Graduate Aerospace Engineering Jobs

[Nic jones]

Guys,

I'm (finally) reaching the end of my degree and have reached that wonderful point where as well as trying to revise, finish my dissertation and bits of coursework, I am also attempting to apply for graduate jobs.

The problem is, the grad jobs in the Aero industry are either extremely few and far between or I'm just not looking in the right place.

Currently I'm signed up to Milkround and Graduate Jobs but I'm wondering if there are any other good sites to join?

Alternatively, if anybody wants to give me a job then feel free, I've got a vague idea of how to use (some) CFD software, CAD software and my forte would appear to be aerodynamics!

Cheers

[russ_a]

http:\\www.rolls-royce.com

[NoelWatson]

Nic jones said:

Guys,

I'm (finally) reaching the end of my degree and have reached that wonderful point where as well as trying to revise, finish my dissertation and bits of coursework, I am also attempting to apply for graduate jobs.

The problem is, the grad jobs in the Aero industry are either extremely few and far between or I'm just not looking in the right place.

Currently I'm signed up to Milkround and Graduate Jobs but I'm wondering if there are any other good sites to join?

Alternatively, if anybody wants to give me a job then feel free, I've got a vague idea of how to use (some) CFD software, CAD software and my forte would appear to be aerodynamics!

Cheers

I was on the Rolls grad scheme many years back

[RizzoTheRat]

Milkround is a good place to start, but worth wading through a fair few companies websites as most will advertise thier own jobs somewhere.

QinetiQ have a graduate scheme, no idea how many they take on though.
I think DSTL are only taking people on on short term placements at the moment
BAe obviously
Rolls as mentioned above
Some of the big American firms like GE and Lockheed have UK divisions.

There's then a massive amount of support companies making and designing smaller components, and the only way you're really likely to find out much about them is to search as many recruitment sites as you can find.


Good luck (I did internal aerodynamics for DERA and Rolls for quite a few years but changed trades some time back)

[cymtriks]

Rolls Royce

CFD sounds like a good thing to get into. Transferable and useful.

By the way they like you to do lots of stuf using their home grown FEA called SC03. I always ask for jobs that don't use it as it is non transferable to anywhere else. The same goes for anything involving turbines or combustion. A combination of tubines and combustion plus lots of SC03 will make you useless to most other employers. Bare that in mind, you cannot assume that your job will last for ever.

So that leaves shafts, casings, bearings, gears, general CFD/vibration/statics in FEA.

[TVRWazzock]

Smiths Industries in Bishops Cleeve.

Worked there for 12 years. Don't know what they are called now ?

[shirt]

if you're after a design role, look at the above. airbus has [or had?] a decent grad. scheme including a 6mth overseas placement with a supplier or customer.

have you considered the commercial side of things? a good friend of mine worked for a company called TES aviation from graduation and has had a very interesting career including lots of foreign travel. he's not yet 30 and just jumped ship to an american firm and i guess he's now on £50k+. another friend has just transferred to a commercial role with airbus in toulouse, which sounds like a good gig.

other than that i can't help. i have an MEng in aero eng. but have never worked in the industry.

[rhinochopig]

shirt said:

if you're after a design role, look at the above. airbus has [or had?] a decent grad. scheme including a 6mth overseas placement with a supplier or customer.

have you considered the commercial side of things? a good friend of mine worked for a company called TES aviation from graduation and has had a very interesting career including lots of foreign travel. he's not yet 30 and just jumped ship to an american firm and i guess he's now on £50k+. another friend has just transferred to a commercial role with airbus in toulouse, which sounds like a good gig.

other than that i can't help. i have an MEng in aero eng. but have never worked in the industry.

Totally agree. Only pick design / engineering side of things if you absolutely love it. Get into proj. man. in most of the companies listed and your career will see you earn more and climb the ladder faster. Design / Eng skills just aren't rewarded in this country. Very sad and frustrating, but it's just one of the facts of UK engineering.

