What Was Your Path to the Aerospace Industry? Rocketry Career Advice?

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Wow! You got tons of advice here! I’ll keep it short and sweet, I joined the USAF. The cool thing is, now you can join the USSF and go directly into launching, monitoring, and flying satellites. If you get your PHD you could look at an FFRDC (Aerospace, MITRE) position. Space is booming right now, lots of jobs in robotics, software, research, you name it.
 
I want to offer you some advice from outside the industry you are interested in.

Build a broad talent stack. Technical expertise is available at a price. The ability to inspire, lead, and encourage people is much less available and has a higher price point.
You can learn those skills. The idea that they are innate and mysterious is false.
If you are interested start with How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Pre-Suasion by Robert Ciadini, Think And Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. These are not ways to manipulate people. They are ways to make both sides satisfied and feel like they were treated fairly, and kindly.
I am not saying this to brag. I am actually ashamed of how terribly I messed up the first 30 years of my life. I was a foolish young man. I have a GED and have never been to college. I make 6 figures by having lots of technical knowledge in my field, by much more so by being the person that encourages the whole team, and our customers as well. I had to do this later in life, at home on my own time while working a full time job. I enjoy it so much I never want to stop learning now.
Customers call or come by to sit and discuss projects and look for my input on how to plan the job for bids or solve problems.

You are young and it was on my heart to tell you this. I hope this helps you enjoy a happier and more successful life.
Steve
 
I worked in aerospace, bit as an attorney, not an engineer, so my path probably isn’t very relevant. But I have lots of advice. Learn to work on a team. Be humble. Learn. Read. A lot. I have lots of favorite books, including these, in no particular order: Mindset, by Carol Dweck; Multipliers, by Liz Wiseman; Reality Based Rules of the Workplace, by Cy Wakeman; Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown; Grit, by Angela Duckworth; Start with Why, by Simon Sinek; Master Your Motivation, by Susan Fowler; Seven Habits, by Steven Covey; and, if you’re an introvert, like me, Quiet, by Susan Cain; and the Introvert Advantage, by Marty Laney. Set a goal to read at least one book a month. Learn to write. Remember that when you get a job, make your boss look good.
 
I'm honestly mind-blown with the responses on this thread. I really, really appreciate the depth of the answers that some of you have given. It's hard to get this many perspectives from talking to individual mentors (I don't personally know many in aerospace or related fields), and I'm grateful for each of you that took the time to answer.

Tons of great points have been made, and it would take forever to address them all, but I can tell you a little bit more about myself if anyone wants to discuss more.

I'll be starting my sophomore year in Aerospace Engineering in just a few short weeks. Rather than focusing on the school's club rocketry team (small-scale projects, mostly hobby-oriented), which I've been apart of for the last year, I'll be transitioning to our larger lab and their RP-1 LOx rocket slated to fly to the Karman Line in the Spring. While my proficiency was mostly with composite material manufacturing, I want to try and put my time into different topics like TVC or Propulsion that give me the best opportunities to learn as much as possible. Although I have no experience with higher-level projects like these, I know this will allow me to grow as a better learner.

My first-ever round of summer internship applications will be in the next few months. I'm working on building a list of ~35 (?) companies to apply to. The coveted NASA, SpaceX, LM, etc. are obviously on there, as are many other smaller, more realistic opportunities. If there are any in particular that you had a great experience with, I would love to hear about them.

On the topic of books, I recently ordered one that I'm looking forward to starting. It's "The Art of Clear Thinking" by Hasard Lee, who was an Air Force combat pilot and instructor. I randomly found it after seeing one of his videos on the internet, which I highly recommend you watch here if you're an aviation nerd like me. I hadn't been too keen on reading "life advice" books until lately. Mostly stayed around Philip Kerr and Allan Folsom books passed down from my dad.
 
I'm honestly mind-blown with the responses on this thread. I really, really appreciate the depth of the answers that some of you have given. It's hard to get this many perspectives from talking to individual mentors (I don't personally know many in aerospace or related fields), and I'm grateful for each of you that took the time to answer.

Tons of great points have been made, and it would take forever to address them all, but I can tell you a little bit more about myself if anyone wants to discuss more.

I'll be starting my sophomore year in Aerospace Engineering in just a few short weeks. Rather than focusing on the school's club rocketry team (small-scale projects, mostly hobby-oriented), which I've been apart of for the last year, I'll be transitioning to our larger lab and their RP-1 LOx rocket slated to fly to the Karman Line in the Spring. While my proficiency was mostly with composite material manufacturing, I want to try and put my time into different topics like TVC or Propulsion that give me the best opportunities to learn as much as possible. Although I have no experience with higher-level projects like these, I know this will allow me to grow as a better learner.

