“You need to be an engineering major to apply for an internship at NASA.”
“You shouldn’t go to grad school
because there are too many grad students and not enough jobs for
them.”
“You need to go to grad school to
become a scientist.”
“You may not think you want to become
a professor, but you’ll change your mind.”
“You should drop out of your PhD
program and get an MBA instead.”
“You don’t want to be a scientist.
You just like the idea of becoming a scientist. You don’t belong
here.”
“You don’t have enough experience
to start your own consulting company.”
“Why don’t you quit building your
own company and return to academia?”
This is some of the bad advice I got
over the course of my career in the space sector. I’m sure you’ve
gotten bad advice along your way, too. Discouraging advice. Wrong
advice for your situation. People who assume they know your goals
better than you do. People who only know their own corner of the
world and just aren’t aware of the possibilities out there that
might be a better fit for you.
Throughout my career as a high school
and university student and early career professional, the big
questions I kept returning to were, “What’s it really like to do
__ job? How do I pursue __ job? Am I on the right track?”
I began mentoring students when I was
in graduate school, answering their questions and guiding them as
best I could. Over the years, I became more frustrated that I could
only spend a short amount of time with each student. A quick
conversation or two wasn’t enough to really dive deep into the
lives, goals, and struggled of these individuals.
I hired a career coach when I felt
stuck in my first full-time job. I felt like a caged bird yearning to
soar freely. I knew I was capable of more than my employer was
allowing me to do. Although my coach didn’t know anything about the
space sector, she helped guide me along me path to becoming a manager
in a space startup in my next job.
Curiously, there were no career coaches
specializing in the space sector. I could have really used a coach to
help me through such a specialized and misunderstood sector! A year
into starting my space consulting company, I added space career
coaching as a service as a way to give back to the community. A
couple of other space-related coaching services have popped up since
then, a sign of a growing space sector.
Surprisingly, in the three years I’ve
been coaching individuals along their space careers, I’ve learned
the greatest demand for my services has been not from students but
from established professionals in other industries who want to switch
to a career in space. Whether they always wanted to work in space or
their interest is a more recent development, these professionals are
seeking guidance on how to break into the field. The majority of my
coaching clients have been mid-level professionals wanting to pursue
their dreams.
I’m so excited to share a project
I’ve been working on in the background for the past seven months:
two online, self-paced space careers courses. One is tailored for
university students and recent graduates and one is tailored for
mid-level professionals. In these 50-some page workbooks and 90+
minute videos, I share much of the experience, advice, and questions
I’ve worked through with my space career coaching clients. I also
ask the individual to work through a number of exercises to focus on
introspection, do some research, and take actions to move their space
career pursuits forward.
In this blog series, I’ll be sharing
some general advice for pursuing a space career. I’ll go over some
basics of identifying the type of job you truly want, searching for
potential employers and jobs, networking (online!), messaging, and
more.
The main message I want to leave you
with today: space is for everyone. Are you an aerospace engineer?
Great! Are you a scientist? Great! Do you have a technical
background? Great! Do you not have any technical background at all?
Great! Space is still for you.
The space sector is truly
interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. It touches on so many
industries and fields of study. People of all backgrounds and skills
are needed.
It would be impossible for me to list
all of the fields one could study in university in order to pursue a
space career. Take a look at your university’s degree offerings. Do
you see all those majors? Every one of them could apply to space.
Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t pursue a space
career because you don’t have a certain degree or background.
Similarly, you do not need a certain
skill set to work in the space sector. Love math? Great! Math isn’t
your thing? That’s fine too! If everyone had the same skills,
important jobs would not be able to be accomplished and the space
sector would be weak from the lack of different perspectives and
abilities.
As recently as two weeks ago, I had to
push back on a science communicator who recommended everyone pursuing
a space career should learn computer programming. I was also given
this advice when I was an undergraduate astrophysics major. Computer
programming is a great skill to learn! It’s also not at all
essential. If you love it, great. If you’re like me and run far
away from coding, that’s fine too. Honestly, if I had allowed
myself to obtain a job that required programming, I’d be miserable
and I wouldn’t have the space career I have today. Be true to
yourself. Ignore even well-meaning advice that doesn’t feel true to
you and your goals.
Return tomorrow for part 2 in which I
dive into some specific advice covered in the Astralytical space
career courses!
This is part 1 of a four-part series. Click here for part 2.
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