There is simply no opportunity to really learn critical thinking skills or applicable technical skills (outside of the apprenticeship). I was performing as an "engineer" at PSNS and all the training and classes they send engineers to only provide knowledge. And its all regurgitated Navy knowledge. It doesn't provide problem solving ability or critical thinking ability. Engineers are encouraged to copy and paste work instructions from previous projects to current projects which provides no opportunity to critically assess the work instructions being passed on. Therefore when the production employees receive the work instructions they don't have the right material or the right dimensions. Never mind the fact that the engineering drawings are 99% never to scale and they use backwards software to produce them.
The work instructions themselves are a terrible boon to deal with. They're much too long and still are not detailed enough for good work to be done. The mechanic is given too little direction and thus has to make too many decisions to finish their job. Every decision is an opportunity for failure. Engineering's/Management's solution is to put more red tape on failures which treats the symptom and not the problem. Engineering will not listen to those who ask them to provide clear and appropriate instructions and thus when failures happen the engineers are quick to shift blame.
Management as a whole tries to listen or at least pretends to. Honestly, I appreciated the effort from my managers to provide me with as much of a listening ear as they did but there must be something stopping them from providing real change. A lot of decision making is made without data or vision. Some departments are given managers who have a certain vision but does not align with their upper level manager so the lower rung employees are confused and make mistakes.
If PSNS were a private company in the private industry they would've collapsed decades ago. Their productivity is astonishingly low and funding is maintained because the American people are willing to foot the bill for national security. A lot of the culture at PSNS is military based which is to be expected, but what was disturbing to see was using other country's advancements as a fear tactic to encourage good work. Good work which was never defined appropriately nor achieved prior so there is no example of what to follow. There is a level of stubbornness and machismo that I frankly found disgusting. Instead of doing work well, the organization tries to do a lot of work independently even though there are 3rd party solutions that are better and cheaper (even after being gutted by a government contract).
If you are an aspiring engineer and you're graduating college, it would be best for you not to work here. You won't learn anything that you find valuable once you leave and you won't feel like your degree is important at all. If you are a private industry engineer looking for something easy and laid back this is the job for you. Just don't expect much fulfillment from your efforts.
