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Engineering Career Day FAQs

Questions:

  1. 1. What are your responsibilities?

  2. 2. What do you find most challenging?

  3. 3. What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

  4. 4. What new skills have you had to learn since you started working?

  5. 5. What skills are most important to your job?

  6. 6. What personal characteristics are important in this career?

  7. 7. What education and experience are required to enter this field?

  8. 8. What is the outlook in this career field?

  9. 9. What is a typical career path for someone in this field? What are my opportunities for advancement?

  10. 10. How much, if any, is travel a factor is this job?

  11. 11. Is there a lot of interaction with other people?

  12. 12. What is the primary mission of BAE Systems?

  13. 13. What is your company structure (government, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership)?

  14. 14. Who are its customers? How do you market to your customers?

  15. 15. How do I find work or gain experience in this field?

Answers:

1. What are your responsibilities?

Most engineers at BAE Systems are responsible for designing, integrating, or testing a system. Many engineers work together on small and/or large teams, and each engineer is responsible for his or her own part of the entire project.

2. What do you find most challenging?

Keeping up with the changes occurring in the company, field, and projects. There are so many new and exciting programs at BAE Systems that engineers often find it hard to keep up with the many different types of technologies and diverse projects.

3. What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

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4. What new skills have you had to learn since you started working?

Several recent college hires pursue a master's degree, which is supported by BAE Systems. The company also encourages on- and off-site training in order to learn the newest engineering software tools that help you on the job. The company also offers general courses in several areas of interest to broaden each engineer's knowledge base.

5. What skills are most important to your job?

Communication skills are crucial. Even the brightest engineers waste time and money when there is a communication breakdown within their own team, across departments, or with customers. Being able to clearly and accurately express your ideas in presentations, meetings, and in writing to others is an extremely valuable skill.

6. What personal characteristics are important in this career?

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7. What education and experience are required to enter this field?

Most entry-level engineering positions require a bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline. Many people today are also going back to school for their master's degree. Many employees obtain their master's degrees working full-time while taking one or two courses per semester in the evenings. Most companies will reimburse their employees if they maintain good grades.

8. What is the outlook in this career field?

The sky is the limit! Engineering is one of the highest paying fields today. There will always be a demand to build bigger and better systems and discover new technologies, so there will always be a demand for engineers.

9. What is a typical career path for someone in this field? What are my opportunities for advancement?

After 3-5 years of experience, most engineers have the opportunity to become a team lead. Some engineers find that they love solving engineering problems and decide to pursue a path of becoming a technical expert in a topic of their choosing. Other engineers decide that they love working with people and like a balance of managing people and technical projects. There are several variations on those two themes: technical expert or management. You have a lot of time to figure out what technologies you like and the career path that best suits you.

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10. How much, if any, is travel a factor is this job?

Large companies usually have a wide range of travel responsibilities. Some positions may require frequent travel while others require very little. Usually, the choice is yours.

11. Is there a lot of interaction with other people?

Yes, quite a bit of interaction happens within the engineering teams. There is a balance between spending time working on your individual assignment and bringing your results back to the team.

12. What is the primary mission of BAE Systems?

Our portion of BAE Systems strives to Protect Those Who Protect Us. Basically, we build systems that help protect the men and women who serve and defend our country.

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13. What is your company structure (government, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership)?

BAE Systems is a defense contractor. Defense contractors are private corporations that perform tasks such as building large aircraft systems or researching new and upcoming technologies for the government. Contracts for these exciting projects are won by placing a price bid and submitting a written technical proposal.

14. Who are its customers? How do you market to your customers?

BAE Systems' main customers are the U.S. armed forces. We market to our customers by showing them our technology, and what we believe we can do in the future.

15. How do I find work or gain experience in this field?

Women in Technology, Engineering Explorer's Post, and FIRST are great extracurricular engineering activities. Project Lead the Way courses, C++, calculus, and physics are important high school courses that will prepare you for an undergraduate engineering degree. Participate in high school and college internships and co-ops in industry. Gaining research experience as an undergraduate is also very beneficial.

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