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A rocket- according to US employment policy- is a missile fired in a funny direction. So you need to be a citizen with a security clearance to work for any US a

A rocket- according to US employment policy- is a missile fired in a funny direction. So you need to be a citizen with a security clearance to work for any US aerospace company. This makes the cold shoulder a little more understandable, because they couldn't legally hire you even if they wanted to.

raverbashing 7y ago
They are not wrong. In fact the origins of the space program were exactly like that: missiles fired in a funny direction. (A bit ironic that it took-off after they "hired" that German scientist after WWII - pun intended)
MyHypatia 7y ago
It is NOT true that you have to be a US citizen to work for a US aerospace company. Your comment can dissuade people from applying to jobs. It is true that there may be certain projects within a company that you cannot work on as a foreigner, and because of that it can be harder to get hired. But there are many foreigners who work at places like SpaceX, NASA, etc. For "sensitive country" foreign nationals (you can Google for the list) it will be extremely difficult to get hired. People from other countries should still apply to job postings unless the posting specifically says it is for US citizens only.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  You need it to work on ITAR related projects. I worked in a company that had internally "subcontracted" uncleared employees from another unit for design work. One was belatedly found out to be a Canadian citizen and was removed the next day.
- Tomminn 7y ago
  It's true that there are some loopholes [1]. It's also true that as a permanent resident, you come under the category "US person", which some/most of the ITER law refers to, which restricts non US-persons from working with "Spacecraft Systems and Associated Equipment" [2]. But I think it's fair summary to say that if you are neither a citizen or a permanent resident, you have a damn tough hill to climb [3]. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-can-non-U-S-citizens-work-for-NASA-and-or-SpaceX?share=1 https://www.quora.com/How-can-non-U-S-citizens-work-for-NASA... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_... [3] https://www.inverse.com/article/21487-elon-musk-spacex-foreign-workers https://www.inverse.com/article/21487-elon-musk-spacex-forei...
vonmoltke 7y ago
> So you need to be a citizen with a security clearance to work for any US aerospace company. Absolutely not. No company requires a clearance for employment in general, only for specific programs. Also, US Permanent Residents can access unclassified export-controlled information.
- Tomminn 7y ago
  Both good corrections. But the point about the difficulty as a non-US person remains.

raverbashing 7y ago

They are not wrong. In fact the origins of the space program were exactly like that: missiles fired in a funny direction. (A bit ironic that it took-off after they "hired" that German scientist after WWII - pun intended)

MyHypatia 7y ago

It is NOT true that you have to be a US citizen to work for a US aerospace company. Your comment can dissuade people from applying to jobs. It is true that there may be certain projects within a company that you cannot work on as a foreigner, and because of that it can be harder to get hired. But there are many foreigners who work at places like SpaceX, NASA, etc. For "sensitive country" foreign nationals (you can Google for the list) it will be extremely difficult to get hired. People from other countries should still apply to job postings unless the posting specifically says it is for US citizens only.

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
You need it to work on ITAR related projects. I worked in a company that had internally "subcontracted" uncleared employees from another unit for design work. One was belatedly found out to be a Canadian citizen and was removed the next day.
Tomminn 7y ago
It's true that there are some loopholes [1]. It's also true that as a permanent resident, you come under the category "US person", which some/most of the ITER law refers to, which restricts non US-persons from working with "Spacecraft Systems and Associated Equipment" [2]. But I think it's fair summary to say that if you are neither a citizen or a permanent resident, you have a damn tough hill to climb [3]. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-can-non-U-S-citizens-work-for-NASA-and-or-SpaceX?share=1 https://www.quora.com/How-can-non-U-S-citizens-work-for-NASA... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_... [3] https://www.inverse.com/article/21487-elon-musk-spacex-foreign-workers https://www.inverse.com/article/21487-elon-musk-spacex-forei...

vonmoltke 7y ago

> So you need to be a citizen with a security clearance to work for any US aerospace company. Absolutely not. No company requires a clearance for employment in general, only for specific programs. Also, US Permanent Residents can access unclassified export-controlled information.

Tomminn 7y ago
Both good corrections. But the point about the difficulty as a non-US person remains.