NASA Job Question

[fatal291]

Ok I'm working on my GED right now, I'm not a drop out I'm 17 but I am still enrolled in my former high school to a degree. I had to leave cause my school was an open campus and I have bad allergies/asthma, I'm allergic to freshly cut grass and all ect.. but anyway will NASA hire a GED grad? I was planning on going to space camp as i posted earlier so i could get credit for college. <br /><br />Will NASA hire me and what are some of the positions they have i know they have a lot

 

[qso1]

For best results, go to NASAs job posting boards and look at whats available and the education requirements. I'd send you a link but I'm not on my computer. NASA also has intern programs you can look into. These are basically summer hire programs for college students. Most NASA jobs require at least a two year degree. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[fatal291]

Yeah well I can't really find anything space related here in Richmond Virginia

 

[alkalin]

I wrote the following a short time ago to a NathanielYork asking somewhat the same question. But I add here that I did not attend high school except over a few months when I was close to thirty to prepare for the GED tests. The GED was important for me to get into college. But also in preparation for any degree I took all the math classes available. So here is what I wrote to Nathaniel:<br /><br />Nat,<br /><br />I’m from South Dakota, spent nearly thirty years on the farm, decided to move to Southern California and try to get a degree in general engineering. Why? I had a considerable interest in science and engineering issues and read as much as time allowed in this area, all of which helped considerably. And I did get the degree, which was the ticket.<br /><br />I since spent about thirty years in a rather exciting career in the optical engineering field, some of it on satellite work. I retired a couple of years ago, but would likely still be working if it wasn’t for a bad back and some other issues. <br /><br />What worked for me was not to specialize too much in some field that may not be available in the job market when I needed to find work. I found a general knowledge of mechanics, computers, optics, electronics, etc, would open many doors once I had established work skill. A work place is capable to put you and train you sometimes where they need you. While the degree is an important piece of paper, it is just the beginning. You just need to demonstrate interest, learning ability, and problem solving skill. <br /><br />There are a number of companies here in California that heavily supports the aerospace industry, such as Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, etc. I suggest get work with some company first that supports NASA, and then it may be more likely to get employed eventually with NASA, unless you can impress them with your school work. To my knowledge I do not think I have worked directly on a NASA project. The reason I say this is

 

[fatal291]

great thanks, but how did you do? Are you where you wanted to be?

 

[alkalin]

<br />I feel very fortunate to have found the kind of work I could do and do well. I was what they called a lab rat, someone doing well in the hands on types of tasks with hardware, and it usually was fun stuff to do so it would be hard for me to describe it as work. It involved assembly, test, and verification of optical performance using interferometers and other alignment equipment on sometimes fairly complicated optical systems. But as I said, my back began to give out and I was in pain at times, so that made the work not fun anymore. Yet management liked what I could do in the lab and tended to keep me there, even though I could also sit in a chair and write software. Well, retiring was not fun either, but I was past 65 and would have had to retire eventually anyway.<br /><br />I never really intended to get into optics when going to school, but feel very lucky to have experienced some of it. The optics field today can be very challenging in terms of image analysis coming in from a variety of sources such as adaptive optics, long base line, satellites, and large telescopes. And of course it is not just visible light. Some of my work was in research and development in a few of these areas. I cannot see how this would not be satisfying work? If I had worked for NASA, they may have given me more boring work to do.<br />

 

[alkalin]

I forgot to mention that my work career, luckily, tended to support a very great interest of mine, astronomy/cosmology.

 

[wbtusmc]

On this same note (though not specifically concerning NASA), in May of 2006 I'll be getting my bachelors in History. It wasn't until a year ago that I came into a passion of science, particularly astrophysics. Is it pretty safe to assume that I'll need to get a completely different degree in a scientific field in order to get a job for say NASA?

 

[alkalin]

Where I worked most of the people were degreed in areas of physics, chemistry, math, or mechanics. But there are other positions also sometimes available. Maybe a course or two in some science area might help a lot. I do not know the job market right now, so maybe you should talk to a counselor at your school about this. You also could try to interview with employers to get their advice too. I’m guessing here, but some companies might be interested in documenting historical involvement in various events, especially if you can sell this idea to them. I just do not know. Sorry that I cannot help further on this.<br /><br />

 

[fatal291]

Like I said I'm getting a G.E.D. and since I'm really still in HS kinda I'm hoping they would still consider hireing me.