The starting salary is good for a graduate however the development following the scheme is very slow unless you are exceptionally lucky (have friends in HR management). Expect 10 years of basic, boring admin work before you can become a manager empowered to make decisions. In this context the salary becomes average quite quickly and is no compensation for working for a very poor company.
Management structure is extremely antiquated and hierarchical. Although the design and marketing of the products is now much improved there is little to distinguish the management style from the days of British Leyland. There is no room for innovation or constructive criticism. Don't be fooled by the flashy brochures and romantic notion of working with nice products.
Dated systems and bureaucratic processes requiring a multitude of wet signatures. Management don't have to do deal with this so don't care that it is slow, inefficient and frustrating.
Sites and traffic/car parking. Truly awful. It takes an hour and a half to do the ten mile commute. Then once you get to site you can't find a space. You end up stressed by the time you get to your desk....
...that is if you are one of the lucky few to have a desk. Facilities are massively oversubscribed so hot desking is in place. Number of times I've had to work in corridors with a laptop on my knee. No concern for health and safety. Poor from a company that aspires to be a global organisation.
No scheme element to the graduate scheme. You will be placed as a c grade (basic office assistant) anywhere within the function. You can't move within the 2 years to experience another area nor go on placement. Despite the impression you may be given you are there to do basic admin for an under resourced function. Fill forms, issue Purchase orders and complete spreadsheets. Yes, there is training available but it generally focuses on business behaviours and does not teach you any valuable, transferable skills. No training to help you do the job. Literally on your first day you are put behind a PC and told you're now a buyer, crack on.
The atmosphere within the purchasing offices is very depressing. One of complete silence and sheer misery. This affected the health of a number of my colleagues during the scheme.
All the work is tactical and non strategic. As others have said, it's a case of fighting fires on a daily basis. Mad, blind panic as soon as something receives senior attention.
Of course HR could assist in rectifying the above. However they are equally under resourced and frankly don't care. They are there to protect managers, hire and fire. It sounds cliche but is genuinely the case in JLR which is testament to how outdated this company is. I'm sure they will respond to this post with some shiny nonsense about how they are grateful for the feedback, have learned lessons and will improve. Don't believe it, they are prone to lying.
If you are intelligent and ambitious this is not the place for you. At the close of the scheme a large number of my peers have left without completing the scheme as they couldn't handle the boredom or depression in some cases. They had to pay back their joining bonus to do so. Others that are left are now wondering what to do next as they haven't gained any distinguishable skills from the two years.