My first-ever round of summer internship applications will be in the next few months. I'm working on building a list of ~35 (?) companies to apply to. The coveted NASA, SpaceX, LM, etc. are obviously on there, as are many other smaller, more realistic opportunities. If there are any in particular that you had a great experience with, I would love to hear about them.

On the topic of books, I recently ordered one that I'm looking forward to starting. It's "The Art of Clear Thinking" by Hasard Lee, who was an Air Force combat pilot and instructor. I randomly found it after seeing one of his videos on the internet, which I highly recommend you watch here if you're an aviation nerd like me. I hadn't been too keen on reading "life advice" books until lately. Mostly stayed around Philip Kerr and Allan Folsom books passed down from my dad.
That was a awesome video! Interesting guy for sure.
 
Landon - I would encourage you to seriously check out Air Force and Space Force officer commissioning programs and what professional pathways they have for folks with your type of engineering degree. I did 22 years in the Navy thinking I'd only do 4, and the last 20+ years its been defense & government consulting/program support inside the DC beltway. The Air Force is pretty much the only service that has junior officer positions that go right to aviation program management offices and engineering activities, the other Services have those opportunities but further down the pathway and generally require warfare specialties first. From my perspective the advantages of a single officer tour followed by transition to industry is you get a security clearance up front and gain leadership and management experience that is generally hard to come by that quickly in the private sector. If you are in a PMO-type organization you learn and work from an acquisition program management and systems engineering management perspective at a higher level than junior engineers would probably see working for a company. There are a lot of other benefits to a technical single officer tour followed by transitioning to a private sector engineering job or a career in the USAF in a technical field. PM me if you have any interest in discussing further. Bill
 
Wish I had better advice. I was a rebel and almost dropped outta high school. Tried a little college, but racing cars was more fun with more girls. Accidently got a job at Gen Dyn when my fellow wrench twister wanted an emotional support doggy with him. Apparently, sheet metal guys were at a premium. I got a job, he didn't. Factory monkey building DC-10's, first cruise missile, Atlas and Shuttles, etc. Decided to grow up after a friend was killed racing a Formula Ford car we built at Road Atlanta. I couldn't afford to go that trip. Not a component failure or driver error. Didn't want a girlfriend/ wife to feel the loss I did. Sold my race car, gave my helmet away. I finally went back to school when I was tired of being dirty. Worked my way up, stopped at manufacturing engineer, because they could still get their hands dirty. To go further, you were a desk jockey. I'm 70 now, still turn wrenches (my Acura has 348,000 miles on a 2002 RL) and my mental bubble gum is rocketry. Life is strange, be open to change. Accept challenges and adversity. Network. Be the badass, only if needed. Remember the guy you passed on the last lap will be coming up in your windshield, give him room if he has a grudge. Keep your headlights and tail lights clean. Take it anyway you want. Ymmv, guaranteed. Happy Thanksgiving. Peace.
 
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For most of my life, whenever someone would say 'You SHOULD really read this book' and it was about self-help or similar, I'd pretty much write that person off. That was a mistake on my part.

It changed when my Brother-in-Law gave me a book a my wedding and said 'Read this, once you understand everything let me know and I'll send you another.' Obviously that aggravated me, but to try and start things off on an OK foot with the family, I read the book. I learned things at times and disregarded things at other times. One piece of advise it suggested became part of how I think about money and I've passed that one tip along to a few other people who asked my opinion (i.e. not unsolicited advise about what they SHOULD do, just something that changed my perspective in a generally positive way).

Anyway, I'm not going to recommend any specific books, but I can say that I wish I would have read certain books earlier in my life, as I think there would have been improvements in health, wealth and happiness with learning some different perspectives (both agreeable and disagreeable).

Hope you continue down your journey efficiently and arrive at the place you want to be.
 
I'm 70 now, still turn wrenches (my Acura has 348,000 miles on a 2002 RL) and my mental bubble gum is rocketry.
I appreciate the advice, and I'm glad some more people are finding this thread. Side note, I still get to wrench around with my grandpa on my (previously his) 2000 4Runner. Great memories. He taught me to drive stick on it, and it's still chugging happily at 185k miles.

For most of my life, whenever someone would say 'You SHOULD really read this book' and it was about self-help or similar, I'd pretty much write that person off. That was a mistake on my part.
In all honesty, I used to as well. I think it started when a relative got me a book for Christmas years ago about how to deal with messy roommates in college. Glad I finally found a different "genre" to get into and change my perspective.

Now is the time for students to be applying for 2024 summer internships.
Way ahead of you! I've submitted 95+ applications and counting since September, but there has not been a lot of traction yet. Doing my best to find connections within those companies and make some new friends.
 
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