Posted on 09/28/2012 6:55:00 AM PDT by golux
Dear FRiend, happy Friday. I am generally averse to vanity 'appeals' but... I need some advice, and maybe some help.
I have for some time been somewhat of a mentor to an extremely bright, diligent, young Christian man who will soon be taking a bachelors degree in engineering - specialty: aerospace - from a fairly prestigious college.
His grades are very good. He is a VERY hard working and bright man who has consistently taken the 'higher path' in his personal, family, and academic life. He overcame considerable adversity to become a star football player with great grades in high school, then continued to work hard and focus his energies to get where he is today: very near the top of his class in a highly competitive department.
And... He has asked me for advice on how, and where, to get a job. Evidently the "career guidance" folks are not terribly plugged in, as was certainly the case when I was a graduating senior!
I am from a family of physicists and engineers (Dad, grandfather) but sadly these men have passed on.
I would DEEPLY appreciate any advice you could give me regarding paths a talented young engineer with an interest and schooling in aerospace might take. He is a man for whom doors should open, but I am frankly at a loss as to how to help him.
Thank you, thank you in advance for your time, your thoughts, Freepmails or posts today or this weekend.
When our national sovereignty is sufficiently eroded, we’ll be in more trouble than our system will permit us to address.
BTW-subverting our system is continuing apace, anyway!
Just as the time to start planning for college is at the start of high school, the time to start planning for a career is before starting college. Bit late in this case...
The best advice I have is devote energy towards finding a career, but absolutely get a job first. Any job held during college time is a massive leg up on the competition - it shows someone who can juggle workload, prioritize, and accomplish goals. Don’t wait to graduate, get it done now.
It is always easier to find a job while working than to find one while unemployed.
If I were a young Aerospace Engineer just starting out, instead of an old Mechanical Engineer in mid-career, I would pack all of my stuff in the old jalopy and drive out to Edwards Dry Lake and start passing out resumes to SpaceX and Scaled Composites.
These guys are hiring, and they are looking for people willing to relocate to the middle of nowhere.
Reuters via Aviation Week: "Raytheon Raises Forecast Despite Sequestration"
U.S. weapons maker Raytheon reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings July 26 and raised its forecast for full-year profit despite a drop in revenue, saying it is well-positioned to weather tough U.S. budget pressures. ...But he said the company was well-prepared to weather the budget crisis, given strong and growing international demand, and its strong position in missile defense, cybersecurity and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems. “The strength of our overall portfolio suggests that we are well aligned with the priorities of the (Defense Department), the classified community and international customers,” he said. “We believe that positions us well for the future, irrespective of how things play out from a sequestration standpoint.”
Do NOT work for General Electric.
Numerous job openings in North AL, at Redstone Arsenal, Marshall Space Flight Center and contractors in the Huntsville area.
With the impending cuts in military spending I suspect there will more aerospace engineers looking for positions.
Not advice but my experience has been that taking a job of any kind in the area a person wants to work is useful. It provides some hands on experience and can provide leads to better jobs.
I’ve also found many employers will be quite helpful if a person is right upfront with them about their plans and willingness to work for a lesser wage in return for gaining experience.
He’ll need to move to a city with aero engineers, such as Colorado Springs, Huntsville, Seattle, Phoenix, Charleston, etc.
Dice.com, Indeed.com, and Monster.com contain many of the engineering jobs that are advertised. Use them.
Most companies also hold job fairs at the better schools and in those aero engineering cities.
“I would DEEPLY appreciate any advice you could give me regarding paths a talented young engineer with an interest and schooling in aerospace might take. He is a man for whom doors should open, but I am frankly at a loss as to how to help him.”
Tell him to learn Chinese.
Doors will open.
What college? I’m surprised the college doesn’t have a career center. That’t how I got my first engineering job.
plus....the students who interned usually had an offer by early spring, so they were free to study for finals. ones who did research for professors during the summers were interviewing and trying to study too.
Finally, he should be open to relocating, even to a liberal hellhole like California. If he's just starting out he has maximum flexibility in his career. The first job out of college usually lasts only a few years anyhow.
Our son is finishing up in Computer Science at a local state University. He got an internship through the college with a local company; when he finishes in Winter Quarter (God willing and the creek don’t rise) this man wants to keep him on.
I would talk to the department head at his university? Here in Los Angeles there are Tech Temp agencies that place technical people; often the big tech companies have lids on hiring quotas and hire extra people from the temps.
Yup, SpaceX is a great place to have a career. My brother is on the team there over in Hawthorne, CA. He tells me that they are always on the lookout for good talent. Their most recent venture is the Dragon Capsule, which a few months ago made the first commercial docking with the Space Station.
Checkout www.spacex.com.
He should expand his network of contacts to include potential employers. If he doesn't know exactly what to do buy him a book on the topic, such as "The Start-Up of You"
Tell him that even in a tough economy there is always a job for a hard working motivated engineer. He may have to work for less money than he wants, or initially in some less than exciting projects, but there is always a way to move forward toward your goals. If nothing else pans out find a start-up that needs an aerospace guy and sign on - you might as well work for stock and a shot at some money instead of being unemployed. And getting the coffee and working in the shop at someplace like Scaled Composites or SpaceX will lead to top tier jobs within a few years, even if you get paid next to nothing for the time being. Look for other smaller aerospace related businesses too, places not everyone thinks of looking.
Tell him that there are thousands of older engineers out there who get great satisfaction out of helping the next generation of engineers succeed. He should find a couple of them to help him out.
Pray.
My husband is an engineer in the aerospace field. He got laid off six months ago. We’re still looking.
Be willing to go where the job is.
Consider contract work, there still seem to be some contract opportunities and those can be great for a young man starting out.
Eglin Air Force Base, FL
- 53rd Wing
- Contracting companies that support the 53rd Wing's test mission
Edwards AFB, CA
- http://edwardscareers.com/
Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
- Air Force Research Lab
Get all over LinkedIn and check out the military engineer profiles listed there. Check their backgrounds to see where they've been, then “connect the dots.”
First he should convert to Islam, or possibly, become gay or transgender. He will have to cover his car in OBAMA 2012 bumper stickers. If this doesn’t help he should learn Mandarin or Korean asap.
After re-reading your post and taking a little more note of what you said about the young man’s other interests and values, I’d strongly suggest you advise him to take a careful look at the Eglin Air Force Base opportunities, and Niceville, Florida, specifically.
The Eglin area is in the ‘Bible Belt,’ and it’s a very family-oriented area. If you PM me I might be able to offer more help “off-line.”
Check into:
- Ball Aerospace
- Jacobs Technology
- SAIC
- Lockheed Martin
- BAE
- Northrup Grumman
- TKC Aerospace
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