written on June 3rd, 2025
I was recently fortunate enough to get an interview at Apple. I was quite surprised considering how weak my resume was, and that's an understatement. While I haven't heard back yet regarding the first round results(I didnt get in), objectively speaking there is no chance that I pass the subsequent rounds which are technical. I also don't really understand why I got chosen, considering I saw on linkedin that the type of people they hire for that role were all mechanical engineers.
I was kind of stressing few days prior to the interview, but I soon realized that the cause of my stressing was because I simply wasn't prepared. Not prepared in terms of practicing questions that may come up and all, but rather reflecting on the question, has the life I've lived up to this point in time readied me for this opportunity? Have I worked as hard and diligently over the past 6-7 years to the point where my base fundamentals are intact to Apples standards? Once I answered this question, it eased the rest of the process. Opportunity comes to those prepared, and I simply wasn't.
So instead I thought that it might be a better decision to ask as many questions regarding what I was curious about during the 30 minutes I had with the Apple employee. From the supply chain disruption, or how their team maneuvered tariffs, was the product they were working on affected, what kind of books they like, etc.
When we think of Apple, we tend to think about this bar of excellence. How do you hone this excellence within thyself so that you can become more suited not just for positions at apple, but any position that you desire? I think it comes down to a couple points:
- Working harder
- Working on the right things
- Understanding concepts at a fundamental level. This is something I still struggle with, evident and reflected in my quantum mechanics 1 grade. Nonetheless cool class!
The role also seemed to be very decision heavy, so how do you make better decisions?
I ended up writing about decisions here instead, On change