The Graduate Leadership Blog

An essential part of the graduate programme are the team weeks. We are going to have at least 6 weeks of them spread out over the entire year. These team weeks are great opportunities for the entire graduate group to be in the same place at the same time, which we learned, is a difficult task to achieve since we are all in such wide spread locations and have very different roles. Since these weeks are so special to us, we have decided to gather our thoughts and share with you our most memorable moments from our first two team weeks, which took place in October.

Hi and welcome to the Saab Graduate Leadership Blog of 2019/2020! Another year has passed by and now it’s our turn to grab the baton and start our run to the finish line. The senior graduates have completed the graduate programme and found their places within Saab, turning the blog over to us so we can tell you all about our experiences throughout the coming year. We would like to thank the graduates of 2018/2019 for sharing their experiences with us and for being so supportive and engaging and we hope we will make them proud.

The graduates of 18/19 are now ending their years and diving deep into their new roles all around Saab. However, before we hand over to the juniors, SGLP of 19/20, would we like to share one moment each from the year that we did not expect to experience. Trust us, it was not easy to pick.

I have just started writing this blog post and I realize I have already deceived you; there is of course no such thing as a typical day in the life of a Saab Graduate. During my time in the programme so far I have been at different business units every week, traveling across Sweden and the world meeting many of my amazing 17 000 colleagues.

Camel or horse-riding, 45° C or 25° C, skyscrapers or wooden cabins. Vast differences in culture and geographical attributes – this is what gets me going. How can it vary so much from country to country? Or actually, let’s look at it from a different angle – how can it be so similar?

I was nineteen years old when I happily entered the world’s biggest commercial aircraft, embarking on a working holiday trip to Australia. Airplanes have always fascinated me ever since I was a small kid, so this was a big deal – I loved flying. However, that flight turned into world news as one of the engines had an uncontained failure, leaving the aircraft crippled, and breaking somewhat of a world record in error messages.

When I walked in the door of the T-X building in Linköping, the first thing I saw was the poster on the wall that read, “We’re the T-X Team, Let’s Go Fly!” I knew immediately this was something I wanted to be a part of, now and in the future. For only being in Linköping for 4 weeks, I felt right at home very quickly. The only difference was the site was 20 time as big as our facility at home.

Even though Saab is a small company compared to some of the other players in the defense industry, looking at our footprint, Saab is indeed a global company. We have local offices in more than 30 countries spread out over all continents, except for Antarctica of course. For me, this program allowed me to travel to countries in four of the seven continents.

To me, gender equality at a workplace is essential and I believe that it contributes to a more dynamic, innovative and profitable business. One thing that I like about Saab is that the company is truly committed to working with gender equality, seeing the benefits of having a diversified work force. Since this work is something that I see and hear about on a daily basis, from management or in conversations by the coffee machine, I would like to lift some of the ways in which Saab works with gender equality.

It was a warm Wednesday afternoon in February when I first entered the doors at the GDDN site in Brazil. After a long day’s travel all the way from Sweden, I must admit I was quite jet-lagged and tired when I arrived. However, the welcoming smiles and greetings of everyone I met that day made me feel like I had just found a home away from home. This was my first experience of Brazil, and I had a great feeling about the upcoming two months I was going to spend there.

One week is of course not enough to completely understand how to do business with and in the United States. However, one week was perfect for us graduates as a team to get an introduction to Saab’s units and activities in the country as well as the relationship between Sweden and the U.S. We also had the opportunity to experience some true American culture outside of work. Let us, Johanna and Cajsa, tell you all about it!

It is now 8 months since the Saab Graduate Leadership Program started and I am now more than halfway through the program. The past 8 months have been packed with rotations at different parts of Saab, team weeks and of course a lot fun!

I have spent eight weeks in a completely new part of the world that I have never visited before, all by myself. It does not sound like an “ordinary out of the blue” thing to do when you put it in words like this, but I have to say that it has been one of the most remarkable things I have ever done.

It is not Sauron’s crown in Lord of the Rings shown above, although one could suspect author Tolkien was influenced by the rear part of a submarine in his drawings of Middle Earth. This is the Saab Kockums production line in Karlskrona, where the world’s most modern submarine is being built. During the end of last year, I got to spend five weeks within the A26 project as my first longer rotation outside of my home department at Aeronautics. It was an exciting experience coming from a project where we literally aim for the sky, to one where the deep waters rule.

Aero India is a premier biannual aerospace exhibition and air show with participation from all defence and aerospace companies conducting business in India. The show attracts visits from the political, bureaucratic and military spectrum and it is a perfect venue for Saab to meet with government officials, supplier representatives and to interact with the public.

