Flight Systems Engineer Ed Leggott
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Year of Graduation: 2009Title of Degree: MEng Systems EngineeringDept: Electronic & Electrical EngineeringJob title: Systems EngineerEmployer: BAE Systems |
Your background:
I was always geared towards engineering at school by being most competent in and interested in the sciences and Maths. I initially wanted to go into Chemical Engineering but was put off by the sheer lack of applied Chemistry content. It was at this point that I found out about Systems Engineering through a contact who knew about a Systems Engineering taster week for AS Level students run by BAE Systems at Warton. The five day course was residential and was run by four Loughborough Systems Engineering Industrial Placement students. This experience sealed the deal for me, as everything about Systems appealed to me and matched the skill set I would require for my aspirations for the future. I went on to study Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Geography at A Level, then took a GAP year before University in order to make up an age gap I had built up during my time at school, so I was 18 for when I started University.
Where are you now?
I currently work for BAE Systems as a Systems Engineer having done the Graduate Development Framework. This was a two year course that lets a graduate experience a wide range of roles within the company and allows them to make up their own mind about where, and in which role, they'd like to settle after the two years is up. For my placements, I did a year on a technical placement in Hawk Flight Systems at Brough, then six months at Warton on a contract team lending “softer” Engineering support to a large weapons contract as part of the UK – Saudi Arabia Typhoon “SALAM” contract. Finally I went fully non-technical and landed a placement working in the Chief Engineer’s Office on the F-35 Lightning II project.
I've found many things I learnt whilst at Loughborough have helped me a lot over the course of the last two and a half years and with hindsight the Systems course was perfect for my current job – on the Configuration Management team for the F-35 Lightning II project.
How did you get there?
Whilst at University, I had been put off going to BAE Systems as it's a well-known fact that a large proportion of Loughborough Systems graduates are employed by BAE Systems and this was something in my more rebellious days I wanted to steer away from. As a result I took a lot of modules in renewable energy which I hope will serve me well in the future, but when I applied for jobs in that sector I had limited success.
BAE Systems wasn't first on my list of places to apply to. The role into which I was assimilated was chosen for me, not chosen by me. This is standard for BAE Systems graduate recruitment, as they find headcount holes within their different departments and select the best candidate there is for that role. This means you have a job waiting for you before you are even interviewed; you just have to pass the process. As a result the competitiveness is removed and it becomes more about inner reflection and your own performance during the process. Since then my orientation within the company has been something solely by my own design. Once you have your foot in the door, then the company is your oyster and as a Graduate it’s your responsibility to eventually find your feet in an exit role that will further your career, and if you don’t, it is your own fault.
Where are you going?
Much as I have thoroughly enjoyed the last two and a half years at BAE Systems, I don’t see my long term future being with the company. With personal reasons being partly behind the reason for a move, I’m looking at leaving the company soon and moving to sunny Houston in Texas to pursue a career in the Oil and Gas world. Oil and Gas you say? Oh the irony, considering how I’d initially shunned the world of Chemical Engineering aged 15! Well I know nothing about Oil and Gas, but I have some highly transferrable Systems Engineering skills and experience that I can bring to the table, namely Root Cause Analysis, Lean Engineering, Process Improvement, Affordability Principles and Sustainment, and of course those modules in Renewable Energy I did back at uni, since the large Oil companies are looking down that road more and more these days due to global resources running out.
What if anything would you have done differently during your time at Loughborough University to help you prepare better for your career/life upon graduation?
I would have taken a placement year in between second and third year. Having seen undergraduates working in BAE Systems, I can see it as being a valuable nugget of experience that would have really benefitted my work ethic going into those final two years. I may have even pulled my finger out and got a first, like a lot of people did who come back from a year out with a revitalised approach to academic work.
What advice would you give to a student studying your subject at University now?
The concept of Systems Engineering has evolved a great deal in just the three year gap since I graduated. It has grown and spread through many Engineering courses and is now taken a lot more seriously by staff who want to not only see a set of sound technical deliverables in a piece of coursework, but also all the other things that make a project successful. Systems Engineering is about how you do something, and learning the basics at this early stage puts you head and shoulders above more experienced staff who didn't’ have the opportunity to study this at undergraduate level. So the advice around this is to take heed of the systems tools and concepts you are currently meant to be using during projects. This means actually using Gantt charts for a project, rather than just handing in the retrospective one that was created the night before the coursework deadline to tick the box, and always try and understand the bigger picture of what you are doing and don’t get your head stuck too far down in the weeds, however good at MATLAB you are.
The last bit is about opportunities. Learn how to spot them, and try and take as many of them as possible. I’ll be moving to Houston soon, leaving friends and family behind to pursue the American dream in a strange land where the letter ‘z’ crops up unexpectedly in some words. If things don’t work out, I will be back in 12 months doing something else, but I can firmly say I will be better off having that experience and coming back, rather than continuing what I’m currently doing for the next year.