What's your job about?
Saab is all about keeping people safe, and in Australia, this means delivering capabilities and projects within the defence and civil security industries.
For me as a graduate, it means being involved in a wide range of experiences across two big sectors, working with great people and learning all the time.
I am currently working as a Combat System Engineer within Maritime out of Rockingham. At the moment my role varies from supporting a trade study and requirements tracing, to spending time out on the ANZAC class frigates performing software installations and validating changes to the Combat Management System (one of Saab’s software products co-developed in Australia and Sweden called 9LV).
What's your background?
I grew up in Perth and spent most of my time swimming competitively and taking many extra-curricular opportunities such as school productions and the Da Vinci Decathlon. I enjoyed learning and problem-solving, which led me to engineering and programming at university. Continuing to take extra-curricular opportunities is what made a big difference in my ability to learn, and joining the Curtin Motorsport Team (FSAE) is one of the best commitments I made during my time at university. It taught me so much more than engineering and only now that I am working full-time do I fully appreciate the skills and experiences that I have. I strongly believe that going above and beyond, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and giving things a go is the place to be. It is challenging, but if you can handle that challenge there is so much out there to learn about yourself and the world.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! Diversity is such an asset, no matter your background, your experiences and history shape how you see the world and what you bring to the table. I would love to work on a team with people from different backgrounds, and I think that is absolutely possible at Saab.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing, aside from working with great people, has been working on ships and with the Navy. To get up early, be ferried out to an ANZAC ship off the coast of Garden Island, and spend a day onboard working alongside the Navy staff solving problems is one of the coolest things I’ve done. It is such a unique and exciting experience, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to have these opportunities at Saab as a graduate.
What are the limitations of your job?
One limitation is the security requirements of what we do. Being in defence, there are tight controls over information sharing, which affects some of the organic opportunities around the office to learn new things about systems you are not involved in. It has taken me some time to adjust to this, and I feel that it is a lot less limiting than I originally perceived it to be.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...