Apple co-op leads UC student to dream job with the tech giant

“With co-op being required, I knew I would be advocated to have these awesome experiences that could lead to a full-time job in the future,” Bass said.

Bass’ experience of converting his co-op into a job offer isn’t unusual—75 percent of UC CEAS students receive at least one full-time job offer from their co-op employers. 

In addition to his co-op at Apple in the summer of 2019, Bass’ undergraduate co-op experience included working as a software engineer intern at Siemens PLM Software on the research and development team; at a start-up called Astronomer working on a new platform for data engineering; and as a mobile development engineer at Intuit in San Diego helping to build their TurboTax iOS app. He said having a variety of co-op experiences from companies that ranged from a small start-up to a global tech giant helped him test out different jobs, which ultimately helped build his confidence in the trajectory he set for his career.

Bass was able to get his foot in the door at Intuit and Apple because of UC alumni and professor connections at those companies. CEAS students can also find their co-op jobs through on-campus career fairs, an online database of employers, and with the help of a co-op advisor from the Department of Experience-Based Learning and Career Education.  

“I have co-oped in Silicon Valley with people from other schools and the UC co-op program is just on a totally different level than other universities,” Bass said. “We do it so much better.”

In addition to co-op, Bass said his involvement in student organizations on campus provided another avenue to expand on his time in the classroom. While at UC, he took on leadership roles in ACM, the computer science and programming club. He also served as director of RevolutionUC, a 24-hour hackathon that has grown to include more than 300 students annually from UC and other universities and high schools in the region.