engineer

manufacturing engineer

system engineer

project manager

software engineer

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is a great company to work for, but the apprenticeship has had its issues.

Since day one there has been issues with the way the apprenticeship has been managed, a combination from the company and the external college which provided the foundation training. Most of these issues have been in the form of miss-communication, high levels of apprentice management staff turnover and under-trained staff working at the college. This has resulted in a lot of stressful situations which could normally be rectified easily but with the bloated management system for apprentices, it seems many issues are allowed to develop rather than being rectified promptly. 

One the other hand, the company has done well to protect the vast majority of apprentice jobs throughout the pandemic, and the quality of learning and training I have had whilst in the workplace has been fantastic. The pay is decent for apprentices and becomes very competitive once qualified. The workload is very manageable and there is flexibility with choosing shift patterns. (At least where I work, and qualified).
Overall I would recommend an Apprenticeship at RR but just try to keep yourself focused on the end goal. There will likely be times when stress builds due to factors out of your control, but this can be avoided by trying not to get caught-up with these matters. At the end of the day, the more you put in, the more you will get out of it. Keep that in mind and you can go far at Rolls-Royce.

I worked as a contractor at the Inchinnan site for just over 6 months. Wages were excellent as are the benefits if you are a full time employee. Unfortunately i had a bit of a rough ride during my time as from day one i witnessed bullying of collegues and even managers it was a toxic environment at times if it wasnt for the money i would have probably walked out. I found that a lot of the staff were long timers over 20years experience and they were the worst. They knew the system well and banded together to manipulate newer workers, contractors and again even managers. You couldn't just turn up and get on with your work without worrying you would be targeted for something. Work wise it was a very laid back atmosphere probably too laid back the company could save alot of money if they kept on top of the workers and timescales. I started at the same time as a large number of contractors who also couldnt believe what staff would get away with especially for the money you are paid. Now although my experience was mainly negative I must say that there were some really great guys in there and the work itself enjoyable when you could get on with it. Unfortunately my contract was terminated early in March due to covid-19 crisis. Although they had been given the chance to furlough us at no cost to themselves the company decided to send us home for a week and halfway through we received a call to say our contract was finished. We were not even allowed to go back to pick up our belongings from our lockers. A truly awful experience and as we were contractors the union was no where to be seen.

Working in this office has been a genuinely positive experience. From the first day, I felt welcomed by a friendly and supportive team who were always willing to help and answer questions. The working environment is professional while still being relaxed, making it easy to stay motivated and enjoy coming to work each day.
Management communicates clearly, values employees' opinions, and recognises hard work, which creates a culture where people feel appreciated. There are plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and develop professionally, and colleagues are encouraged to share ideas and work together to achieve common goals.
The workload is well organised, with realistic expectations and the flexibility to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The office is well equipped, clean, and comfortable, making it a pleasant place to spend the working day.
I have enjoyed building strong relationships with my colleagues and being part of a team that genuinely supports one another. The company encourages collaboration, respect, and continuous improvement, which makes it a rewarding place to work.
Overall, I would highly recommend this workplace to anyone looking for a positive, supportive, and professional office environment with opportunities for personal growth and career development.

Having had a career as a senior designer for 20 years, I joined Rolls-Royce as a contractor via a third-party recrutiment firm. Prior to this, I had been one a team of responsible mechinical engineers on projects globally.

When I entered RR I was completelty shocked, it was akin to cultute shock. 

I could not believe the lack of innovation in the engineering teams, the arrogance and the foolishness of the employees. It was truly embarrasing.

After about 2 week, I had temriinated my contract and moved somewhere else. 

RR is a compnay that now relies on former employees that made them what they was. This is no longer the case. Graduates with engineering degrees who have never twisted a wrench, never worked on home projects and couldn't identify basic hand tools.

Managers with titles that made little sense or contribution to innovation or productivety, speaking to employees and contractors like they're the God's of engineering.

Parking, nightmare!

Benefits are in-line with other "blue-chip" business.

