Early Career Systems Engineering
I currently work in the defence sector doing design work as a grad. I took my current job at a small company thinking I’d enjoy the design and (mostly) analysis work - which was good. But I’ve now been here close to a year and had more interest in the systems/requirements aspect of the project (which was fairly light here - requirements in a spreadsheet). I’ve also had a renewed interest in MBSE and working with SysML (especially after playing around with V2).
I’ve been considering applying to some junior roles as a systems engineer at some of the defence primes, I’m wondering if anyone had some advice with regards to transitioning to systems engineering, what an upward career looks like in systems, how systems compared to other specialisations in Australia and if working as a systems engineer can be pigeonholing.
My main doubt comes from leaving a position that has a wide breadth of engineering work for something more specialised this early. My pulls for leaving are that I don’t currently have a strong technical lead above me so I feel I’m lacking some mentoring, the work is inconsistent (some weeks no work, other weeks stacked) and also my current pay is quite low.
I’d describe my comfort technical areas being solid mechanics, analysis, design (mostly aero structures) and system engineering with some light experience in MBSE (magic and papyrus).
Any advice would be appreciated.