After two internships with Apple Inc. and over four years of studies in the Case School of Engineering, Anna Sedlackova is ready to receive her bachelor’s in computer science this semester and pick up her master’s degree this spring as part of the integrated BS/MS program.
Anna will move to California post-graduation and build internal tools and new features for Apple’s Siri at Apple Park.
We met with Anna to ask her a couple of questions, such as what does it take to land an internship and a job with Apple. Her answer included, “being in the right place at the right time,” “meeting as many people as possible” and “a little bit of luck.”
How did you get connected with Apple and what did you do during your first internship?
“Craig Newmark [CWRU alumnus and Craigslist founder] helped fund my trip to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which is a conference that has about 20,000 women attend and part of it is a career fair with 500 companies. I talked to 30 companies, including Apple, and I really hit it off with them. I interned for Apple’s Product Integrity Department where I was building robots to test iPhones and iPads.”
What did you do during your second internship?
“I worked for the security team and I was building a machine-learning model to prioritize external security reports.”
How can students in the Case School of Engineering learn from each other?
“There’s so many new clubs popping up. Girls Who Code and Women in Tech are great resources that encourage women in STEM to come together, and in Hacker Society first- and second-year students are connected with upperclassmen and alumni. I’ve done it for the past three years and have gotten really close to my mentees.”
What advice would you offer to new students at CWRU?
“Join as many clubs as possible, and reach out to people, whether it’s professors or students. A lot of professors go out of their way to make sure their students are successful. That’s how I’ve gotten through college. I couldn’t imagine doing this by myself and not asking questions.”