Career Prospects at BAE Systems Australia

Redundant question as I am still within the first 12 months of role.

Our company follows a structured performance review and development cycle. At the start of the year goals are set between you and your manager on where you want to go and what skills you would like to develop. During this any necessary training to fulfil this will be outlined and noted down. This is then put into the system and reviewed mid way through the year. During this review the current progress towards these goals are assessed and adjusted. Finally at the end of the year an overall review is held on how well you met the goals and what road blocks prevented others from being accomplished. Based on your performance you are given a score which then feeds into any salary progression. There are a variety of positions that are advertised internally that can be applied for, this is the main way to progress. An interview is held with the manager of the program that you are applying to, with the previous performance on other programs factoring into this. You may also be o_ered a promotion to the next grade based on your performance in the aforementioned reviews.

No sure

Big company, with lots of potential roles and opportunities

Seems limited on the technical side, although this isn't necessarily a company specific phenomenon. Would be great to see more onus on keeping internal skills, rather than having staff turn over to other companies, and then spending months of effort and budget training others to fill the void, when it would have been a lot cheaper to progress an employee internally. (This is more an observation, since I'm not at that point yet myself). In terms of grad progression, I do like the setup - you're just included in the work as any other employee, and therefore it also gives you the opportunities early on to set yourself up for the skills you want to progress, and to shape where you want to be in the next few years.

Very clear and set level of promotional opportunities, not sure about how often they occur but clear experience guidelines between different pay grades

As a graduate in a 3 year program, each person moves up at the same rate. Moving up a bracket each year for the 3 years. After that I am not too sure on how one can progress up the ranks.

As I am a graduate, I have not yet experienced promotion opportunities first hand. However, we do get support and mentoring to guide us in achieving our career goals.

I need to finish my graduate program before I can be promoted. It is a bit frustrating that the program I am in does not allow me to change to a different part of the business or to exit the program early and stay in the business.

I am excited to find an exit role that will help me feel fulfilled and passionate for the work I perform. As mentioned previously - The progression of a Grad can often be suppressed by the guidelines and expectation of the program.

I feel very good about my future with the company

I have absolutely no idea because we are not informed about this at all. Promotions and career progression opportunities do not seem to exist for graduates at all (even though it should be introduced in relation to our performance reviews). The company's distribution of this knowledge is extremely poor and not really graduate-focused at all.

There are so many opportunities to grow and develop your career at BAE, including changing functions. This is a company you can stay at for life, as even if you get bored or need a change of jobs you can move functions without leaving the company. As a graduate, I am getting a wide exposure to various types of jobs and have the ability to move around and to an extent chose what work I am interested in and pursue further. At the end of my graduate program I am guaranteed an exit role. Furthermore, senior leadership are very local about the opportunities available for career growth at BAE and are pro giving people more challenging work where they can further develop, rather than just giving someone the job because they are qualified and experienced in that area.

There are promotion opportunities within the projects as it is a growing industry, it often helps to know the relevant people who are looking to fill roles.

I do not know what it is like.

After 2 years we will have a transitional year to get ready for an exit role

Eh not great. Company doesn't really like moving people up grades despite working to that level. they seem to have a set timeframe for everyone for some reason.

There is a strong focus on career and professional development within the company but it is hard to tell whether this actually leads to tangible promotions. While there is clearly a lot of horizontal mobility it is difficult to tell for vertical. The company used to have a reputation of "The only way to get a promotion is if someone dies", hopefully this isn't true anymore.

I'm not satisfied because of the way the graduate program is structured, it feels like when you exit you are considered less than if the company hired a person externally into the exit role. This makes it feel like graduates will be forced to leave shortly after exiting the program to progress their careers.

The Company works upon the notion that you get out of the journey what you put it. The more you make contacts and discuss your intentions and aspirations the likelier you are to receive opportunities. Saying yes to a coffee goes a long way.