At Apple, interns enjoy an hourly wage of around $38 which allows them to earn almost $7,000 a month. They also get paid for overtime work if they exceed more than 40 hours a week. Moreover, interns can earn twice their hourly wage should they find themselves working more than 60 hours a week.
A non-engineering intern at Apple can likewise earn around $2,500 a month if he is working part-time. This means that working full-time would allow him to earn $5,000 a month or $60,000 a year.
Apple's salary scheme for interns is considered to be on par when compared with other top tech firms. At Facebook and LinkedIn, the average monthly earning of an intern is more than $6,200 which is around $74,000 a year. Interns at VMware and Palantir also receive salaries that are said to be identical with their Apple counterparts.
There's only one policy that an Apple intern should remember at all times while working with the company and it's called "secrecy." Apple interns are briefed about the company's strict policy on secrecy from day one.
"They want to be able to release a product that everyone's happy about but no one knew about before," said a former Apple intern who only wanted to be called Brad. "You can't tell anyone anything about your job. You can't tell people outside your family what you're working on."
Brad added that the interview process at Apple is a whole lot different compared to how it goes at Facebook and Google. Interns are interviewed based on specific roles which are conducted by the manager of a particular team.
While Brad didn't disclose any of the interview questions that he had, he commented that the whole interview process was really simple.
Apart from being well-compensated, Apple interns are also provided with good accommodation. This is probably one of the best perks of being an Apple intern according to Maxime Britto who used to work with the Safari team in 2008.
"The greatest thing with housing is that you are not alone," said Britto. "You share it with three other interns from all around the world. It is a great way to learn and mix with other cultures."
This means that interns can possibly save up for the future since they don't have to worry about housing expenses. Apple provides free housing to interns around the Bay Area where they share the space with fellow Apple interns.
If, for instance, an intern prefers to rent an apartment, Apple will provide him a monthly allowance of $1,000 to pay for his rent. For those who come from other states or locations outside the U.S. and have decided to move out to the Bay Area because of their work at Apple, the company is willing to pay around $3,300 which should be enough to cover relocation expenses such as plane tickets and shipment of their personal stuff.
Apple employees are banned from taking "selfies" while inside the premises. They are not allowed to talk to anyone about what they are currently working on. Sometimes, they would find themselves working on a product without having an idea of what it actually is.
Another interesting perk is the opportunity to meet with company executives. These include everyone from CEO Tim Cook to Jony Ive who is the company's design chief. This opportunity comes up whenever the company holds a speaker series which runs once in every few weeks.
At Apple, most interns would end up having a fulltime job at the company if their performance has been commendable. Most of all, people at Apple show a different level of loyalty to the company. They don't want to look for other jobs.
"[You'll see] people coming into work in sports cars, and they are just normal engineers," said Brad. "Not high-up managers or anything like that. So you can see why they don't want to leave at this point."
