The Career Advice I Never Had

I was looking through some shelves when I came across an old spiral bound notebook with the title “Advice to Rocket Scientists” – Longuski. Ph. D. What a strange book! My job could be construed as a dilute form of rocket science, so I picked it up. And I devoured it. I read maybe a quarter of it right then and there! This book just happened to address all of the nebulous career issues cannibalizing my mind recently.

And it was good! It’s refreshing to read something that talks about the aerospace industry so candidly. It’s good in the sense that I understood EXACTLY what he was talking about. The book is dedicated to technical people who are not prepared for office life and career politics. And who can blame us? We grew up on Star Trek and video games… yeah that stuff is made up but surely the real world isn’t so bad. It has companies that produce amazing flying machines, staffed by brilliant engineers who worked effortlessly together. What else but self managed geniuses could produce such monuments to engineering?

WRONG. Aerospace companies are like any others, though I have a feeling they have more than their fair share of disillusioned enthusiasts. Here is some of the stuff it talked about:

1. What is the most important thing about your job? Salary? The work? The Boss?

He claims it is your boss. He/She has control of the first two. You could have an awesome set of duties/responsibilities but your boss could ruin that experience and keep you from getting promoted or gaining recognition. I guess it’s obvious but management and immediate bosses have a huge influence on your career at this company or the next. They write reviews for other jobs and control the flow of information to the upper management. So if your boss is bad, leave. Consider a lateral move or just away, your career is too important (especially in its larval stages) to throw away. This all makes sense and is not obvious to young engineers who don’t really know what a boss can really do. Do great work and get promoted right? In a perfect world maybe.

2. That brings in the next point. Visibility. It is important to be and remain visible for the right reasons. Work on high profile projects, things that have the future of the company in hand. This works in direct contradiction to everything you learned in college… working hard does not automatically pay off. You must be on the right projects and bosses play a huge role in this.

3. Do not take a job that you know how to do. This job will get immensely boring in a few years. I completely agree with this. Aerospace is a field desperately in need of creativity and innovation. If you think a job is “below you” it probably is… Accept difficult tasks, especially something the company needs solved, and be confident. Furthermore, learn as much as you can in other fields while you complete your first impossible task. This is one of the sure fire roads to project lead, the holy grail of engineering.

4. Every 3 years make a lateral move if you cannot be promoted. This is not considered aloof or ADD, the truth is that 80 % of any fields’ practical knowledge base can be learned in 3 years. The last 20 % takes ten years plus. If you stay in one area you will become the guru in the field for the company, learning everything there is to know about it. (Everyone has a guru, someone who has shunned all promotion into management). Gurus will have had substantial salary increases but will plateau in ten or so years. In short, they will be necessary and well paid, but un-promotable. You will be seen as afraid of change and uncomfortable in other subject areas. I guess every company has project leads and presidents and they didn’t simmer in a group for decades to pop up to the top.

I wish I read this in college.