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I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out. First: this post

I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out. First: this post has nothing to do with the company and whether it does or does not have its shit together. I posted this as an individual because I was excited that I was told we were getting an intern and they'd be working with me...which is something that's never happened to me before. Whether or not the wiki aspect is secretarial work is entirely dependent upon the intern. If we end up getting someone with no CS background then yes, that aspect of their work will likely be secretarial. If we get someone with a strong CS background then I'd give them a list of things we've considered building and tell them to go for whichever one they want (or come up with their own). Some examples of projects off the top of my head: bi-directional syncing of ground-based versions of our wiki with a version aboard the ISS, building web services to communicate between various databases and mission critical tools, working on methods to suggest content to people who may not be aware of it, etc. The NASA headline is not intended to be misleading. The intern would work onsite at Johnson Space Center, not at a contractor offsite. Within our group the fact that some badges say "contractor" and others say "civil servant" is irrelevant; we all work on the same stuff. And, quite frankly, what we work on is pretty awesome: developing EVAs, responding to on-orbit failures (think the "square-peg-into-round-hole" scene from Apollo 13 [1]), SCUBA diving and working in the space suit in the NBL...and on top of that, and because I've found a niche for myself, developing software to smartly fix our knowledge management problems. I don't know anyone with a job cooler than mine, except the astronauts I work with daily. I'm sure there are lots of companies that give interns work that extends the classroom. This is not one of them. There are two reasons for this: (1) there are no classrooms teaching EVA, and (2) our group does not focus on software development. If a rockstar developer ended up getting this internship then they would have a lot of freedom to work on projects of their choosing, but they would not get oversight from Peter Norvig. That is probably a deal-breaker for some; it probably sounds awesome to others. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q

twk123 12y ago
Hi, I'm new this website, so please excuse me commenting here, as opposed to the original post. I have interviewed with Ms. Drobnich about this position, and afterwards, she said that she would send my resume to SGT. She also said that I should expect an email from SGT to schedule an interview over the phone. She said the email would be sent within a week of our interview, which was on 01/16. To this date, I haven't received any email from SGT. So, I was wondering if SGT went forward with another candidate, or if SGT hasn't gotten around to hiring anyone. I know you aren't involved with hiring, but any insight would be helpful. And by the way, this internship sounds awesome. I'm getting that hyped-up feeling that you get when you buy a lotto ticket after applying to this. I don't know how often you visit this website, but I hope that you see this.
- jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
  I have not been notified that anyone has been selected. I'm not sure if they're going to ask my opinions at all on the candidates (I hope they do). Seeing as this thread seems mostly dead, if you'd like to talk more about the position feel free to email me at my HN username -AT- GMAIL -DOT- COM.
brudgers 12y ago
Yes, EVA is cool. Space in general is cool. I have a brother-in-law who went from subcontractor to Boeing to Boeing employee while working on ISS. But there have been long career stretches of flights to El Paso for two weeks at White Sands. That's a career in aerospace. So, I appreciate what where you're coming from so let me clarify my point about fecal cohesion: In regards to this internship there's no evidence of planning. No projects suitable for completion within the duration of the internship have been prepared. Because the internship is not viewed as an extension of the classroom, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what an internship is supposed to be. An internship is not just a part time entry level job. It's normal to throw an entry level employee at a pile of work that's considered beneath the senior staff. But again, that's not a meaningful internship. The idea that the less domain relevant background a person has the more likely they are to be writing the documentation upon which people may have to rely suggests that the Wiki is a waterfall style contractual obligation. There's nothing wrong with over the transom requirements and back over the transom fulfilment of them. There are even valuable lessons in waterfall development to be gleaned from that process. But if that's what the person will experience, then make a plan around that decision so that the internship has maximum value. If the goal is to develop software to sync ground and orbital resources, then make a plan around that and select a candidate who can complete it in the time alloted...or don't do it. Decide what your time commitment is as a field instructor. Make your decisions based on your responsibility as an educator. Take the internship seriously from an academic standpoint. Professionalism means not wasting other people's time. Good luck.

twk123 12y ago

Hi, I'm new this website, so please excuse me commenting here, as opposed to the original post. I have interviewed with Ms. Drobnich about this position, and afterwards, she said that she would send my resume to SGT. She also said that I should expect an email from SGT to schedule an interview over the phone. She said the email would be sent within a week of our interview, which was on 01/16. To this date, I haven't received any email from SGT. So, I was wondering if SGT went forward with another candidate, or if SGT hasn't gotten around to hiring anyone. I know you aren't involved with hiring, but any insight would be helpful. And by the way, this internship sounds awesome. I'm getting that hyped-up feeling that you get when you buy a lotto ticket after applying to this. I don't know how often you visit this website, but I hope that you see this.

jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
I have not been notified that anyone has been selected. I'm not sure if they're going to ask my opinions at all on the candidates (I hope they do). Seeing as this thread seems mostly dead, if you'd like to talk more about the position feel free to email me at my HN username -AT- GMAIL -DOT- COM.

brudgers 12y ago

Yes, EVA is cool. Space in general is cool. I have a brother-in-law who went from subcontractor to Boeing to Boeing employee while working on ISS. But there have been long career stretches of flights to El Paso for two weeks at White Sands. That's a career in aerospace. So, I appreciate what where you're coming from so let me clarify my point about fecal cohesion: In regards to this internship there's no evidence of planning. No projects suitable for completion within the duration of the internship have been prepared. Because the internship is not viewed as an extension of the classroom, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what an internship is supposed to be. An internship is not just a part time entry level job. It's normal to throw an entry level employee at a pile of work that's considered beneath the senior staff. But again, that's not a meaningful internship. The idea that the less domain relevant background a person has the more likely they are to be writing the documentation upon which people may have to rely suggests that the Wiki is a waterfall style contractual obligation. There's nothing wrong with over the transom requirements and back over the transom fulfilment of them. There are even valuable lessons in waterfall development to be gleaned from that process. But if that's what the person will experience, then make a plan around that decision so that the internship has maximum value. If the goal is to develop software to sync ground and orbital resources, then make a plan around that and select a candidate who can complete it in the time alloted...or don't do it. Decide what your time commitment is as a field instructor. Make your decisions based on your responsibility as an educator. Take the internship seriously from an academic standpoint. Professionalism means not wasting other people's time. Good luck.