Top secret projects and great career opportunities – 3 reasons to apply for a trainee position at Airbus

Interested in having a career in an international company? Airbus is now looking for business and tech trainees to join their teams in Helsinki and Jyväskylä. Read why the former trainees recommend the program and check out the links to the open positions!

This article has been written in collaboration with Airbus. 

Apply to Airbus’ trainee program now »

Did you know, that Airbus employs nearly 1150 professional world-wide in their secure land communications programme line, and that in Finland they operate in Helsinki and Jyväskylä?

The Airbus professionals working in both locations ensure that the communication networks that real-life heroes such as police, firefighters and other rescue personnel use work properly.

They also offer a lot of interesting career opportunities. In 2021 Airbus is going to continue to invest into young talent and are now looking for new trainees to join their teams.

We met with former Airbus trainees Heidi, Jenny and Jan and asked them why to apply. They gave us three solid reasons:

1. Important projects in an international environment

”It is cool to be a part of something that not a lot of people know even exists,” laughs bid manager Heidi Arppe who joined Airbus as a bid and sales trainee in 2018.

”Everyone knows that police officers and other safety professionals need to call each other, but they do not really think about the work that happens behind that call,” says Heidi.

The nature of the work means that trainees can not really talk about the projects in detail. ”Most of them are top secret, but let’s say that we help the people who save lives to do their jobs.”

We help people who save lives to do their jobs.

Airbus has offices in 17 different countries and employs professionals from various backgrounds. This is clearly visible in the Finnish offices too.

"If I had to describe our working environment in one word, it would definitely be international," says engineering student Jenny Salo who joined the test automation team three years ago. She adds that that was definitely one of the reasons why she applied to Airbus.

Jenny lists the international environment as a definite pro: ”We have people from various cultural backgrounds here in Helsinki and a whole international community surrounding us. That means that you get to improve your language skills and get to know different cultures.”

”The network that you get when working in an international environment is completely different compared to working in a smaller company,” adds Heidi.

2. Work (and play) with the other trainees and top industry experts

Trainees at Airbus are treated as one of the experts from day one.

”Joining the team as a trainee was easy. People were happy to get a fresh perspective and to have someone new to come up with new ideas. It was cool to notice how much they liked us to join the team. They never make you feel like that you’re younger or new to the field,” Heidi says.

Heidi and Jenny both describe Airbus’s working culture as very open. ”The people are easy to talk to and always willing to help”, Heidi says. ”There’s a lot of expertise and knowledge here, people are really willing to share that”, she continues.

Every year Airbus employs several trainees from different fields and getting to know the other trainees is also one of the highlights of the program. The trainees often spend time together outside working hours too. Face-to-face encounters have obviously been limited in 2020, but there have been a lot of virtual get-togethers instead, such as virtual coffee breaks.

3. Professional development and further career opportunities

”I haven’t had a single boring day while working here,” smiles software testing engineer Jan Keller who landed a permanent contract at Airbus after working as a trainee in 2014.

”After you start working here you keep learning new things constantly. New projects always teach you new things and you make new discoveries almost daily.”

Alongside learning by doing, Airbus also offers a lot of trainings. ”We have a versatile training catalogue and the traineeship obviously contains a lot of trainings. And if you want to develop yourself in some area you can also just ask your manager for further trainings.”

Like Jan, many of the trainees continue working at Airbus as part time or full time employees after the trainee program.

The application period for the next Airbus trainee program has started – check out the open positions:

Are you a business or an engineering student looking for the next step in your career?

Check out the different trainee opportunities below and apply now.

Trainee positions in Jyväskylä:

Trainee positions in Helsinki: