Apple Reflections
To start with it gave me a taste of navigating London on my own. Something I haven't really done before as the only times I have been to London has been with friends or family.
The day began by meeting my fellow interviewees. Meeting a large number of new people is something I haven't had to deal with since first year, I found it quite nerve-racking but everyone seemed friendly, and equally as nervous.
We were then invited into a room where each table had five seats around it and our names assigned to a seat. The day had serval internships available. Each table only had one graphic design hopeful. The head of each department explained their role and what they were looking for in an intern and what the role involved.
We then had a 5-minute speed interview with two managers. I spoke to the graphic design manager and the App Store manager. I was shaky on the first interview, which was unfortunate as this was the position I wanted. He asked me generic questions like 'how would your friends describe you in three words' and 'what is key to great customer service.' Honestly, I wasn't prepared for questions like this, but I tried to answer them as well as I could. The next speed interview went much better. He asked me questions about the work in my portfolio and had my CV in front of him to ask me more in-depth questions about things I had written about. I spoke about my experience set building at Boardmasters Music Festival and the Swim Smart App I made.
After this, we were set a challenge within the groups we were sat in. We had 45 minutes to pitch a new idea to the app store. We chose to promote Deliciously Ella's new app. This was ideal as it had been released within the week and was very current. We chose to create a book club in collaboration with iBooks to promote a curated set of cookbooks and fitness books chosen by Ella. I was in charge of the visual aspects. Colours, textures, imagery and typefaces. I justified this by looking at her existing branding and carrying it through and applying it to the pitch. We then decided how we would promote this through social media and emails. We chose the target audience and explained how it would compete in a saturated market. I had to create the deck to pitch. We were provided with iPads and had to create the deck on Keynote. I have had no experience with Keynote up until this point so this was a big learning curb and we had no time to make mistakes.
I was nervous when we were told what we had to do. I had been told by friends that had previously attended assessment centres that I would have to compete to be heard and would have to be loud and make an impact. This isn't really in my nature. But the group I was with were actually very nice. everyone got a chance to input their idea and there were no egos, but people were confident when presenting which made me feel more confident.
After everyone presented there was a short break. The managers then came back in and explained that if your name was read out then you were to collect your things and leave the room. My name was the second to be read out. At this point, I had no idea if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
We were led upstairs and told that we had made it through to the second part of the day.
From here we had a 20-minute interview with our chosen manager. This interview went much better. I was more relaxed as we were talking about my work and I knew what I wanted to say. My website came in very handy at this point. I think I did well explaining my work and what I enjoyed making, while also making sure he knew I was keen to explore more and continue to develop my practice if I were to be hired. I was also glad I did a lot of research on the company as he asked me what I would ask Tim Cook if I had the chance. I told him I would ask him if he knew what the role of AI would be in his company in the next 10 years.
I struggled with the question of what would I remove from my portfolio if I had to. This was difficult as my portfolio is a curated collection of my work. The work is in my portfolio because I think it is good enough to represent my work.
Finally, I wish I had spoken about my interest in music more as it was an Apple Music interview. I wish I had spoken about going to gigs as I try to see live music as much as I can.
In the end, I didn't get the job.
Really I am kind of glad. I didn't think I would get this far and top 4 is quite a big achievement. I wasn't that disappointed as I'm not sure London is for me, at least not yet anyway. It seemed too chaotic and as if everyone is there for their own gain. I think it would be quite difficult to make meaningful relationships if everyone in the city is there for their own career progression. I want to do well in the creative industry, but I also want to enjoy being young and have a good time. I'm not sure I could do that in London. This may seem a bit cynical, but I am a northerner after all.
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