Pros
If you have drive, you can grasp opportunities to progress in the company and professionally. I went from Eng Tech Accreditation to CEng Accreditation in 3 years using the company accreditation scheme. I joined as a Project Leader and made it to the Executive management grades within 12 months. Part of the reason for this is it is a very demanding, delivery focused business where changes happen quickly, people move on or up and opportunities for professional mobility exist under the right conditions. It was a stepping stone role for me from my role in the armed forces to a very senior and well paid role at a competing nuclear industry, but I could not have have got this choice role I have now without the valuable experience from BAES. I really enjoyed it, but the workload was intense.
Cons
There is a real divide between Staff, Trades and the Management. This partisan behavior is particularly rife in the Barrow Site. Male dominated behaviors are also poor, with many women being kept down due to unconscious bias. The manning levels and recruiting profiles are so poor in certain areas in the Barrow site, that fear of industrial action paralyzes the functional management into appeasing unreasonable workforce demands, which in turn then set further expectations and precedents during sensitive stages in the delivery pan where a few employees mobilize the majority into holding the company to ransom over the awarding of pay.