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NASA has been downsizing a lot. Friend of mine is a contractor for NASA who has been trained as a parts engineer for sourcing and testing electronic components

NASA has been downsizing a lot. Friend of mine is a contractor for NASA who has been trained as a parts engineer for sourcing and testing electronic components that go into satellites and spacecrafts will be out of a job in a few months as her entire branch is eliminating all contractor positions. Now she has a specialized skillset that isn't very readily transferable to other local companies and industries. Sucks. Can't imagine she's the only one from NASA facing this crisis.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
orochimaaru 1y ago
Why won’t the skillset be transferable to places like space x, Amazon kuiper, blue origin, or any of the big defense tech or start ups (eg anduril)?
- kylecordes 1y ago
  Likely so, but you have probably listed a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers.
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    >a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers So....the same challenges that everyone working in the private sector has? What am I missing here?
    - crote 1y ago
      Imagine if Google or Apple suddenly went bust. What do you think that would do to the job market in San Francisco?
      - rockskon 1y ago
        NASA is still around. The layoff announcements for contractors at certain locations have been staggered as far as I know. Still - it appears to be a tremendously hurdle for her to find alternate employment with her skillset in parts engineering without physically relocating - which would necessitate selling her house and her husband finding employment at the new region as well.
      - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        Shit happens, what can you do about it? Do you think garbage men, teachers or doctors will care about the tough job market of SW engineers? Everyone's job and everyone's lives have challenges, nobody else will cry for you, it's still up to you to deal with whatever problems life throws at you.
        soulofmischief 1y ago
        No. Flip it around. I care about the salaries and working condition of garbage men, teachers and doctors, even if they don't value mine. All three of those jobs you listed have vested interest groups who are standing in the way of a better life for those who provide these essential services, or are artificially controlling the market. What we do about it is educate the public and form institutions that are motivated to protect these people. We failed on the former and now it's disrupting the latter. Deciding whether I should care about another group based on whether they care about my own predicament is a straight path to evil.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        >No. Flip it around. I care about the salaries and working condition of garbage men, teachers and doctors Great that you care? And what are you dong about it? Are you voluntarily paying more taxes to your local city/council/state?
        soulofmischief 1y ago
        What would handing money over to my government without any strings attached do? In America we ostensibly participate in a representative democracy founded on the sentiment of no taxation without representation, and so our first duty is to be politically involved by educating ourselves holistically, voting appropriately for our local, state and federal representatives, participating in accompanying community building, wealth and knowledge dissemination in order to create and maintain the institutions which I mentioned in my previous comment.
  - skissane 1y ago
    I totally believe they get swamped with eager candidates, but highly experienced ones? Someone ex-NASA may well have deep experience in certain specific areas which few other candidates could claim. The thing about a voluntary "deferred resignation program" – the people most likely to take it are those who are confident they can find good opportunities somewhere else. If you didn't have that confidence, you'd be much less likely to sign on to it.
- rockskon 1y ago
  Considering her coworkers are calling the mass contractor layoffs "getting DOGEd", SpaceX is less than appealing. Similar sentiment is felt about any other organization run by people who are seen as having had a hand in kneecapping NASA - working for their companies is not appealing. Perhaps her views will change after she's had more time to process the sting of the layoff notice. And her prior work for the DoD left her with an extraordinarily bad impression of the culture. Admittedly she'd only worked at a single Navy Yard and different branches in different services can have different cultures, but nevertheless - the DoD is not appealing either. Depending on the results of her job search, that might change. For Amazon Kuiper - no relevant roles are available in the region and, as far as what's listed on the website, there's no jobs that allow for working remotely outside of relevant travel. Blue Origin...same issue as with Kuiper - remote work doesn't seem to be a thing and they've no local presence with relevant jobs available.
- harimau777 1y ago
  It could be that those companies aren't located somewhere they are willing to live or it could be that they don't want to work for companies owned by Elon or Bezos.
- natebc 1y ago
  These are (mostly) scientists that have been doing science for a science organization. Those companies are transportation companies when it comes to space.
Robotbeat 1y ago
The satellite industry in the US is larger than ever, FWIW. Between Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, plus a gazillion startups like Astranis, K2 Space, etc, not to mention defense satellites, there has never been a time when more satellites have been launched by the U.S. I think your friend will be fine. The real issue is the capability loss for NASA.
- TechDebtDevin 1y ago
  I think that's what this is, the 4k people in NASA probably never would have quit (great benefits or whatever), maybe the strategist at the top (whether they are right or not) think its better for this talent to be concentrated at private firms? And tbf, the private sector does move fast :/
  - ineedasername 1y ago
    There is no strategist at the top thinking about where this talent is best positioned to do good work.
    - TechDebtDevin 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - ineedasername 1y ago
        I guess I was thinking more the larger DOGE project, because this isn't just NASA as such, this is the model it followed across the board-- State department, Nuclear safety, lots more, and someone else in these threads pointed out that tons of the people whose programs were cut were working on programs no private sector player will care about-- too niche, too pure research.
- rockskon 1y ago
  So - physically relocating is not an appealing prospect given she's a house and a spouse with a local job. Is it typical for companies in the satellite design/manufacturing space for parts/electrical components engineers to be able to work remotely outside of travelling for inspections/supplier audits/component testing?
maxloh 1y ago
I know that people wanted to stay in their own country. However, she could likely get a good position in the space industry in Europe. The bottom line is, she would be very likely to get a good salary, even better than she did in the US, in China, Russia, or India, which are desperately seeking space specialists with experience in more advanced technologies. It is a shame that the US couldn't even keep their payroll, forcing them to leave the country and flow to its enemies.
- olddustytrail 1y ago
  Both India and China hold Most Favoured Nation status with the USA. That hardly marks them as enemies.
  - notahacker 1y ago
    "enemies" is a strong word, especially for India. But NASA is explicitly banned from cooperating with Chinese agencies by law, so it's not like the US hasn't established a position of not waiting China to have access to NASA knowhow...
  - cosmicgadget 1y ago
    That's a trade status.
  - EasyMark 1y ago
    China is most definitely an adversary, bordering on enemy, of the USA, other than trade we really are in a cold war with them by all measures and many aspects. Culture, education (attracting best students), Asian interests (Taiwan/Japan in particular), government styles (recently arguable however with Trump's actions moving us closer to autocracy), and the list goes on. Very little of that is going on between us and India.
  - maxloh 1y ago
    Yeah. I admit that statement is somewhat overstated for India. However, China is now the country with the most potential to engage in a full-scale war with the US. It was Russia, but it is now stuck with Ukraine, and probably for years ahead.
TechDebtDevin 1y ago
Well this antecdote kind of gets in the way of the other antecdotes, that NASA is being privatized. Maybe this is just a way of forcing specialized labor into certain outfits (Space X, Costa Mesa, SF.. )
- MOARDONGZPLZ 1y ago
  Costa Mesa seems like a random addition here?
archontes 1y ago
NASA has been downsized with a machete. And Russell Vought is holding the weapon.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

orochimaaru 1y ago

Why won’t the skillset be transferable to places like space x, Amazon kuiper, blue origin, or any of the big defense tech or start ups (eg anduril)?

kylecordes 1y ago
Likely so, but you have probably listed a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  >a bunch of organizations already utterly swamped with eager and qualified job candidates relative to their hiring numbers So....the same challenges that everyone working in the private sector has? What am I missing here?
  - crote 1y ago
    Imagine if Google or Apple suddenly went bust. What do you think that would do to the job market in San Francisco?
    - rockskon 1y ago
      NASA is still around. The layoff announcements for contractors at certain locations have been staggered as far as I know. Still - it appears to be a tremendously hurdle for her to find alternate employment with her skillset in parts engineering without physically relocating - which would necessitate selling her house and her husband finding employment at the new region as well.
    - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
      Shit happens, what can you do about it? Do you think garbage men, teachers or doctors will care about the tough job market of SW engineers? Everyone's job and everyone's lives have challenges, nobody else will cry for you, it's still up to you to deal with whatever problems life throws at you.
      - soulofmischief 1y ago
        No. Flip it around. I care about the salaries and working condition of garbage men, teachers and doctors, even if they don't value mine. All three of those jobs you listed have vested interest groups who are standing in the way of a better life for those who provide these essential services, or are artificially controlling the market. What we do about it is educate the public and form institutions that are motivated to protect these people. We failed on the former and now it's disrupting the latter. Deciding whether I should care about another group based on whether they care about my own predicament is a straight path to evil.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        >No. Flip it around. I care about the salaries and working condition of garbage men, teachers and doctors Great that you care? And what are you dong about it? Are you voluntarily paying more taxes to your local city/council/state?
        soulofmischief 1y ago
        What would handing money over to my government without any strings attached do? In America we ostensibly participate in a representative democracy founded on the sentiment of no taxation without representation, and so our first duty is to be politically involved by educating ourselves holistically, voting appropriately for our local, state and federal representatives, participating in accompanying community building, wealth and knowledge dissemination in order to create and maintain the institutions which I mentioned in my previous comment.
- skissane 1y ago
  I totally believe they get swamped with eager candidates, but highly experienced ones? Someone ex-NASA may well have deep experience in certain specific areas which few other candidates could claim. The thing about a voluntary "deferred resignation program" – the people most likely to take it are those who are confident they can find good opportunities somewhere else. If you didn't have that confidence, you'd be much less likely to sign on to it.
rockskon 1y ago
Considering her coworkers are calling the mass contractor layoffs "getting DOGEd", SpaceX is less than appealing. Similar sentiment is felt about any other organization run by people who are seen as having had a hand in kneecapping NASA - working for their companies is not appealing. Perhaps her views will change after she's had more time to process the sting of the layoff notice. And her prior work for the DoD left her with an extraordinarily bad impression of the culture. Admittedly she'd only worked at a single Navy Yard and different branches in different services can have different cultures, but nevertheless - the DoD is not appealing either. Depending on the results of her job search, that might change. For Amazon Kuiper - no relevant roles are available in the region and, as far as what's listed on the website, there's no jobs that allow for working remotely outside of relevant travel. Blue Origin...same issue as with Kuiper - remote work doesn't seem to be a thing and they've no local presence with relevant jobs available.
harimau777 1y ago
It could be that those companies aren't located somewhere they are willing to live or it could be that they don't want to work for companies owned by Elon or Bezos.
natebc 1y ago
These are (mostly) scientists that have been doing science for a science organization. Those companies are transportation companies when it comes to space.

