You’ll notice my usual routine when it comes to writing about internships is to tell you what I’ve applied to, tell you about how excited/scared/unqualified/suddenly constipated (eliminate as required) I’ve become about the interview and then to carry on, not mentioning the result. This is because it’s exactly how companies like to go about their internship applications. If you do not get the position, they don’t communicate with you at all and hope that you go away and never bug them again. This is not one of those moments, as I do have some feedback from an internship application.

Like all Imperial students will eventually do, I was wasting a bit of time in the Central Library. I had a job on campus that day since it was the departmental open day. My job was to show people round the department and try not to scare them all away from the course onto easier things (*cough cough* Biology). I had two “sessions” as it were, one at noon and one later in the afternoon, so that left me with three hours to kill with my laptop.

Being in the library is quite fun when you have nothing to work towards. Very few people had exams so it wasn’t as congested as usual and the air conditioner was set to perfect, to contrast to the rather intense atmosphere the sun had cast across Queen’s lawn. I was doing the usual: Twitter, Facebook and writing for the blog when suddenly my phone rings to an unknown landline number. It was a lovely woman by the name of Debbie calling from Apple’s human resources department asking if it was a good time to talk. For future reference, if you work at Apple, whether it’s as an Engineer or a Cleaner, it’s ALWAYS a good time to talk. I listened intently to the phone as she told me I had been accepted to work at Apple for their summer internship program.

At this point, I would love to tell you I was dignified and walked out of the library, my head high with a proud radiance in my gait. Unfortunately, I believe I went speechless, then uncomfortably loud, then proceeded to leave the library by means of backflips, skips and any other unnatural motion my body could muster. I was so utterly astonished that I would be working for the company I’ve adored, loved, embraced and, quite frankly, worshipped for the past few years.

This was, by far, my proudest moment. For the next three months I will be developing a proper Apple application for the iPhone and iPad platforms. People often ask me what taking a course like ISE can get you in future, and from now on, I will say exactly this.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

Just when I thought my summer could begin with large, icy fruit drink whilst two viciously gorgeous Hawaiian women fan me with banana leaves (waking up to find a rotating desk fan and a carton of Tesco Value Breakfast Juice), an opportunity comes knocking at my door. There was actually no physical knocking, since these days everything is handled by e-mail, but I’m sure, like everything, there’s an app for that.

A friend, known by many as Rysiek, called me and let me know of an internship opportunity at Apple that was e-mailed round the Department of Computing. Us ISE folk are added to the DoC internal mailing list in the second year and are mostly annoyed by it as we are constantly spammed with messages about revision lectures for modules we don’t take and internal events we are not welcome to. But occasionally, something good works it’s way to us.

Without hesitation (or responding to the call from nature, which was very close to being redirected to voicemail) I got together my CV, and wrote up a cover letter to apply, ignoring the fact that I had no idea of start time, duration, location, pay, prior knowledge or anything a normal person would inquire about before applying for a job. Thing is, this was Apple.

For those of you that don’t know, or have yet to deduce from my previous blog posts, I am somewhat of an Apple fanboy. Doing a geeky subject, like my own, you find that you do have to defend Apple in normal conversation when you hold this status. Not because of any Mac vs PC rivalry (please tell me there are no PC Fanboys), but because it is a position that is worth a bit of ridicule for those who do equally geeky subjects. In spite of this, I happily defend my beloved company to the blue screen of death (oh wait, we don’t get those), and am so attached to my Macbook, that my future wife could very easily get me arrested for bigamy.

The interview was laid back, but still nerve-wracking simply because of location. Stockley Park is an industrial park like no other I have ever seen. The area has lakes, wine bars and a gym for all the employees that work there and these employees belong to some of the biggest companies in the world like Activision, Adobe, Hasbro and Sharp. Apple HQ itself was my vision of heaven. Aluminium and Glass computers everywhere, iPads and iPhones casually lying on desks. By the time I left, I had sweated through a t-shirt, a shirt, an expensive suite and an innocent stranger waiting next to me at the bus stop.