[NoelWatson]

rhinochopig said:

shirt said:

if you're after a design role, look at the above. airbus has [or had?] a decent grad. scheme including a 6mth overseas placement with a supplier or customer.

have you considered the commercial side of things? a good friend of mine worked for a company called TES aviation from graduation and has had a very interesting career including lots of foreign travel. he's not yet 30 and just jumped ship to an american firm and i guess he's now on £50k+. another friend has just transferred to a commercial role with airbus in toulouse, which sounds like a good gig.

other than that i can't help. i have an MEng in aero eng. but have never worked in the industry.

Totally agree. Only pick design / engineering side of things if you absolutely love it. Get into proj. man. in most of the companies listed and your career will see you earn more and climb the ladder faster. Design / Eng skills just aren't rewarded in this country. Very sad and frustrating, but it's just one of the facts of UK engineering.

Agreed

[DJC]

BAE
Thales
Airbus
EADS
Astrium
Cobham
QT
MBDA
VTC
Goodrich
RR
GE
GD
LM
Boeing
Raytheon

Just off the top of my head.
More specifically to search and get mailed jobs every day www.careersandjobsuk.com . I find that website superb to set up searches and it mails me a list of matching jobs pretty much every day. Always some grad jobs on there in the industry.

[Nic jones]

Thanks for the advice guys, very interested in the project management side of things, is the natural progression not to go in at 'skivvy' level and work up through the team leader/manager routes?

I did a placement at Astrium in Stevenage and that appeared to be the way they did it there, although I'd imagine you can, with experience you can jump in at the higher levels?

I will have a hunt around the companies mentioned and see what they have going.

Thanks again, sorry for not replying sooner, the joys of the dissertation are looming!

[DJC]

Nic jones said:

Thanks for the advice guys, very interested in the project management side of things, is the natural progression not to go in at 'skivvy' level and work up through the team leader/manager routes?

I did a placement at Astrium in Stevenage and that appeared to be the way they did it there, although I'd imagine you can, with experience you can jump in at the higher levels?

I will have a hunt around the companies mentioned and see what they have going.

Thanks again, sorry for not replying sooner, the joys of the dissertation are looming!

Guess where Im currently working?

Do you want to come back here? What as? Qualifications? Experience? I can have a wander into HR and see what we got going at grad level.

[rhinochopig]

It is better to have a technical background, even if you want to do PM. There is nothing worse than an Eng. PM who has no understanding of the technical issues pertinent to the project they are working on.

The companies people have listed above typically work on projects that are beset with technical difficulties as they'll often employ new tech, work for the MoD [shudder], large litigious organisations, etc. All of these factors can mean regularly changing scope, mid phase re-designs, etc. etc.

Without a technical background you won't have the knowledge to be able to effectively decide on the necessary project contingency, or populate and manage the risk register, or make sure that you and your company's respective arses are covered. These last points are absolutely critical in UK engineering, as if you get it wrong, you could be on the receiving end of some mahoosive penalty clauses.

[dnb]

Defence work seems pretty dead at the moment from my point of view, so probably best to stick to the civil and space type companies rather than defence specialists at the moment - the MOD doesn't seem to have any money.

Unless you are really set on PM, I would at least consider systems engineering rather than PM. Simple reason here is that in my establishment, there is only one PM per project and considerably more systems engineering roles - system design authority, requirements management, technical specialists etc... Systems engineering seems to be rewarded almost as well as project management, but in the main does demand good technical skills.

For the record, I'm a radar systems engineer specialising in tracking systems. Most people don't have a clue what I do, so I tell them it's like join the dots puzzles with missing dots, extra fake dots and no numbers to help...

[CooperS]

I work for BAE and i see alot of engineering grads who though their time with us will be given roles or series of tasks which are PM focused be it performance reporting, governing ops roles or things which a typical engineer wouldn't be solely accountable for

Also thou i would agree there is far from alot of money washing around the projects the MoD have placed some of the larger projects are in a period of ramping up and the opportunities for a engineering grad are high.

[NoelWatson]

CooperS said:

and the opportunities for a engineering grad are high.

Assuming they work in something other than Engineering in the UK, agreed.

[Turbo5]

Try the company I work for. they have quite a few companies in the UK.
http://www.safran-group.com/?lang=en

[Puggit]

Good luck with it all - I dropped out of Aeronautical Engineering as I found it too hard... to do Chemistry instead!