As a graduate looking for a job in Sweden, the opportunities to work for cool, unique companies are abundant. Swedes are known for being both innovative and entrepreneurial, which is reflected in the rather large amount of globally successful companies that have their origins in our lovely, cold country. So why would you as a graduate choose Saab? Here is why I did!

Waking up at 3.30 AM is not my thing and probably never will be, but this morning was not like any other morning because I knew that in just a few hours I would be in Linköping, meeting up with the rest of the graduate group! It had been almost three months since all eight of us met last time so this is a moment I’ve really been looking forward to!

When I arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden, for my first rotation, I thought it would feel different working at a new facility half way across the world. After my second day, it already felt like home.

As a mechanical engineer, I have taken countless courses about materials, production processes, logistics, industrial economics – and the list goes on. Pretty much everything I have read about at university can be related to the design and production of an aircraft. However, spending three weeks in the Saab Aeronautics production unit in Linköping was truly an eye-opening experience to how all of that theory actually works in practice – and how all the pieces come together when building a Gripen fighter.

As I stepped out of the car an early morning in October, I felt my knees trembling with excitement for a moment. I took a deep breath, picked up my luggage and stepped into the conference facility. As soon as I walked in, the tickling nervousness butterflies (that I did not want to admit to myself that I felt) disappeared and I could notice that everyone else in the room also had awaited this week with anticipation. After a month at our home departments, it was finally time for our first team week as graduates.

It feels like November in Sweden 2018 has been the darkest month yet. Despite this, my mood was excellent one afternoon as I got a phone call from Saab Ventures, the spin-in and spin-off engine at Saab. I was soon going to visit Saab Ventures as one of my rotations and they asked if I wanted to join them and travel to Helsinki. Saab was going to visit SLUSH, a big event in Helsinki dedicated to start-ups. With over 20,000 attendees and 2,600 start-ups attending, Saab’s primary focus at SLUSH was scouting for potential collaborations.

The senior graduates have handed over the torch to us, the juniors, and we are slowly acclimating to our new roles and have finally started our great journey within Saab. While writing this, all of us are spread out across Sweden from north to south and are currently learning and developing our skills at our first or second rotation. Though we only have been part of Saab for roughly three months, a completely new world of knowledge has opened up in front of us. However, before we ramble on any further we would like to take this moment to first and foremost thank the graduates of 2017/2018 for being so helpful, friendly and answering all our questions.

And now, here below you will find an introduction of us, the graduates of 2018/2019. We are looking forward to sharing this journey with all of you!
 

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Graduates met for the first time in October 2017, but at the same time it feels like just moments ago. Time has come to sum up and reflect on our time in the program as the new junior Graduates are beginning to start their journey within the Saab Universe. We all set out with the desire to be able to further increase the collaboration between different offices within Saab, share Saab knowledge between all of the Saab units, and create a huge global Saab network and community.

It is now 14 months since Saab Graduate Leadership Program 17/18 took off and the final graduate team week is about to take place. It has been a fantastic experience and an important stepping stone for me as an individual. The learning curve was far more exponential than I would have ever imagined when I first stepped inside the Saab universe last summer. I would like to take the opportunity to bring you on a brief recap of my year as a graduate and show what a position within the program can include. Are you ready?

The Saab Graduate Leadership Program has provided the platform for the best year of my life. Being in SGLP has provided so many amazing experiences and opportunities that I never would've imagined a job could bring me! I have traveled to multiple different cities and countries, met incredible people, and have learned so much about Saab as a company and many of our world-class products.

9 months have passed since the “start shot” went off and WOW what a journey and a great experience it has been. In just 9 months I have had the opportunity to visit Saab sites from the most northern parts of Sweden to the most Southern one, a lot of them in between, as well as several sites abroad, and there are still more to come.

Seven months ago when I first found my way into the office in Järfälla. I was assigned an office together with my colleague Maria, two desks, two whiteboards and a large photo. The photo, illustrating London skyline, hanged just between our desks so that each time we entered, it faced us. The photo had a text printed to it – Anticipate Tomorrow.

As a Saab Graduate, you get to experience many different things during the 14 months period. From visiting different countries, meeting the CEO, and participating in air shows, to getting to work with amazing people and exciting projects.

As I am writing this, it’s mid-January and for the first time in a fortnight the sun is actually shining in London. Sometimes it hits me how much have happened the last five months, and I can hardly describe how pleased I am working in such an exciting line of business.

The history tells that the Swedish king, Karl XI, in 1679 needed a more strategic location for the royal navy base. He stood with the map over Sweden and pointed at the archipelago in south east corner. Later, the location became what we know as the city Karlskrona, the naval base and the shipyard. This is where we build the next generation submarine, the A26.