Meet our Rokt’star summer interns
Summer is one of the best times of year for Rokt because we welcome interns to join us to experience day to day life at a fast-growing tech company! In honor of National Intern Day, we sat down with our summer interns that are joining us in the Engineering and Analytics departments to learn more about the skills they’ve learned, the challenges they’ve faced, and how they’ve enjoyed their time in NYC.
Tell us more about how you came across Rokt’s summer internship program.
Stephen (Engineering): I found Rokt at my career fair at Princeton! I really liked my interview process. The interviewers were all engaging and the process was smooth yet diligent. I was drawn to Rokt because I was interested in working at a well established startup because I knew there would be opportunities to learn and grow as much as possible.
At Rokt, we’re constantly looking to solve some of tech’s most interesting challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered at Rokt, and how did you solve them?
Kyle (Analytics): This summer, I’ve been working on a project with the primary goal to achieve automated statistical significance testing for all experiment data. The most challenging aspect has been handling holdout experiments. To address this, I was able to work directly with a data engineer and together we came up with an approach that was deployed seamlessly and allowed us to proceed with testing!
How has this internship influenced your career aspirations and goals?
Aditya (Engineering): I knew since I started university that I wanted to pursue a career in Software Engineering, but this is a broad category and I wasn’t sure which area I wanted to focus on. This internship has shown me the potential of working in a machine learning engineering role and has moved this focus to the top of my list of a career I want to pursue!
What skills have you gotten to work on and develop during your time here?
David (Engineering): I’ve gotten to develop so many new skills while I’ve been at Rokt! I’ve touched Docker, Kubernetes, gRPC and various AWS services as well as developed in Golang and Python.
The entire team has been so helpful in my development, from my manager, to the rest of the team. The smaller team sizes has given me the ability to get comfortable asking questions and they are always willing to have sit down and spend a half an hour (or more!) to explain something to me. I’ve leaned on them a lot during this summer.
What’s been your favorite part of spending summer in NYC?
David: Just walking around everyday! It’s been exciting to pass by iconic NYC just on my commute to the office like Washington Square Park and the Comedy Cellar.
Aditya: Definitely the people! I feel like people are so open and sociable, and I’m getting to meet people who I would have never had much in common with before moving here. Also, I haven’t even gotten to visit half the places on my list, but the Met and the Brooklyn Bridge Park basketball courts have been my favorite so far.
Stephen: The city has so much to offer, but I think my favorite part of spending summer in NYC has been getting to know the other Rokt interns. It’s also been exciting to see my friends from school here for their internships outside of a school environment — we are all growing up!
Kyle: One of my friends introduced me to a badminton place near the World Trade Center, and I go there every Thursday. I’ve been able to make new friends, and most of the players are quite competitive which has added some additional fun to those evenings!
What Rokt core value do you most identify with, and why?
David: I identify the most with Conquering New Frontiers. I always try to learn about new ways of doing things that are better or more efficient!
Aditya: Conquer New Frontiers. I love problem solving and considering new avenues that haven’t been considered before! I think this value resonates with me because I’m always trying to make a point to refine my current skill set to be the best engineer I can be!
Stephen: Force for Good – I’d like to be a person who changes the lives of people around me for the better!
Kyle: Conquer New Frontiers. I find so much satisfaction in taking on diverse challenges! Conquering New Frontiers represents to me that there’s always a constant path to improvement, and that holds a lot of value for me.
What was your favorite band or musical artist in high school?
David: I listened to a lot of Kid Cudi and J Cole.
Aditya: Travis Scott was my go to!
Stephen: Never had a band I follow, but I love classical music — so calming!
Kyle: Tokyo Accident was my band!I was deeply drawn to fusion jazz and rock music.
We’re always looking for individuals that thrive by challenging the status quo and love learning. Interested in learning more about starting your career at Rokt? Check out our careers page.