Career Planning: The NASA way [Career Advisor]

“Every semester, more than 40 graduate students from various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics backgrounds attend our Spacecraft Technology and Space Systems Design Management courses to learn the skills that are necessary to become technical managers in the space industry. As an instructor, one of the most rewarding aspects of this program for me is the one-on-one mentorship opportunities. Students often come to me with one key question in mind: “What should I do after I graduate?” Some dream of becoming astronauts, while others aspire to develop future space technologies. Of course, it is daunting to look a student in the eyes and tell them with any certainty what the “right” path for them may be. But over time, I have developed an objective approach, which I call the NASA way of career planning. It involves considering two key metrics: 1) technology-readiness level (TRL), which measures project technical risk, and 2) cost–benefit analysis, referring to professional risk. In other words, the first metric gauges what the candidate can do for a project, and the second metric is a measure of what a job can do for the candidate.”