Charlie:
As someone who has mentored a few students, here is my advice:
Stop worrying about your career as 14 year old.
If you like rockets, go build them, fly them, and have fun. You learn more
when you have fun doing it!
Hang out the rocket groups and make friends. Be a sponge, but don't be
annoying about it. Unless you parents are wealthy, your financial limitations
as teenager hold you back from most serious amateur projects costing thousands
of dollars. The financial challenges can make the hobby very frustrating early
one, so relax and have fun. Get too frustrated early on and you lose interest.
Once you reach 16+, have a job, a car; then you can get more serious. If you
are honors level student, there are often science clubs in HS that get federal
and private grants to build cool rocket projects. Some even have us ARocket
members as mentors. ;)
If your high school doesn't have enough science geeks for aerospace sciences;
then find a decent college that does. Many colleges will allow top level HS
17-18 year old students to take an intro class that makes you eligible for the
college science clubs. Most aerospace teachers have some of us ARocket folks
on speed dial for consultation, launch site access, and you get more mentor
support.
Along the way, read the books mentioned by others. Work on gaining excellent
math/science grades.
Depending on where you live, once you reach 18; look for local aerospace mfg
company. Look for part time job sweeping floor, or as mail room clerk. Have
to start at bottom, but you will learn more about how Aerospace business works.
In college, look for the internship programs, as they are free education, and
sometimes even pay you some money. This is not required, but can help if
haven't had enough hands one FUN building/flying rockets.
If you have been 'playing' with rockets all during HS and college; by time you
graduate with Aerospace degree, you will have enough 'hobby' experience that
companies will be fighting for the privilege to hire you. We LOVE to hire
passionate new graduates into the Industry with hands on experience. Know
person at China Lake working on rockets and is always looking for qualified
mentored graduates, just he was 20 years ago. :) When you graduate college,
come back and post your resume in Arocket. Can expect several interviews
almost immediately. :)
PS - Stop worrying about management.
Every engineer in training learns how to manage. We have to manage budgets,
fabrication, assembly, transportation to site, site setup, launch equipment,
safety and crowd control, plus recovery and clean up. While doing all of the
above, you been managing the maze of local, state, and federal regulations
designed to keep you and others safe. This is why you should first go out and
have FUN with rockets. When you are young, you will have more fun with rockets
per week/month than is allowed as an adult. Adult fun is also much more
expensive, with longer periods between the times you feel like a kid flying
rockets on friends farmland again. :)
Managers are great people IMHO. They off load the boring paperwork, budget
meetings, and time wasting crap that sucks the passion from being an engineer
and building rockets. TBH - Management is hard work and not much fun,
especially managing other people. You will be there soon enough, and learn
first hand. Best managers are those with years of experience, and have
learned the knowledge to help others succeed and minimize failures.
IMHO - The folks that make good managers at young age are those with more
people skills than hands on technology skills. So if you suddenly are having
less fun with rockets in college; get an MBA and and join ranks of managers who
spend their day not having fun with rockets, but gain pride in helping others
have fun with rockets.
Bottom line: It's all about having FUN!
Keep the pointy end up. :)
Good Luck on your adventure.
Jim
On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 2:27 PM Charlie Jackson
<charliejackson8629@xxxxxxxxx mailto:charliejackson8629@xxxxxxxxx ;> wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
As I am aware, a multitude of people here have extensive experience
in working with rocket propulsion, both on amateur and professional
applications. Rockets have become a large passion of mine to learn about
and I want to get a career in the topic, so if you don’t mind, could I ask
a few questions?
-what can I start doing now, at age 14, that will benefit me in the
long run
-what does a typical workday consist of when managing/designing
rockets?
-what recourses (books, websites, etc) do you recommend to expand
my knowledge on the topic?
-What company’s are doing interesting work in the field?
-What technology have you worked on and what was it like to see it
perform the way it did?
Kind regards, Charlie
>