I have a BS in Aerospace Engineering was working on my masters in Physics and Advanced Space Propulsion. My education prepared me pretty well. If your willing to listen and learn you will go far. Every place is different and so you have to adapt accordingly.
As for the economy, I am not noticing any slowdown and not worried about losing my job due to it or budget cuts.
I personally think NASA is extremely under-funded. Almost everything that we develop or learn and use for space-exploration, etc is directly transferrable to society at large. If we are talking of investing in our future, this would be one place to do it.
Space exploration is far from a dead field and in the coming decades you will see it explode with manned missions to Mars and beyond. This is what is inherent in mans being, his soul if you will or his DNA blueprint. We are explorers and when we stop exploring, we become stagnet and useless and end up with a society like we have today. A worthless collection of beings with no desire to excel and expand our understanding of our world and Universe. We no longer have the desire to live, but rather just to exist.
Awesome, thanks!
I always thought it was sad how people seem to think NASA's a waste of money and resources... from what I've heard, there's been so much pressure on NASA in recent decades that half the efforts and funding goes to needless 600-step safety checklists. The media and public scoff when a rare loss of life takes place really shows the small-mindedness and short-term outlook mankind. I can't think of a more honorable way to die -- not for one's country or petty gains, but for mankind and paving of our future.
So how'd you get into your current career path? I'm assuming you didn't just apply to an ad in the paper, lol. Was it through your university or professor contacts in your program?
Is employment with NASA as hyper-competitive as people make it out to be? I know the internships for places like NASA, Los Alamos, Fermi Lab and others are near impossible outside of the Ivys, Cal-Tech, MIT, UChicago, and profs/advisors with an 'in' for a student.
Also, are you classified as a government employee? I'm assuming the government contracts out a decent amout of work for NASA, but I'm not sure to what extebt those people/companies would be under the blanket of a government entiry.