Summer Vacation Student Review

A great placement for any interested in security and software development. At Roke I also got to experience other parts of the business that I might be interested in, for example the electronic warfare group. Work is challenging but rewarding, I would rate it higher but I would prefer to work in electronics more than software.

As a small to medium sized business Roke makes you feel very at home and valued. The permanent staff are all friendly and treat you as an equal regardless of their own position within the company. The interns formed a rounders team and played many other teams in the company in friendly matches making us feel a part of the company and respected amount the permanent staff.

Having a line manager at Roke was very useful as they helped us get the most out of our placement and they also arranged meetings with areas of the business we would be interested in. Our project supervisors would visit at least once a week and also stop by every now and again to give general advice and support but also would be genuinely interested and provide their own ideas and sometimes even help with the work on your project.

There was always work to get on with when doing your project as it is about what you have set yourself but Roke knows that you might be new to some stuff so sitting watching videos on a new programming language or on a new concept is perfectly acceptable. Roke also provides many talks and enrichment activities that you are free to go along to and since you are working on your own project its up to you if you want to go. The workload is pretty much work at your pace and Roke understands that you might spend a whole week on something that looks easy but is a lot harder to implement than it may seem.

At Roke we were given the choice of some 50 projects to work in teams. 4 of us were working on a project. This project was a standalone and was shaped and created completely by the team, it was our responsibility, we did have guidance and support from supervisors in the form of weekly meetings to catch them up on progress and the next weeks plan.

As an electronics student I learned a lot of new software skills and network skills as part of my project that will help me not directly with my course but with my life after university. Roke was keen to help us in anyway, we had optional talks on presentations, GitLab and other enriching topics.

The office was comprised of just the interns in an innovation space. The office was very fun as 14 students working on separate projects but felt very much like one team, providing help to each other where we can. There was lots of communication / socialising as well as working providing a great balance.

The internship was very well set up and we knew what we were doing very early on. The only negative was that we did not know what the internship would entail before starting, as we only found out on day 2 after the first day was all introduction meetings. But once in the placement it felt very well organised.

Roke provided us with many means to ask for help with anything we needed and they also gave us opportunities to attend talks on topics we may be interested in. Roke also provided opportunities to visit and talk with departments you were more interested in, for example I spend the day with the electronic warfare department as that was what I was interested in as an electronic engineer.

Roke seem to have tried to make us all feel valued and they have made an effort to make the company appeal to us as a graduate opportunity. I will defiantly consider Roke for future placements and graduate opportunities. Roke also gave us opportunities to talk with existing grad students and ask any questions we may have. We also have the opportunity to become a Roke brand ambassador back at university.

The interns all got on and enjoyed socialising during the work day and alos outside of work. Roke also provided us with the opportunity to form a rounders team and play other Roke teams. We also went out as a group to the pub and an escape room which was great fun.

Southampton has cheap accommodation for the summer as the halls at the two universities become empty. As a student at Southampton university I stayed in my private rented flat that I would term time this saved me money and the cost of living in and around Southampton is reasonable. Roke provide a minibus to the local train station making long commutes possible if you live around the south west.

Romsey has a few pubs that are nice but Southampton has a bustling night life with many pubs and clubs for all types of people. The clubs in Southampton are pretty quiet in summer as the students have gone home. Stags, the uni bar at Southampton uni runs a great karaoke night on Thursdays too.

Roke has many social clubs to get involved in outside of work hours these include, cyber club, running, fishing, rounders, yoga, climbing. Roke also runs a festival in summer called RokeFest that is full of great activities. There are also many opportunities to do things in Southampton that are not associated with Roke.