Monday, November 3, 2008

ATK interview day

The good news is that the interview with ATK went very well and I enjoyed talking intelligently with other engineers. The interview was in Plymouth, MN which is about 25 minutes north of my house in Bloomington.

The bad news is that the ATK office here does pretty much all ammunition and missile development, essentially nothing space-related. There are about 5 people devoting at least part of their time to working on the Ares rocket for the Constellation program for travel to the Moon and beyond. They are not hiring for that and it sounds like there is no chance of me working on that. Once I hear back from ATK I am going to ask again about the possibility of me doing anything with Ares.

I don't really want my job to be about blowing stuff up. I might consider that if there was potential for space work in the future but it doesn't look good.

I will write more about this once I hear back from ATK.

5 comments:

TB said...

Josh says take the job about blowing stuff up--"So cool" :)

I say do what makes you happy :):)

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, work on missiles can easily translate to launch vehicles. Structural concerns, Isp, launch and trajectory profiles are similar - in my experience. Plus, the dark side isn't so bad...

Unknown said...

Laurie, I appreciate your comment. I agree partially. I know that work on ballistic missiles applies much more to space applications because they leave the atmosphere but in-atmosphere missiles are projectiles similar to ammunition with aerospace applications.I still have issues with how they will be used and I am just not passionate about blowing things up. I do appreciate the fact that we need ammunition for defense of our country but that is not what I want to do with my time. I could use my math and physics skills and lots of other stuff from my education to work on missiles and ammunition but it is just not that thrilling to me. I don't want or need a job that much so I am holding out for something I am passionate about.

Anonymous said...

Makes sense.

Anonymous said...

When I told you I'd keep my excitement inside, I lied!! WEEE WOOOOO!!!!!!!! YIPEEEEE!!!!

I'm sure you'll make the right decision for you...

Love you!