The rest of the week was dedicated to packing all my possessions (including a desk) into bags to be taken home. Since I live in London, it’s not the hassle that the majority of other students feel, as my Dad will be driving down, but it’s still not the most fun thing to do. After stripping all the post-its from my wall and demolishing my two red bull towers with tiny wrecking balls, it’s quite clear that the year is over and I am really going to miss the accommodation I’ve had this year. My house in Hammersmith was fantastic and it’s going to be hard to top. Now begins all the fun of cancelling providers, final bills and pleading with estate agents not to take our security deposit. This summer I move back to North West London and try to put my time to good use.

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx

Please send me any questions, criticisms and kind words you might have.

Good Luck to everyone still in exam mode!!!

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

This made me smile

I was in such a good mood after my last exam. So good a mood that I practically skipped home and proceeded to tidy all the revision clutter from my room as if I were recoding a movie-style montage. The one thing I failed to do was utilise this rare moment to get some blogging done. Predictably, since then I’ve had another exam that went horrendously badly. Fortunately, the sun, the old faces I bumped into today and the Tesco lemon sorbet (Corrie’s Tweet, My Response) working its cooling magic down my oesophagus, have kept my spirits high enough for this to be a happy blog post.

So why was I in such a good mood a little bit ago? Simply because the exam I had that day went very well. This was rather significant, as prior to that one I had taken 4 papers that I had described as violating, repugnant and all the nasty profanities, I’m not allowed to use on this blog, in between. My morale had been shattered and I had no drive to carry on with all this tedious revision. Thanks to that exam and my housemate’s birthday party over the weekend, I was able to relax and re-invigorate my efforts to remain sane until June 11th.

Over the weekend we had a surprise party for my housemate Alex, who became what can only be described as, 21 years old. These kind of birthday parties are always fun, especially in the lead up, because of all the lying and deception involved. However, when the surprise party is to be held the weekend after the subject’s birthday, the levels of deception become a bit too overwhelming for anyones liking. Alex obviously wanted to organise something herself, so we all had to play along with the idea that there would be a party for her on Monday (when our one was on Sunday). Seems like a small inconvenience, but it involved: keeping communication regular and synchronised across 2 Facebook groups, involving over 20 people; faking bookings and reservations, by delaying everything by a day; and me lying about the dates of my exams (which gave me a false sense of security for a good few days). Luckily, all of this climaxed at a positive end and we were able to greet her in the restaurant with loud noises and party poppers. She didn’t suspect a thing.

My Irreplaceable Housemates

We had a huge meal, courtesy of Alex’s, very lovely, parents and her sister Jenni (who deserves a lot of recognition for the tremendous effort she put into the party). Afterwards went to the Ice Bar near Regent’s Street. For those of you unaware of the ice bar, it is exactly what it says on the tin. Imagine a relatively small room made entirely of ice: everything from the walls to the counter-tops to the drinks glasses. Now imagine the insatiable urge to lick everything that follows you into the room. You literally can’t resist it, and I certainly don’t regret it. This also sparked a little bit of competition between me and my housemate Mini, as we pressed our ice cold cups onto each others cheeks to see who would succumb to the cold first. It ended in a rather desensitised stalemate.

Do Try this at Home

After that was a bit of frolicking with lovely people in the park before returning home to play card games and chat until 4 in the morning. All the best bits about student life packed into one marvellous day. As part of the celebration the house made two short videos where we said a little happy birthday message to Alex. I promised them I wouldn’t publish any of this to the internet, for fears that it would humiliate them to the point of irreversible blushing, so I won’t, but I will say a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Alex here, as anyone who has read my first blog post will know that she was the one who persuaded me to become a Student Blogger and, is subsequently, in need of a massive hug and a great deal of thanks.

Now I return to the myopic schedule that will carry on for yet another week. I noticed today, upon meeting some lovely faces from last year in the library (Eluned, Goloka, Peggy, Sak & Daniel, if they happen to be reading), that it’s already taken over everyones social skills as we literally have nothing to talk about besides exams and what we are dreaming of doing after exams. Hopefully this week will go quickly and painlessly and my physical health and general state of mind can remain in tact for a celebratory blog post when it’s all over.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx