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A roommate studying for aerospace engineering described that field as "Everyone gets in because they want to work at Skunkworks and design the SR-71. In reality
by ethbr0 5y ago
A roommate studying for aerospace engineering described that field as "Everyone gets in because they want to work at Skunkworks and design the SR-71. In reality, 95% of graduates will spend the next 40 years optimizing the efficiency of a winglet on a 747."
Security feels similar. The edge of the spear is fascinating, exciting, challenging work.
Unfortunately, no one needs that work. What companies actually need is mind-bogglingly slow, comprehensive, steady progress and improvement of their postures.
- NikolaeVarius 5y agoIts so true, was very depressing when working at my first aero job
- rz2k 5y agoOptimizing the wingtip on a 747 actually sounds interesting, and it's the sort of thing that could meaningfully affect the world. It might even prevent more wars than the SR-71 program in terms of lessening ecological and environmental pressures. A much worse career would be convincing regulators that new aircraft like the 737 MAX don't need any additional training. Maintaining lists of open exploits, and keeping them secret from vulnerable parties is that kind of job, where you're making the world less safe in a perversion of your ostensible goals.
- jhloa2 5y agoWould that task keep you interested for many years? A lot of the people I know in Aerospace end up working on a single component of a larger system for so long that they lose interest and burn out. It's a very high paying job for mostly very boring work. There are always exceptions though.
- commandlinefan 5y ago> Optimizing the wingtip on a 747 actually sounds interesting That was my first thought as a software dev - I'd love to be able to spend time _optimizing_ something rather than breaking my "stories" down to one-to-two hour "tasks" and justifying my "estimates" every morning.