the way I thought. After completing the interview, I was satisfied with the way I had performed. I thought it was the best interview I had ever had. Now, I was confident about my chances. It was time for the technical round next.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021. In anticipation of this round, I was ready for all types of questions. I did a lot of problem-solving on Leetcode for the coding round. I also brushed up my knowledge on swift and iOS development so I would not be stumped by interviewers' questions. The interview started with the interviewer explaining about their team. He then briefly asked me what I did with my apps, but nothing in detail. The conversation was not very long as we had to do a coding interview as well. When I got the question for the coding part, I kicked myself because I had seen the question earlier while practicing, but I had not attempted it out of laziness. I was a bit relieved to realize that it was not a challenging problem to solve. However, I had never solved that problem which made me a bit tense. The coding started a bit shaky. But, I soon got control over the problem, and after that, it was a piece of cake. I completed the coding part in 20-25 mins when it should have taken 40 mins. We spent the remaining time talking about our work. I had nailed this interview as well! This was the last hurdle for my dream to come true. I remember calling Susanth, and I had a big smile on my face which was enough to tell him how my interviews went. I was very confident that I would get the part.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021. “Good news and bad news.” This is the email I got a few hours after my interview. Starting with the bad news first: I did not get the position as it was offered to someone else. However, the good news was that another manager wanted to talk to me about a potential internship offer. I was honestly a bit dejected because I felt that if I did not get the position despite nailing the two interviews, why would I get this one? The silver lining was that the previous interviewers thought I was a great candidate, and to not miss out on me, they referred me to another manager, which was nice of them! Anyway, this was going to be a casual conversation to check if I was a team fit. So for the third successive day, I had an interview with an engineer at Apple.
This interview was supposed to be for 30 minutes. I did not know what they could know about me in just 30 minutes. For a majority of those 30 minutes, my interview talked about his team. I got some time to tell him about my projects and the remaining time was for questions and answers. With such a short interview, I felt I did not do well to make a good case for myself. I was exhausted and low on energy by now. The past two weeks had taken a toll on my body and mind. After this interview, I did not think I stood a good chance to get this internship.
Thursday, April 1, 2021. “I have some good share with you [sic].” Deep down I knew for a fact that it meant that I got the internship. But somehow, my mind was not accepting that. I ran through all the possible scenarios in my head about how I would not get the internship. The meeting was scheduled for 12:30 am, and the waiting was just unbearable.
Friday, April 2, 2021. The meeting started with my recruiter telling me that I got the internship. The relief! I could not stop smiling for the rest of the meeting. I was now a Machine Learning Engineering Intern for the Siri Information Intelligence team at Apple! He went over my pay, benefits, and other information needed to send me the offer letter. As soon as the meeting was over, I woke my parents to tell them about this good news, and they were ecstatic. I told my sister, who was more excited than me. I called Susanth, who was not surprised because he knew I would get it for sure. I texted Swapnanil, who was a proud mentor as well. I could not process what had happened within two weeks. From having no hopes of finding an internship to getting an internship at the biggest company in the world. My destiny had flipped.
Monday, April 12, 2021. It had been ten days since I was accepted for the internship. In that duration, I signed the offer letter and tons of paperwork from Apple, started the process for CPT with my internship coordinator, signed a lease for an apartment for summer, and celebrated a lot. I woke up every day feeling satisfied that all my hard work over the past year had led me to this moment. Almost every day, Susanth and I discussed how we got internships at big companies and how close we were to our dreams. I realized that to make this moment count, I would have to work my backside off. In preparation for this job, I started learning more about Machine Learning, so I am not clueless on my first day. For now, I still had to clear the background check with Apple and book tickets to the United States.
Sunday, April 25, 2021. I passed the background check, got my CPT authorization, and had finished all tasks from Apple. It had been a challenging few days because I was worried that the flights to the US would be canceled, due to rising corona cases in India. I was just too excited to go to the US again to complete my internship, but coronavirus could ruin those chances. I had not booked the tickets yet, and I was still waiting for more updates. For now, life only got tougher. You overcome one obstacle, and another one comes after it.
May 1, 2021. It was past midnight. With around three weeks to my joining, I was eager. I was a bit concerned about the possibility of the US closing its borders on India. With this apprehension, I prepared to go to bed. However, after not getting sleep for a while, I decided to scroll through my newsfeed again. Amid my half-eyed-senseless scrolling, I received a message from one of my friends. The US was closing its borders from May 4 for anyone who had stayed in India in the past 14 days.
I panicked. I looked up flights before May 4, and they were either too expensive or booked. In that dismay, I texted my dad, who was asleep and in another state, asking him what I should do. I emailed the recruiter informing him about my situation, and coming to the US was the only option. I spent the next few days trying to find new means to enter the US. This situation was driving me insane. I could not believe the US had done something which I knew was inevitable. I guess it was a lack of awareness and quick action on my part. I could have left for the US earlier, but I did not know if I was allowed to enter. I had signed an agreement with UTA that I had to stay outside of the US until the classes end.
After a few days, my brain was numb to the fact that I might lose this internship. I realized that the stress was unbearable, and there was no use in thinking too much about the situation. Despite this, I was not ready to give up yet. I requested my recruiter to extend the start day, so I could look at alternatives. My recruiter extended it from May 24 to June 1, then to June 8, and then finally to June 14. On June 7th, he confirmed that Apple could not extend the start date any further. He also told me that I could not do this internship in any other semester. On June 11th, with crushed hopes, I told my recruiter to rescind the offer. The wave that took me to the sky eventually dropped after the second wave of coronavirus hit India.
© 2020 - 2021 Shubham Arya