I worked as a Manufacturing Engineer within New Product Introduction. This meant I was exposed to cutting edge products (aircraft engines) and was responsible for aiding in the build procedures, specifically reducing lead time, build issues and resolving design/instructional issues.
I learned a significant amount during my employment at Rolls Royce. The experience of working in a world wide organisation that had an extensive range of products and services and how they linked together was excellent. I also experienced working in a heavily regulated environment where all aspect of work were governed by a Quality Management System that linked with legal requirements.
I enjoyed working in cross-functional teams which meant I got a greater exposure and a chance to learn different aspects of work within the company.
The most enjoyable part of my role was getting to learn about all the build procedures and how an aircraft engine worked and all the intricacies of the design process. I also really enjoyed improving procedures to reduce lead time and/or improve the build quality.

MY role was a quality control inspector, working on testing electric wiring harnesses that would be fitted to a royal Navy, Lynx helicopter jet engine. My day would be to check on goods inwards on the components ensuring that they met the MOD requirements; this involved destructive and non-destructive testing.
I learned a about working to MOD, and Rolls Royce quality control processes, able to provide evidence of testing and regular on site testing.
The management and work based culture was to ensure that any (AOG air craft on ground) was addressed and rectified. Good work ethic in supporting people in training and development progression.

The hardest part of the job was to achieve the requirements laid down by the MOD, to ensure that your certification was not compromised.

The enjoyable part was seeing and knowing that you have been an integral part of ensuring that the respective jet engine component was fit for purpose and having your unique MOD inspection number clearly visible on the respective components.

Great job satisfaction in producing a fantastic product (although not exactly environmentally friendly).
RR is heavily overweight in middle management roles: This has meant enhancement from the grades is more likely to be a horizontal move to another department or a long trial as a manager, without the benefits. Sadly, the reasoning for advancement for some was more about accepting ridiculous hours and breaking up effective teams and pitting people against each other, creating a blame culture.
Note: Favouritism and poor people management skills are not traits of quality leadership! You could find yourself overloaded whilst others in you team are sitting about chatting. Yet those same people would get exactly the same bonus as you... not acceptable.
The loss of the DB pension was the final straw, which emboldened a number of long standing employees to leave, including myself.

I have worked at RR for many years, it is a great place to work as an engineer. You get to be around incredibly smart and focused people with really high tech. things and there are a great deal of internal opportunities to grow and learn. Work can be high pressure but the support from your peers is excellent.

If you wish, you could stay in a role for a lifetime and become a specialist or move around the company and try many different and diverse roles.

I find everyone is committed to safety and quality.

Flexible working opportunities are fantastic and work-life balance is great.

One gripe I have is that there really isn't much of a work culture, cost cutting over the years has eliminated anything I would class as even remotely interesting about the work environment. Don't expect much socialising, Christmas parties or anything - unless you're going to arrange it yourself. Depending on where you're based your canteen options could be OK or extremely limited.

Good place to work. Welll motivated staff, my immediate working environment at the time was great. We had a good team, we integrated well and we socialised well also. I found as a team it was well balanced one, for the good guys to excel and two, for the weaker guys to get the correct assistance to grow. The expertise and knowledge was placed in a way so help was available when needed, and the culture of the company standard was maintained. I have no doubt the team I left will go on to achieve great things. Covid-19 has changed that now though. So I’m told.

Very good financial rewards with reasonable salaries and generous share bonus and savings schemes for all. 

However, if you worked 40 years here don't expect any thank you's from higher management. Just be glad your line manager and friends are there to see you off!  Poor staff respect.

Its a shame they have an ignorant attitude towards peoples hard work and don't invest any time in any staff events (sporting, work recognition or even social evenings). Nothing to do with money either.

Poor decision example: 
Why have a perfectly good canteen serving hot-food for hard workers when you can strip it all out and force them to eat high priced vending food. Now everyone just eats at their desks. How sad. Get the idea of management here!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Engineer 32 salaries reported	£50,921 per year
Manufacturing engineer 5 salaries reported	£52,630 per year
System engineer 5 salaries reported	£45,480 per year
Project manager 7 salaries reported	£62,859 per year
Software engineer 6 salaries reported	£50,325 per year

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