Integration Engineer - Airworthiness Review

Slow start, but after about 5 months I started getting more serious and interesting work. I requested more work around March, and my workload increased very significantly. I currently enjoy the challenge, and the pressure is also increasing as responsibilities increase. I had a placement year at Caterpillar, and whilst the start was similar, there is now a stark difference and I enjoy this role much more. I believe my specific role of airworthiness is a good suit for me, rather than applying the technicalities of engineering, it applies the problem solving and critical thinking skills, in a new way - which is the core of engineering. The work is quite independent , and I hope I have the opportunity for a more involved team based project at some point. I like my team, although there is not much open support in the sense that team members don't offer advice or information or support etc, although if I do have a question, they are always open to answering as best as they can. Since this project is new, much of the work is novel to the team as a whole, which could explain this dynamic. There is much knowledge within the team which I have absorbed as best as I could, I could and should do more myself to reach out to absorb more of said knowledge. I just had a session with my mentor recently, and I was impressed by his accomplishments, and I got some good advice already in just one session, this was a pleasant surprise and I am looking forward to more mentoring sessions. Another recent development was an increase form 2 days to 3 days a week in office, mandated. This was unfortunate news for me because I had just moved back to my home city of Birmingham and made a financial commitment to a car, to commute - under the assumption of 2 days a week. The increase to 3 days means I would be travelling 600 miles a week, therefore I am in a very precarious situation and I will need to move back to Preston - leaving me in financial detriment. The worst part is that, if I knew this before I would have just stayed in Preston, and I would have in-fact taken the news as good news - as I much prefer and enjoy being in the office than out. I would also like to highlight that my manager gave me emotional support and reassurance during a low moment I had in the office due to personal circumstances. In the near future, both my manager and my manager's manager will retire - therefore I am partly anxious and uncertain about the future etc, but perhaps I would like the new team dynamic more than the current. Furthermore, my assigned "buddy" is changing teams, which is also a significant loss as he was a great help to me whilst starting up in this role. My main critique, if I may, would be the personal effectiveness modules, I appreciate and agree with the sentiment behind it, however I think the execution could be much better, especially given the increased size of cohorts - I have given feedback separately for this before, but in a nutshell - the topics are broad but lack depth. From what I have gathered by talking with others, they are not taken very seriously - which is a shame, because they definitely have potential to be beneficial to the growth and development of graduates. For example, separating the cohort into smaller groups and focusing and delving into a few topics (under the umbrella of one subject matter) which are targeted to the roles of the graduates. I also believe that more support and guidance should be given regarding stretch assignments, as most of what I know about them is from talking with other graduates. The same applies for registering to the iMechE - I appreciate that the process is unconventional due to the security concerns in BAE, but this should mean that even more guidance should be given - I have spoken to 4 people about this topic and have received different answers every time.
Overall, I really do appreciate this role and I am pleasantly surprised by how interested I am in the work (mostly), I have a good team, a supportive manager, I wish there was some flexibility in the mandated 3 day work due to my personal circumstances, my mentor is great, there is potential for the PE module scheme to be much better, and more guidance or at least contacts to reach out to regarding iMechE registration would be good.

MCRIs
Implementing TC
Reviewing specification standards
MoMs
Panel Meetings
Reviewing regulations
Certification Challenge Proformas
Contributing to Airspace Integration work

I think as my work plate and responsibilities have grown, I have been contributing more meaningfully - however I feel as if this is not for me to say. However, in terms of the opportunity to do so - I would say it is growing.

Due to my personal circumstances as described in the overall review, I am not in a good financial situation. If it wasn't for that, my score would be a 3.

Too soon to say, but my knowledge regarding airworthiness is growing, I should dip my toes into other areas, but my work load is too full currently to do so.

HR - none, difficult to even contact
Line Manager - the most, I am comfortable asking questions and discussing work and he is very supportive
Mentor - only one meeting so far, but hopes are high based on initial chat
Buddy - good but his knowledge was specific to one topic which I was not very involved in, showed me the ropes though - however he did project his perception of the team onto me, so far my experience has not aligned with his perception, but I am wary with the team and closed off slightly, partly due to this and partly due to my personality - which I need to work on to open up more.
Wider Company - not much, coaches and PE modules and grad leads etc not much, and not much at all when it comes to flexibility for my personal circumstances regarding the mandated 3 days a week in office

Very good, except from lack of flexibility regarding mandated 3 days a week in office due to personal circumstances, would definitely be a 5 otherwise.

Yes

Interesting work

Job role and work itself was above expectations. The grad scheme itself was about at my expectation (did not have high expectations)