Possibly true if you're trying to get a job for an ad-exchange SaaS platform like you mention. But is that really where you'd go next after significant experien

Possibly true if you're trying to get a job for an ad-exchange SaaS platform like you mention. But is that really where you'd go next after significant experience doing low-level, high-assurance programming at NASA? There are plenty of other parts of the tech industry whose hiring managers would appreciate that experience a lot more. For example, any kind of embedded-systems job, or even most "regular" programming jobs in more engineering-oriented industries like energy and aerospace.