Millie’s Story: My Placement in Aerospace

Hi, I’m Millie, and I’m studying for a degree in Cybersecurity. I chose this field because I love problem solving and I’m really interested in investigation and cybercrime. In this post, I’m going to share my experience of doing a Year in Industry placement in Digital Technology with GE Aerospace at their Cardiff site.  For a bit of background, GE Aerospace is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, as well as integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.

A Creative Role

I started with GE Aerospace Wales in July as a Digital Technology Placement Student, meaning that I help support all the different digital technologies we have on site, such as digital tool development, digital signage and data visualisation reporting. Over the last few months, I have primarily worked on projects focusing on data analysis and visualisation. This is not something I'd done before the placement, but I've really learned to love it due to the problem solving needed for analysis, as well as the creativity in designing the data visualisations.

As part of my placement, I’m completing a curriculum to help me develop career skills. This includes on-the-job trainings (OJTs) and technical presentations.  Through OJTs, I’ve had the opportunity to shadow five people from departments across the company, including on the factory shop floor. This has allowed me to develop skills in a range of new areas, including logistics and planning, customer operations and data science.

The technical presentations help me to evaluate how much of a subject I truly understand and identify any gaps; when giving these presentations, I mimic the role of a technical expert. Like most of us, I don’t love presentations, so this started out tough, but the practice has made me get more comfortable with giving them.

Getting Career Ready

I've been working a lot to see where and how we can improve productivity, make processes more efficient and reduce errors, by getting rid of manual effort and automating processes, using dashboards and centralising data sources. It's been quite a big learning curve because cybersecurity and data science aren’t really the same thing, but it's been very valuable to learn. This is the first time I’ve been introduced to lean principles and FLIGHT DECK, GE Aerospace’s proprietary lean operating model, and I’ve found it’s really reshaped how I think about my work and my own growth, giving me a more structured way to focus on continuous improvement and how I deliver value. GE Aerospace is also an incredibly large company, with approximately 1,400 people at Wales, and more than 50,000 globally. The culture, processes and experience have been completely different to previous work experience opportunities I have had, greatly improving my professionalism and communication skills. Both technically and in soft skills, I feel I am more well-rounded now compared to when I first went into my placement (and university), so it has prepared me well for my future career.

The Social Side

I've recently come back from visiting one of our other sites for the week and shadowing their cybersecurity team. It was very reassuring to see how relevant my degree is to industry, as a lot of the tools and techniques the team used, I had experience with and knowledge of, because of my course modules, such as Digital Forensics and Ethical Hacking.

I’ve also been included in social and volunteering opportunities, such as an opportunity to watch the Welsh rugby team in Cardiff with colleagues from site, helping out with career fairs and school visits, as well as monthly placement student socials. They’ve been great opportunities to bond with my team, as well as for networking and learning about other people’s paths into digital technology and cybersecurity.

Why I Recommend the Placement Year

To anyone considering it, I would really recommend both the University of Chester’s BSc Cybersecurity degree and a Year in Industry placement – especially with GE Aerospace Wales! I’m coming back to my final year of university more motivated as I now better understand my degree’s relevance and what employers are looking for, as well as feeling more confident in my abilities. I also have a better understanding of the industry, and it has also reconfirmed my desire to go into the cybersecurity field.

Finally, the placement has also empowered me to start asking for more opportunities. Being new to a company (and industry), it can feel awkward to ask for things, but this placement has shown me that companies want to invest in new talent and help you grow.

The Careers and Employability team at Chester, as well as the support from my lecturers, really helped make a difference when applying. I made the most of services available, such as having my CV reviewed by a computer science career expert; completing mock, recorded interviews and improving based on feedback; hearing from previous students in my subject area who did placements; and getting support reviewing the contract for the role. I am very grateful for all the support.

I would also like to give a special thanks to GE Aerospace Wales, the site and global Early Careers teams, as well as my DT team. It has been an amazing experience, which has changed the way I will approach future roles. Having such a welcoming, encouraging and supportive team has been one of the biggest contributors to how much I’ve grown in terms of my technical and industry knowledge, and personal confidence.