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    Why Young Professionals Are Going to AeroVironment to Launch Their Careers

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    When you’re preparing to start your career, few decisions carry as much weight as where you go to school, what you study, and who you choose to work for after graduation. Among these choices, choosing the right employer requires some of the highest consideration.

    Aside from company culture, compensation packages, and job specifics, there is an incredibly important requirement everyone should look for: an environment that fosters personal growth and professional development. 

    AeroVironment (AV), a technology company specializing in the design and manufacturing of unmanned aircraft systems, is dedicated to empowering and promoting their employees and ensuring they thrive in their roles. This has led AV to attract and retain some of the top talent in aeronautics and engineering.

    In our conversations with three different team members who went from interns to full-time at AeroVironment, we learned about everything the company does to nurture their staff’s professional growth and the reasons why they have been so successful in building their careers with the company.

    Experiences That Go Beyond the Books

    Whether it’s putting a helicopter on Mars or creating satellites that bring Wi-Fi to remote parts of the world, AeroVironment interns and employees get to work on some of the most fascinating projects in aeronautical engineering. One of the main allures of doing this kind of work, especially from an intern level, is the confidence, insight, impact, and knowledge you get from it.

    After just one summer with AeroVironment, Savanna found herself far ahead of her classmates at The Georgia Institute of Technology. While that confidence and additional knowledge helped make her school year a little easier, Savanna was also able to use that insight beyond the books when she returned to AV the following year as well.

    Forged by Fire

    Another interesting detail about these experiences is that there is an abundance of new concepts or ideas – even for some of the most seasoned team members. This often leads to group problem-solving and a communal, forged-by-fire environment where collaboration and ingenuity thrive.

    As many students have come to know, formal training programs can get old fast. Not only that, the new Gen Z workforce is demanding that employers offer more than archaic training protocols. At AeroVironment, you are thrown into real aero and mechanical engineering scenarios with tenured professionals all working towards a common goal. This kind of boots-on-the-ground environment is exactly what creates people who know how to problem-solve, get things done, and make an impact on the world.

    Challenges That Lead to Growth

    One thing Chase mentioned is that a lot is learned “from the experience of doing, and sometimes failing.” In other words, employees at AeroVironment acquire skills and enhance their abilities not only by getting things right but also by embracing the lessons from their mistakes.

    This perspective on learning from your mistakes allows him to see it as a valuable tool for personal growth and development, which further emphasizes why AeroVironment is such an ideal place for young professionals to grow their careers. 

    It is incredibly difficult to test new limits and try new things when you’re afraid of making mistakes, especially at work. AeroVironment has created an environment that doesn’t look down on employees for their mistakes but instead uses it as a building block  to learn and grow from. This is what makes AV an ideal employer for someone looking to break into the industry and grow their skills from the bottom up.

    Friendly Environments That Foster Growth

    One of the best parts of starting a job is all the new people you meet and the connections you make. While everyone has different preferences regarding the degrees of coworker relationships, everyone can agree that being friendly and amicable with colleagues is much more enjoyable.

    AeroVironment is a place full of individuals who are really passionate about the work they do and the industry they’re in. After my conversations with a few employees, one thing I also noticed is that they were just as passionate about helping one another succeed. This being the case, it makes it really easy for everyone to get along. 

    One of the main benefits of this comradery is the effect it has on the work employees do with one another and the results that come of it.

    At AeroVironment, there are no outsiders. The team-oriented culture and the all-for-one mentality enable employees at every level to truly give their best effort.

    If you’re looking to get your start at a company that wants to see you succeed and gives you the tools to do it, consider checking out some of the open roles at AeroVironment. The projects they work on are impactful, the positions they have are lucrative, and their culture is unbeatable. More

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      This Company Is Helping To Put A Helicopter On Mars—And You Could Help

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      If you’re interested in aerospace engineering, getting one of your creations to outer space is probably a lifelong dream of yours. The good news is that you could accomplish that way sooner than you probably think.
      While getting something to Mars might seem like a stretch goal during your undergrad years, at AeroVironment—a specialized technology firm that collaborates with organizations like NASA and the US military—this is exactly the kind of project you could work on, even as an intern.
      We spoke to two AeroVironment engineers, Sara and Benjamin, who gave us an inside look at this exciting project and the company’s unique culture.
      The AeroVironment-NASA Collaboration And The Mars Helicopter
      AeroVironment was started by world renowned inventor and engineer, Dr. Paul B. MacCready, Jr. in 1971 as a small engineering firm focused on applying aerodynamic principles to solve important challenges facing the world. He became the first to design and build an aircraft that successfully achieved controlled human-powered flight, giving birth to the company’s reputation of achieving the impossible in aerospace engineering.  In fact, one of AeroVironment’s first projects was the Gossamer Condor, which was operated with pedals—like a bike—and now rests in the National Air and Space Museum.
      That spirit of innovation and unorthodox thinking led AeroVironment to become experts on unique technologies, and the leader in tactical unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones) and tactical missile systems. One of these experts is Benjamin, a Senior Aeromechanical Engineer, who works on the Mars Helicopter.
      So, what can he tell us about this ambitious project?
      “AeroVironment first worked with JPL [Jet Propulsion Lab, a federally funded wing of NASA] on this in the late 1990s, but the technology wasn’t quite there yet,” Benjamin tells us. “Around a decade later in 2013, JPL came back to us and asked us to start working with them on it again. Our goal was to develop a helicopter that could tag along with the next Mars Rover mission to demonstrate that helicopters can be useful in that type of environment.”
      Unlike a normal helicopter, which relies on the specific conditions of Earth’s gravity and atmosphere to achieve lift, the Mars Helicopter needs to have huge wings and an extremely light body in order to fly. Plus, it has to be capable of carrying a camera so they can use it to collect images and scientific data.
      “The Mars Rover, called Perseverance, launched on July 30, 2020. The helicopter onboard is called Ingenuity,” Benjamin says. “If its mission is successful, we’ll be looking into larger helicopters that could also collect interesting scientific data on other planets.”
      That means everyone at AeroVironment—and one day, possibly, you—will have a lot more exciting projects to grapple with. And as another engineer on the team, Sara, tells us, when you’re on the AeroVironment team, your work really is a part of the final product.
      Working At AeroVironment Means Taking On A Real Role, Right Away
      “Even when I was an intern, I loved the culture of being hands on, getting to try things and test things and see what works,” Sara, an Aeromechanical Engineer, says. “Now that I’m a full-time Aeromechanical Engineer, I still do. I do a little bit of everything: some design work and some building.”
      AeroVironment’s project teams, which work on products ranging from commercial and military-grade unmanned aircraft to moonshot technologies like the Mars Helicopter, are comprised of small groups of multifaceted engineers and technologists at all levels of seniority.
      “We have the resources of a larger company, but the culture of a smaller one,” Sara explains.
      Thanks to this structure, which is fairly unique in the world of aerospace, everyone on the team is able to come up with ideas, test them out, and contribute to the final product that makes it into the field.

      “Honestly, I have fun at work. We get to play in the shop. We get to be really innovative and creative with the things we’re building. We’re given a lot of freedom to try things and prototype and I really enjoy that aspect of our programs. I really like that rapid prototyping and rapid R&D. If we have an idea, we can just try it.”
      Sara, Aeromechanical Engineer at AeroVironment
      Whether you’re working on planetary exploration or innovating in the shop, at AeroVironment, opportunities to make history—and an amazing career—are always close at hand.
      Want to start your career in aerospace and technology? Check out open opportunities at AeroVironment on WayUp! More