Originally posted by: DWW
Your job sounds fun. I love programming. But programming for a cool subject is even better.
How exactly did you end up at that position? Any educational background you recommend? MIT? 🙂
Heh, maybe I've made this job sound more exciting then it really is
🙂
How'd I end up here?? Dumb luck & being in the right place at the right time.
Well, I'll take a little more credit than that, but this isn't where I expected to be when I left collge.
I left college (Virginia Tech) with degrees in Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, concentrating in composite materials and structures. I hoped to work in aircraft structures.
The Air Force had other ideas, and I ended up I pushing papers for 3 out of 4 years
🙁 But got selected for a 1 year research internship in a private aerospace company. I had a a good idea for a satellite constellation optimization algorithm (using genetic algorithms) so I went to the astro department, and turned out a project that broke new ground in the field. That, and a security clearance opened doors for me when I got out of the Air Force ... it's notoriously difficult for engineers coming out of the Air Force to get a hands-on engineering job unless they've been in the labs, or gone back to school, so that internship really helped. Spent the last few years hopping between defense contractors, then got this job back at the company I interned with. Along the way I picked up Linux & cluster-computing by buying a pile of old 486 and setting up a mini-cluster @ home.
I'm almost entirely self-taught, or OJT in both astrodynamics & computer science, and while I'm not at the very top of my class in either, I'm somewhat unique in having solid skills in both areas. That and a few lucky breaks, and chances that panned out. Learn voraciously, take chances, and don't accept boring jobs if you can help it
😀
