
Hiring intern for NASA spacewalk operations department - jamesmontalvo3
First, apologies for this not being in a &quot;who&#x27;s hiring&quot; post. The powers that be are hoping to fill this position before February, so it can&#x27;t wait for the next one.<p>Second, I&#x27;m not involved with hiring...I just want to give the college students of HN an opportunity to apply for this cool opening. If you get the position you will work with me a lot, so feel free to ask me anything about what I do.<p>Okay, here&#x27;s the semi-official job req:<p>Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies in Houston, TX is offering an internship where you will get to work at the NASA&#x27;s Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL)[1] and Mission Control Center (MCC)[2] working within the Mission Operations group at Johnson Space Center in charge of Extravehicular Activities (spacewalks)[3]. This group plans on-orbit activities, trains astronauts to perform spacewalks (at the NBL and other facilities), and assists astronauts with execution of missions from MCC.<p>The chosen applicant would be involved with all of these planning, training and execution activities. Additionally, they would be working on a project to improve the EVA Wiki (EVA&#x27;s knowledge managment system using MediaWiki [4]). The extent of this project depends upon the chosen applicant&#x27;s interests and skills. Applicants proficient in software development could help improve existing software or developing their own extensions. Other applicants could work on improving the content within the wiki.<p>Applicants must be graduate students or undergraduate juniors or seniors. Graduate students work 30-40 hours per week. Undergraduates work 16-28 hours per week. Application is open to all students, but goes through San Jacinto College. To apply please contact Linda Drobnich at Linda.Drobnich AT sjcd DOT edu.<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Neutral_Buoyancy_Laboratory
[2] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Mission_Control_Center
[3] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Extravehicular_activity
[4] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mediawiki.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;MediaWiki
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brudgers
The out of band advertisement [Who is Hiring was less than two weeks ago]
doesn't suggest a company that has its shit together [there's nothing
intrinsically wrong with that]. But out of band means out of band. And the
mores of Who is Hiring are not applicable.

Working on the project Wiki is the only specific task listed. That's a red-
flag in regard to gaining professional Computer
science/engineering/programming experience. It's secretarial work [not that
there's anything intrinsically wrong with that] not an extension of the CS
classroom.

NASA in the headline is also a bit misleading outside the jobs thread, since
this is just another contractor [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong
with that], but in that industry there are companies that will take interns
and give them work that extends the classroom.

I am not saying that this isn't an opportunity for work experience or an entry
into the world of government contracting or that there's anything wrong with
that industry. But it isn't a job at NASA and working on the Wiki is not the
kind of experience that leads to the skill sets NASA seeks for software
developers. They need hard computer science ~ they want people who can work
with the Peter Norvigs and Margret Hamiltons of the world.

~~~
jamesmontalvo3
I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I
didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out.

First: this post has nothing to do with the company and whether it does or
does not have its shit together. I posted this as an individual because I was
excited that I was told we were getting an intern and they'd be working with
me...which is something that's never happened to me before.

Whether or not the wiki aspect is secretarial work is entirely dependent upon
the intern. If we end up getting someone with no CS background then yes, that
aspect of their work will likely be secretarial. If we get someone with a
strong CS background then I'd give them a list of things we've considered
building and tell them to go for whichever one they want (or come up with
their own). Some examples of projects off the top of my head: bi-directional
syncing of ground-based versions of our wiki with a version aboard the ISS,
building web services to communicate between various databases and mission
critical tools, working on methods to suggest content to people who may not be
aware of it, etc.

The NASA headline is not intended to be misleading. The intern would work
onsite at Johnson Space Center, not at a contractor offsite. Within our group
the fact that some badges say "contractor" and others say "civil servant" is
irrelevant; we all work on the same stuff. And, quite frankly, what we work on
is pretty awesome: developing EVAs, responding to on-orbit failures (think the
"square-peg-into-round-hole" scene from Apollo 13 [1]), SCUBA diving and
working in the space suit in the NBL...and on top of that, and because I've
found a niche for myself, developing software to smartly fix our knowledge
management problems. I don't know anyone with a job cooler than mine, except
the astronauts I work with daily.

I'm sure there are lots of companies that give interns work that extends the
classroom. This is not one of them. There are two reasons for this: (1) there
are no classrooms teaching EVA, and (2) our group does not focus on software
development. If a rockstar developer ended up getting this internship then
they would have a lot of freedom to work on projects of their choosing, but
they would not get oversight from Peter Norvig. That is probably a deal-
breaker for some; it probably sounds awesome to others.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q)

~~~
twk123
Hi, I'm new this website, so please excuse me commenting here, as opposed to
the original post. I have interviewed with Ms. Drobnich about this position,
and afterwards, she said that she would send my resume to SGT. She also said
that I should expect an email from SGT to schedule an interview over the
phone. She said the email would be sent within a week of our interview, which
was on 01/16.

To this date, I haven't received any email from SGT. So, I was wondering if
SGT went forward with another candidate, or if SGT hasn't gotten around to
hiring anyone. I know you aren't involved with hiring, but any insight would
be helpful.

And by the way, this internship sounds awesome. I'm getting that hyped-up
feeling that you get when you buy a lotto ticket after applying to this. I
don't know how often you visit this website, but I hope that you see this.

~~~
jamesmontalvo3
I have not been notified that anyone has been selected. I'm not sure if
they're going to ask my opinions at all on the candidates (I hope they do).

Seeing as this thread seems mostly dead, if you'd like to talk more about the
position feel free to email me at my HN username -AT- GMAIL -DOT- COM.

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monkcoder
I believe also adding a link to the position listing would help expedite this
process.

~~~
jamesmontalvo3
Unfortunately at this time there isn't one. Instead I've provided an email
address for the person in charge of the program.

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gus_massa
Does the position have any nationality requirement?

~~~
jamesmontalvo3
I'm not certain. However, given that the intern would have access to NASA IT
systems they would have to pass a background check which can take a long time
for non-US citizens. The internship may be over by the time the background
check cleared.

~~~
siscia
I would be extremely interested but I am European (Italy), basically non
chance, right ?

~~~
jamesmontalvo3
It can't hurt to inquire. It may not be possible for this particular opening
but perhaps you can set yourself up for future openings. If you get more
information please post it back here afterwards. Thanks, and good luck.

