Information sciences and technology senior fulfills dream of working at Apple

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State student Logan Pratt and his family have used Apple products as long as he can remember. Pratt grew up using iPhones, iPods and Macintosh computers. As a lifelong consumer, Pratt also developed a dream of one day working for the company.

“My parents always had computers and I would play games on them as a kid, said Pratt.” “I was always on computers and phones because I thought the technology was interesting.”

Pratt started coding in middle school and quickly learned he wanted to pursue a tech career, which is what led him to the College of Information sciences and Technology and Penn State. Majoring in information sciences and technology, Pratt said he enjoys the project-based nature of his classes.

"What I like the most is that our classes are hands-on,” he said. “Most of the classes involve a project and something that you create, compared to just studying theory.”

During his second year at Penn State, Pratt decided to pursue his dream of working at Apple by applying for an internship. Although he initially wasn’t chosen for a position and accepted an internship with a different company, Pratt remained persistent on landing a role at his dream company and reconnected with the Apple recruiter in fall 2019 and landed an internship for the summer of 2020.

He accepted his Apple internship in March 2020, just as lockdowns due to the novel coronavirus pandemic started. Although he was originally planning on moving to Cupertino, California, to work at the company’s headquarters, he completed the internship virtually from home due to restrictions.

“I had a great experience,” Pratt said. “It was weird being remote and a little harder social wise, but I had a good time and met a bunch of cool people.”

Just before completing the internship, Pratt reached out to his supervisor to inquire about full-time positions. They immediately said they would love to continue to have him on the team. Pratt accepted the offer in September and will begin his career after graduation in May.

“I've been using Apple products my whole life,” said Pratt. “So when I got the opportunity to work for them, I was one hundred percent in. It was amazing to do things from the inside that the public can't see.”

Although Pratt can’t share certain information about his position due to his non-disclosure agreements, he will be a software engineer. He said that he spent most of the summer programming, working on projects relating to Apple’s App Store features during his internship, and will continue working on the same team in his full-time position.

As for the College of IST, Pratt said he got the best preparation for his internships and job he could have hoped for through his classes.

“Everything I've learned in IST has applied to what I did in my internship and what I'll be doing next year,” said Pratt.