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My girlfriend's family has a bunch of software engineers who worked on various space programs as employees for the major defense contractors (Boeing, Lockheed M

by xenihn 7y ago

My girlfriend's family has a bunch of software engineers who worked on various space programs as employees for the major defense contractors (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon), and they had nothing but bad things to say about NASA software engineers, and working with NASA in general. Maybe things have changed in the past 16 years, though. Could also just be typical private vs. public rivalry.

oso2k 7y ago
Professional rivalries. But IMO, NASA engineers are some of the best and many approach the “scary smart” or renaissance levels of breath & depth of intelligence. Also, on the whole, at least at JPL, our engineers were some of the most ethical in terms of personal accountability and corporate accountability. Fewer ethics violations and higher accuracy in identifying and reporting ethics violations especially as compared to the rest of the industry.
- exdsq 7y ago
  Is there a general sort of background for a JPL engineer? Do they tend to come in straight after university or do they join later in their careers? It must be fun to work on such critical systems with so little margin for error.
  - oso2k 7y ago
    Physics, Engineering, Math, Science, CS were obviously prized backgrounds. Over the last 10 years, I think JPL is diversifying but I couldn’t be sure. When I joined as an intern in 2002 out of college, there was a huge push for youth. It used to be that more than 40% of The Lab had 20 years or more experience at The Lab. 33% were due to retire within 10 years. My first mentor there retired after 42 years with The Lab. It was an amazing place to learn and grow in my 20s. Awesome problems to work on and even more amazing people, humans, to work with. You can see what they’re looking for here https://jpl.jobs/ https://jpl.jobs/
    - exdsq 7y ago
      Interesting! It’s up there with X as one of the top companies I’d love to work for but I’m a UK citizen which writes JPL off, unfortunately I can only admire it from the outside!
    - WWLink 7y ago
      Question for ya: Are the outsider recruiters of any use? I've been contacted by them before but I get the impression you're better off just applying.
      - oso2k 7y ago
        Recruiters don’t seem to be useful. Apply on your own.
mturmon 7y ago
NASA is a big place, so you can’t make statements at that level of generality. Here’s Arun Viswanathan’s google scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jdotmygAAAAJ&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jdotmygAAAAJ&hl=en
p_l 7y ago
Also plating their asses in armor. Worst code I ever dealt with was from Lockheed-Martin, worse than scientist's calculation code, as that one tended to work at some point in time.

by xenihn 7y ago

oso2k 7y ago

Professional rivalries. But IMO, NASA engineers are some of the best and many approach the “scary smart” or renaissance levels of breath & depth of intelligence. Also, on the whole, at least at JPL, our engineers were some of the most ethical in terms of personal accountability and corporate accountability. Fewer ethics violations and higher accuracy in identifying and reporting ethics violations especially as compared to the rest of the industry.

exdsq 7y ago
Is there a general sort of background for a JPL engineer? Do they tend to come in straight after university or do they join later in their careers? It must be fun to work on such critical systems with so little margin for error.
- oso2k 7y ago
  Physics, Engineering, Math, Science, CS were obviously prized backgrounds. Over the last 10 years, I think JPL is diversifying but I couldn’t be sure. When I joined as an intern in 2002 out of college, there was a huge push for youth. It used to be that more than 40% of The Lab had 20 years or more experience at The Lab. 33% were due to retire within 10 years. My first mentor there retired after 42 years with The Lab. It was an amazing place to learn and grow in my 20s. Awesome problems to work on and even more amazing people, humans, to work with. You can see what they’re looking for here https://jpl.jobs/ https://jpl.jobs/
  - exdsq 7y ago
    Interesting! It’s up there with X as one of the top companies I’d love to work for but I’m a UK citizen which writes JPL off, unfortunately I can only admire it from the outside!
  - WWLink 7y ago
    Question for ya: Are the outsider recruiters of any use? I've been contacted by them before but I get the impression you're better off just applying.
    - oso2k 7y ago
      Recruiters don’t seem to be useful. Apply on your own.

mturmon 7y ago

NASA is a big place, so you can’t make statements at that level of generality. Here’s Arun Viswanathan’s google scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jdotmygAAAAJ&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jdotmygAAAAJ&hl=en

p_l 7y ago

Also plating their asses in armor. Worst code I ever dealt with was from Lockheed-Martin, worse than scientist's calculation code, as that one tended to work at some point in time.