Name: Agatha Turyahikayo

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Apple

Position Title: Software Engineering Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science Major, Music Minor

Current Class Level: Junior

Work Term: Summer 2019 

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

I was an intern on the Mail Team, which develops the Mail app for macOS and iOS. All of my work was under a non-disclosure agreement, but I was working on the Mail Frameworks team, which does all the backend engineering. I was working with the programming languages Swift and Objective-C. I also used Github to do source control related things, like pull requests and code review.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest conference for women in tech, in September 2018 with a sponsorship from the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT). The conference has a big career fair, so I went to a ton of company booths and gave them my resume and elevator pitch. One of the engineers at the Apple booth gave my resume to her manager and by the end of the 3-day conference I had 2 technical interviews and was extended an internship offer. To prepare for the technical interviews, I did mock whiteboard interviews, practice problems on websites like Hackerrank and Leetcode, and read through a lot of a book called Cracking the Coding Interview. 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization? 

Learning about macOS and iOS development for the first time at Apple was a really unique opportunity, because I sat and worked alongside engineers who have worked at Apple for many years. These engineers have developed fundamental software features, frameworks, and paradigms that currently exist in Apple devices. I also enjoyed seeing the scale of the software development process at Apple, since it affects billions of active devices and millions of customers worldwide.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I had all of the weight for making critical decisions for my intern project, so it allowed me to have a lot of freedom in how I chose to implement it.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience? 

Apply to every internship you can. Bring a ton of resumes to career fairs and have an elevator pitch prepared. Talk to companies you don't think you have a chance with.

Connect with Agatha: agatha3@umbc.edu

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