>10 year Apple SWE vet, AMA

Apple
EMAB51

Go to company page Apple

EMAB51
Apr 21 11 Comments

Recently left the company to pursue a new opportunity. Happy to answer questions about culture, job, career advice, etc. Won’t talk about unreleased/secret stuff. #software #swe #career #engineering

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TOP 11 Comments
  • What org? And how was your experience at Apple? Career growth? Learning opportunities? Would you recommend Apple to a new grad/early career candidate? Asking for a friend 🥺
    Apr 21 2
    • Apple
      EMAB51

      Go to company page Apple

      EMAB51
      OP
      Overall I enjoyed my time at Apple. However it is a fact of life that at Apple, your team is everything. Your experience, visibility, career growth etc will largely by a function of your team and its position in “the big picture.”

      The first team I joined was full of mid to late career professionals. This came with a lot of benefits: deep knowledge to draw from, professional pragmatism, and a somewhat defensive posture when it came to management and schedule. Over time I moved to work on more high profile projects with a lot less flexibility and more visibility. The latter definitely helped my career, but wasn’t necessarily well run.

      This is not always the case—I know people who got burned out and left within 3 years. The closer you are to hardware the more pressure there is—this is a fact of life.

      Everyone is willing to help—especially for junior engineers—but don’t expect them to hold your hand. I was given a lot of autonomy from the get go, and essentially delivered a (small) feature by myself in the first release I joined as a full time employee.

      Overall, I recommend Apple as a place for new grads (hard to argue with success.) It will give you a mark on your resume that pretty much guarantees you a phone screen/first round with anyone. However it’s hard to know how transferable the knowledge you gain truly is. (Most of) Apple works on a very different type of technology than much of the industry, with its own (insane) processes (or lack there of.)
      Apr 21
  • SAS
    YaaYeet

    Go to company page SAS

    YaaYeet
    Man oh man, so many questions but I’ll just ask two:
    1) How feasible is it to get into Apple with 1 YOE. Obviously I’d be going for ICT3 but is the process just as it is for anywhere else, that is to say is it just the Leetcode grind & luck?
    2) How’s WLB? I ask this because I always thought if/when I get into Apple, I’d stay for a long time (maybe even be a career man). I know I’d be giving up hefty TC bumps by not switching often but as long as wlb is good and there are decent raises/promos then I’d certainly be happy there. Apples been a dream for as long as I can remember.
    Apr 21 2
    • Apple
      EMAB51

      Go to company page Apple

      EMAB51
      OP
      1) It is absolutely feasible to join with one year of experience. My recommendation is to apply to roles for which you have relevant experience, and to taylor your pitch to the role. It need not be a 1-1 match for a junior role. For example, if you apply to a role as a test automation engineer working in Python and you previously worked on a Django backend, you could spin that well.

      Interviews are entirely owned by the team and hiring manager. Some might look for leetcode skills but in my experience that is not emphasized in Apple interviews. I never asked leetcode questions in interviews I gave, but I also never did first round interviews. FWIW I ask questions about past projects to get a sense for technical competency and technical communication ability, as well as design questions.

      2) WLB is team, project and schedule dependent. Some teams are constantly slammed or subject to bad project management decisions. Some are not. Some people (such as myself) are consummate procrastinators and find themselves with loads of time until 2 weeks before the deadline.

      Overall, most people I know at Apple are there for the long haul. I stayed for 10ish years! Not sure how much TC I missed out on in the process but I don’t think I did too poorly.

      The aforementioned aside, hardware/build teams have terrible schedules. I would not recommend a HW TPM role at any TC.
      Apr 21
    • SAS
      YaaYeet

      Go to company page SAS

      YaaYeet
      Appreciate it, this helps a lot
      Apr 21
  • Cisco
    xg18483839

    Go to company page Cisco

    xg18483839
    How's WLB in Core OS, if you know? Anything to keep in mind? I'll be joining soon and I don't mind a little bit of overtime, but I do want time in the evening to focus on non-career stuff. (Joining as ICT3, 1 YOE)
    Apr 21 2
    • Apple
      EMAB51

      Go to company page Apple

      EMAB51
      OP
      Most of my contact with the CoreOS team came earlier in my career, so I can’t be definitive about the current state of the world down there. That said, they’re often running ahead of everyone else, which lends itself to to having predictable work rather than last minute fires. (Again, take this with a grain of salt—maybe they just seem competent from the outside.)

      Of course if you break the build, the scheduler stops scheduling, or something else Really Bad, all bets are off.
      Apr 21
    • Cisco
      xg18483839

      Go to company page Cisco

      xg18483839
      Interesting, I guess that makes sense. Though I suppose things might have changed a ton in ~10 years. Thanks!
      Apr 21
  • Apple
    Zeus007

    Go to company page Apple

    Zeus007
    Apple TC and new TC?
    Apr 21 1