Robotbeat 1y ago

The satellite industry in the US is larger than ever, FWIW. Between Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, plus a gazillion startups like Astranis, K2 Space, etc, not to mention defense satellites, there has never been a time when more satellites have been launched by the U.S. I think your friend will be fine. The real issue is the capability loss for NASA.

TechDebtDevin 1y ago
I think that's what this is, the 4k people in NASA probably never would have quit (great benefits or whatever), maybe the strategist at the top (whether they are right or not) think its better for this talent to be concentrated at private firms? And tbf, the private sector does move fast :/
- ineedasername 1y ago
  There is no strategist at the top thinking about where this talent is best positioned to do good work.
  - TechDebtDevin 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - ineedasername 1y ago
      I guess I was thinking more the larger DOGE project, because this isn't just NASA as such, this is the model it followed across the board-- State department, Nuclear safety, lots more, and someone else in these threads pointed out that tons of the people whose programs were cut were working on programs no private sector player will care about-- too niche, too pure research.
rockskon 1y ago
So - physically relocating is not an appealing prospect given she's a house and a spouse with a local job. Is it typical for companies in the satellite design/manufacturing space for parts/electrical components engineers to be able to work remotely outside of travelling for inspections/supplier audits/component testing?

maxloh 1y ago

I know that people wanted to stay in their own country. However, she could likely get a good position in the space industry in Europe. The bottom line is, she would be very likely to get a good salary, even better than she did in the US, in China, Russia, or India, which are desperately seeking space specialists with experience in more advanced technologies. It is a shame that the US couldn't even keep their payroll, forcing them to leave the country and flow to its enemies.

olddustytrail 1y ago
Both India and China hold Most Favoured Nation status with the USA. That hardly marks them as enemies.
- notahacker 1y ago
  "enemies" is a strong word, especially for India. But NASA is explicitly banned from cooperating with Chinese agencies by law, so it's not like the US hasn't established a position of not waiting China to have access to NASA knowhow...
- cosmicgadget 1y ago
  That's a trade status.
- EasyMark 1y ago
  China is most definitely an adversary, bordering on enemy, of the USA, other than trade we really are in a cold war with them by all measures and many aspects. Culture, education (attracting best students), Asian interests (Taiwan/Japan in particular), government styles (recently arguable however with Trump's actions moving us closer to autocracy), and the list goes on. Very little of that is going on between us and India.
- maxloh 1y ago
  Yeah. I admit that statement is somewhat overstated for India. However, China is now the country with the most potential to engage in a full-scale war with the US. It was Russia, but it is now stuck with Ukraine, and probably for years ahead.

TechDebtDevin 1y ago

Well this antecdote kind of gets in the way of the other antecdotes, that NASA is being privatized. Maybe this is just a way of forcing specialized labor into certain outfits (Space X, Costa Mesa, SF.. )

MOARDONGZPLZ 1y ago
Costa Mesa seems like a random addition here?

archontes 1y ago

NASA has been downsized with a machete. And Russell Vought is holding the weapon.