The Graduate Leadership Blog

The Australian two-years graduate program includes medium-term rotations in different parts of the Australian business as well as a series of “Grad School” sessions to develop professional skills in a range of areas from software engineering to negotiation to the Maritime domain. In the second year, we also act as mentors to high school students competing in a STEM competition and this is what I want to talk about today.

In the Romanian language, there is a word presumed to have no accurate translation in any other language. This word is “dor” and the closest translation one could attempt in English is the idea of “missing someone/something so deeply to the point where it is heartbreaking to be away from it”.

My initial plan for my international rotation as part of the Saab Graduate Leadership Programme was to spend 8 weeks in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, the rotation shortened due to the COVID-19 situation but I was still able to complete half of my planned rotation, which I am very thankful for!

Last time I started talking about some of the interesting (and fun) things that I have noticed while working in Sweden. Apparently I had a lot to talk about (it’s pretty exciting being over here), more than a single blog post can handle, and so this is now part two!

Imagine yourself a mountain climber, having the opportunity to climb the coolest mountain you can think of. Standing at the foot of a mountain and looking up, it is rather steep. A thrill of excitement is running down your spine, looking forward to get going. You have prepared for a long time; you are feeling eager and strong. You climb, happily taking in the surroundings. 

The world is in turmoil right now due to the situation with the new virus, Covid-19. This has thrown the world into uncertain times and much confusion. There is no doubt that this is affecting everyone in one way or another. But I hope that people try to see the positive that still exists amongst us.

As the only 2019/2020 SGLP grad based outside of Sweden I am now working in Sweden for the next few months! This is only my second time visiting Sweden (the first being our first team week in October) but I’m already falling in love with the country. Despite not experiencing the incredibly cold winter with lots of snow I was promised/warned about, I have made many new and exciting discoveries about this Nordic nation. 

Eight months ago, I graduated from university thinking I knew everything about business models, financial statements, currency hedging and cash flow. Halfway through Saab’s graduate programme, I realise I couldn’t have been more wrong…

Saab's property function administers about 1 000 000 m² and that’s only in Sweden. Our workplace is basically the whole world. We go where Saab needs us, which means North and South America, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. Outside of Sweden we have more than 160 sites on 80 different locations.

A CERN physicist, a European Space Agency astronaut that participated in two missions to the International Space Station, and a professor at KTH are just a few of Christer’s credentials and now he has been a space consultant for Saab for 3 years, working on how the company can develop within the space sector in the future. 

We are built to move because it has been vital for us historically. Our ancestors were exposed to significant threats and their ability to move was essential for them to survive. Studies state that our brains work better if we move, which also gets us more creative and focused.

Two weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit one of the coolest technology fairs I have ever been to. It is called Slush, is located in Helsinki, Finland, and is one of the major start-up fairs in Europe. Only this year around 25 000 people have been visiting or exhibiting at the fair.  

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, as we learned, is a difficult task to achieve since we are all in such wide spread locations and have very different roles. 

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 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.