Developing as a graduate in Roke is great for the first year. But after this first year, reality sets in. This is not an environment that actually cares to develop you after a set stage.
Every year since I joined, the intake of new graduates has increased and increased, now resulting in almost anyone being offered a position based on something as simple as how many people show up to an assessment centre.
This is a backwards response to the well known fact that the company has an attrition problem, to the extent where the leadership believe that it is more effective to hire more new starters than to attempt to keep them.
Every day I personally hear about more and more Engineers/Senior Engineers taking offers elsewhere for much fairer salaries and greater benefit. And every day I also hear more problems about human resourcing, resourcing, senior leadership and a general lack of care to retain current staff.
It is my honest opinion that if a graduate is offered a position here, they should take it if there are no better offers, use the two years as a graduate to develop skills and then upon finishing the graduate scheme, start applying to new positions. If you choose to remain, you will be artificially kept at your current level, even if you work to a higher grade. I've been working a grade, sometimes two grades higher than what I am earning right now, and every time I've tried to push for a promotion, I've been rejected with no precise reason, therefore not giving me any meaningful feedback to use in order to actually advance.
Many engineers have withdrawn from the work and are not putting in the same effort as they did years ago. Now I see why and I don't blame them.
