Careers

Robert Hind

The good thing about the Babcock graduate scheme is the variety. In eighteen months, I’ve worked on a number of land and marine production and design engineering projects. I’m currently on secondment to the MoD in Bristol, gaining valuable experience of working with our main customer.

I knew a bit about the scheme and the business beforehand, but I didn’t really get a full idea of the depth and breadth of all the different projects operating within the yard until I started to experience them first-hand. There’s a lot more to it than submarines and surface ships – it’s definitely a broader scheme than most.

At university I was interested in the nuclear industry, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into power generation. So this choice appealed because it allowed me to work in the nuclear industry from the perspective of the defence sector. I then discovered all the other business opportunities at this site – from warships to lifeboats and land vehicles – and it struck me that this would be a good place to work towards my IMechE chartership.

As you rotate around the business in your placements, you find that the culture can vary massively between departments – if you’ve grown used to an office-based design role, then production really feels like a jump from one extreme to the other. You initially wonder how you’re going to cope, but if you take the trouble to understand your colleagues, respect their experience and earn their respect, it can be a very enjoyable time. I actually want to go back there, so I must have survived okay!

The highlight for me so far has been standing on top of the Trafalgar Class submarine, HMS Tireless, during the undocking phase. It was absolutely fantastic, watching the submarine coming out of the dock and talking to some of the main guys on the sub. But of course, there’s inevitably the odd frustration too. Mainly that I always seem to have to park my car away from where I work!

If you do join the scheme, my advice would be to embrace every opportunity – you can go into all these different business areas and gain a lot of very useful experience. Sometimes it’s daunting, but get stuck in and the results are incredibly rewarding.

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