Hardware (Electronics and Firmware) Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my role as the Hardware Intern at Focusrite. I was able to experience many areas of the company and work with many different people, on top of gaining valuable experience into what an engineering position can be like on a daily basis.

Certainly the hardware team value the intern highly, as they contribute significantly to the operation of the team. The whole company values the employees highly. I could get along easily with members of other departments, there isn't very much cliquey-ness across the teams.

Support for all interns is handled with an assigned supervisor, who you will meet with weekly in a "1:1" session to discuss your work that week and any questions you might have. My supervisor was a member of the hardware team and I was able to ask questions at any time, and even worked with my supervisor on some tasks.

The workload on the hardware intern can vary, but there's always something to do! It can ramp up sometimes with lots of people requesting board mods/cables at once, but when it's a little quieter you can always work on finding and testing suitable alternative parts. I wouldn't say that there's a "perfect balance", but the nature of the role facilitates a varying workload so I don't think it's an issue.

The hardware intern has a number of fairly significant responsibilities, such as ordering parts/lab supplies, maintaining the hardware lab, and finding alternative parts which are critical but never put you under excessive pressure. Focusrite is great in that they avoid giving you work that is planned to a project timescale, as it isn't really fair to expect an intern to handle that sort of responsibility. If you must carry out work that is gating a project, it is always ensured that a more senior hardware engineer could step in if the timing is too critical.

I haven't finished the placement so I can't say for sure how these skills will assist me in my degree studies, however I believe that the skills I've gained (advanced soldering, CAD, Circuit design, hardware development in a team, and many more) will be invaluable in future job prospects. As well as the skills, the experience of working in an engineering company will help me settle in to a future job much more smoothly.

The atmosphere is quite relaxed, different departments have different levels of "fun". In hardware it's more middle of the road, a good balance between jokes and serious work.

Very well organised; you will spend the first four weeks overlapping with the previous placement student, who can teach you a lot, and then you can follow an induction checklist to book in time with the more senior engineers for more specific training. Everything was ready for me when I arrived, I was provided with a desk and computer, with all the relevant logins for the companies services.

Certainly you are given ample opportunity to learn about many aspects of the company, with a program to allow an intern to spend a day experiencing a different department. I was taught a lot of similar things to the other hardware engineers throughout the year as well.

Focusrite is certainly a very appealing place to work, and I dare say I will return, perhaps a little further in my career, once I've experienced a wider breadth of workplaces and roles.

There can be up 7 placement students at once, so there's a great opportunity to group up outside of work. I got along quite well with the other interns, but obviously this will change from year to year!

High Wycombe can be quite expensive,; it's a popular place to live for commuting into London. I was renting a two-bed flat with another intern for £775pcm excl. bills, which were about £40-50pcm. Socialising opportunities were higher than I was used to up north, but still affordable, and if you go as a big group the prices of activities such as bowling can come down per person.

There's quite a selection of nifty little bars around town that sell all sorts of quirky beers/cocktails and the like. I can't speak for the club scene as it's not my cup of tea, I'm afraid.

There's not a massive amount of things to do in Wycombe, but if you have a car there's quite a few clubs (usually musical) you could join that meet in Amersham or Aylesbury.