Graduate Systems Engineer Review

Overall very good. BAE is an excellent company overall, with excellent benefits, above average pay, remote and hybrid work arrangements (for the time being), and an immense multitude of people and personalities working there.

My role generally only involves the reviewing and production of documentation, somewhat detached from engineering, and as such I have sometimes felt my skills aren't being utilized to their maximum extent.

The team is excellent and we do pull together very well and work well together when it gets busy. BAE has fostered an excellent culture (apart from one or two maybe "not so nice" individuals) that is always ready and keen to help.

Salary for a graduate in the North West is excellent. Benefits and access to perks are excellent too. As I mentioned before the working from home setup is excellent and something highly valued by most graduates.

Although BAE is a truly amazing company, I feel my role has been somewhat a disappointment. I don't really feel it's a real "engineering" or even systems engineering type role, and in some ways was somewhat mis sold (many systems and integration graduates feel the same). I feel that some of these roles, like the one I'm doing right now maybe could have been given to school leavers with some good A levels or college graduates (NC, HNC level), rather than people with full engineering degrees.
At worst I feel the role, and it's lack of development of skills and knowledge, may somewhat hamper my future career development, as it's a role I could see AI taking and doing within the next 10 years, and I haven't developed any "hard" skills since joining (Cameo, Catia, NX, SolidWorks, MatLab etc...). I think additionally it's a role that many agree is more suited for "end of career" workers, such as people who've been working at BAE for several decades and are now approaching retirement, rather than a new graduate.

In general excellent. I've never had any real issues accessing support whilst at BAE. Potentially some documentation going into the role explaining more in-depth an overview of the processes would've been good, rather than just being thrown in and expected to get it right first time.

Due to flexi time, working from home, early finish Fridays, the work-life balance is actually excellent. However that may change soon as the company seems to want to get rid of working from home or hybrid work.

Overall excellent. Apart from one or two managers who maybe aren't so nice, in general I think BAE has the best organisational culture I've came across.
I would say the company (and certainly some managers) would like to see people in the office almost every day, however I would say this conflicts with the company's commitment to diversity and inclusion, as some people, potentially due to a circumstance in their lives may prefer and work better at home.

In general very good. I think BAE has the right ideas, policies and mindsets when it comes to diversity, inclusion and accessibility. However I think potentially some managers need to be reminded of what it means to be truly diverse and how different people work and so on, instead of pushing a 50's style one size fits all approach to people and development (like working from home for example, some people who are neurodivergent may prefer to work from home more).

Yes

Overall great benefits, and good culture within a growing company with an international presence.

The short straw was the role. BAE is a truly excellent company but I honestly feel this role has been an immense let-down. It's been marketed as an engineering role when it just simply isn't and isn't a role that should be given to engineering graduates to develop their engineering skills.