Anne Marie Heywood: My Experience at Apple
Last summer, I was fortunate to join Apple as an intern in Worldwide Sales Finance. I originally planned to live in Cupertino near headquarters, but the internship shifted to a virtual setting and I worked from my hometown in Washington. I was amazed at how smoothly the onboarding went and how connected I felt with my team even though we were limited to FaceTime and Webex calls.
My role on the team spanned across three products – Mac, AirPods, and HomePod – and my role was different for each product. At the start of my internship in June, I primarily focused on Mac. I spent the first several weeks adjusting to the new role and supported my team in creating the Keynote slides for our weekly reviews with executive leadership.
My role expanded to include AirPods and HomePod toward the end of July, while I continued to assist with Mac. For AirPods, I worked extensively in Excel to create a deep dive model on the AirPods Back to School promotion performance compared against historical Beats offers. This eventually became part of weekly reviews with leadership. For HomePod, I managed the weekly forecast and worked with multiple business partners to align our forecasts. I also worked to update the Mac NPI tracker to include launch lift and write-off data. This increased the usability of the tracker, as well as incorporated analyses to benefit teams outside of WWSF.
Outside of work, our team found ways to virtually get together. One member on our team is a yoga instructor, so we started one day with a group yoga session. My manager is an incredible artist, so we had a drawing class on how to draw a human face. Another team member loves trivia, so we had an Apple Trivia afternoon. There were also several intern events scattered throughout the summer, which was a great opportunity to meet the rest of my intern class.
I cannot wait to join Apple as a full-time employee next fall. My first two years will be in the Finance Development Program, in which I will rotate to a new team within finance every few months.
I am incredibly grateful for my manager, Kelley, and her manager, Tabitha, for their openness to me from day one and their effort to make me an integral part of the WWSF team. I remain in touch with them as my mentors and friends.