One Day, One Job » flight

Applied Physics Laboratory

Willy Franzen — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:44:51 +0000

This has nothing to do with physics, but yesterday was likely the greatest day in Cornell athletics history. I’m a happy guy. I’m also a guy who took AP Physics and found it extremely difficult. Despite the fact that our survival is based on having a basic understanding of physics (like knowing how a spear will fly when you throw it at a mammoth), most of us have basically no clue about the scientific side of physics. That’s not the case with the folks at The Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. The APL is a division of Johns Hopkins University, and it’s “a not-for-profit center for engineering, research, and development.” The Laboratory’s work has a huge impact on the success of our nation—they work in areas like Air and Missile Defense, Homeland Protection, Biomedicine, and Civilian Space.

Apply Yourself at APL

To get a better feel for what The Applied Physics Laboratory does, you should take a look at some of their Sample Programs. It includes things like Space Threat Awareness and Characterization, Imaging Inside Buildings with Radar, and Effective Preparation of Biological Samples. If you pore over these case studies, you’ll start to realize just how important the field of applied physics really is. Another thing that The Applied Physics Laboratory is known for is hiring the best and the brightest. They have a significant College Recruiting program, and they do have a single posting on their site for technical entry level positions. It covers a number of different job functions including: Aerospace/Aeronautics, Communications Engineering, Controls Engineering, Defense Systems Test and Evaluation, Hardware Design, Information Systems/Security, Modeling and Simulation, Network/Communications Engineering, Signal Processing, Software Engineering, Space Physics, and System Engineering Analysis. They’re looking for candidates from all degree levels, and they seem to offer a great work environment. Their Careers page has a lot more information, so check it out for more details. And if you’re looking for a non-science position, you can keep your eye on all of the APL’s job listings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you see the Cornell game?

Aircell

Willy Franzen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:28:06 +0000

After a week of cold weather in Florida, I’m headed back to Chicago. Since I wanted to enjoy the last night of my vacation, I decided that I’d try to get this post to you from 31,000 feet. I’m flying on AirTran (maybe we’ll look at their jobs another time), and all of their flights offer Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, which is a service provided by Itasca, IL based AirCell (I used this promotion to get a free access coupon code). The business of Internet Service Providers was a big one in the 90s, but as we’ve become more accustomed to broadband, we’ve mostly started using major telecom companies to feed our Internet addictions. Now, the business opportunities are all about providing Internet access in locations with captive audiences—hotels, convention centers, airports, and now airplanes, although 3G card providers are offering some fierce competition. Luckily for Aircell, that’s not an option in the air, which means that, for now, Gogo has a dominant market position with their because of their FCC sanctioned rights to be the “exclusive provider of Wi-Fi communications to airlines, business aviation, military, government, and specialty aircraft across North America.”

Gogo Get a Job

Who knows what the future of Gogo will be? It’s pretty obvious that Internet access will soon be expected on all but the smallest planes, but how will that play out? Will the FAA allow us to start using cellular devices so that we can use 3G or 4G cards? Will airlines continue to nickel and dime us (ok, we know the answer to that one)? Will we continue to pay for in-flight Internet access or will there be an ad supported option? There are a lot of questions to be answered, but it seems that Gogo is well positioned to take advantage of the current market opportunities. They received a significant venture capital investment, and their Jobs page seems to indicate that they’re continuing to grow. Additionally, Aircell isn’t a business solely based on Gogo; in fact, they’re much more. They are “the world’s leading provider of airborne communications.” That means that what they do goes well beyond allowing you to watch stupid YouTube videos on a cross-country flight. There aren’t many entry level opportunities at Aircell, but you’ll probably want to check out the Airline Account Manager and Product Analyst positions. To apply send your résumé and cover letter in plain text, MS Word or RTF to recruiting@aircell.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever used wi-fi on a plane?

NetJets

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:36:24 +0000

If I ever make a ridiculous amount of money, the first thing that I’m going to do is buy a private jet—or at least a share in one. It seems like the ultimate way to travel. I’ve been on private planes before, but they had propellers and I was sitting next to or right behind the pilot (not nearly as classy). NetJets is a company that allows wealthy individuals and businesses to buy shares in private jets (since who really needs an entire jet to himself or herself?). They also have a subscription service called MarquisJet that lets you get a guaranteed number of hours of private jet use. It may not make private air travel affordable or cost effective, but it certainly puts it within reach for a lot more people. NetJets is by far the market leader, and they’re also a Berkshire Hathaway company. You know if Warren Buffett is investing in it, it has to be pretty good. NetJets is based in Columbus, OH, but quite obviously they operate all over the world.

Be a NetJetter

Even Warren Buffett thinks that private jet travel is a ridiculous luxury, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a customer and then buying the company when the time was right. The truth is that commercial airline travel is a pain in the butt, and many people will pay exorbitant costs to avoid it. Even if energy costs get continue to grow, you have to like the future of NetJets. Assuming that you aren’t morally opposed to private air travel, you should check out NetJets’s Jobs page. It’s split in to three sections: Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Corporate Positions. We’ll look at the latter since that’s most likely to have good fits for new grads. There are 15 jobs posted right now, and a few appear to be suitable for new grads. These include IT Business Analyst, Prospect Development Specialist (Teetorboro, NJ), and Technical Marketing Analyst. You can apply online, but we can’t link you directly to the job descriptions because NetJets uses a crappy applicant tracking system.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever flown on a NetJet?

SpaceX

Willy Franzen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:35:37 +0000

You may have heard that NASA just had what was probably the final night launch of the space shuttle. I was lucky enough to see one a few years ago from a beach in Connecticut, although it didn’t look like much more than a bright light screaming through the night sky. Our space program is going through a lot of changes, and it seems that current funding for some future programs isn’t what the people at NASA were hoping for. Many fans of the space program are disappointed and pessimistic about the future of space exploration. Luckily, the past decade has led to the rise of private space companies that are taking up a lot of the slack when it comes to space flight. One of these companies is Hawthorne, CA based SpaceX, which was started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk in 2002. Their focus is on building launch vehicles (mostly for satellites) that are not only more reliable, but also more affordable.

JobX

SpaceX has been growing like crazy—in late 2005 they had 160 employees, and now they employ more than 800 people. Not only has SpaceX grown at an impressive rate up to this point, but they seem to be continuing their growth. Their Jobs page shows more than 70 open positions. As long as the government keeps cutting its funding for space program, the private aerospace industry is going to keep booming. SpaceX is well positioned as they already have a track record of success—they were the first private company to develop a launch vehicle and reach earth orbit from the ground.

If that sounds like something that you want to be part of, then you should check out jobs at SpaceX—they even have opportunities for people who don’t have a background in aerospace. They identify 7 of the jobs that they have posted as being for new graduates: Dynamics Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer, Mechanical Engineer- Fluids & Thermal, Mechanical Engineer- Structures, Software Engineer, and Systems Engineer. There are plenty of other positions posted, so you may want to check them out even if they’re not explicitly identified as being for new grads—these include jobs in Marketing, HR, Technical Writing, and more. You can apply online for positions at SpaceX, and you should also take note of the following:

Since the people we seek tend to be highly sought after, SpaceX offers up to a $5000 referral award to anyone who refers a candidate we hire.

If you end up applying for a job at SpaceX, please let them know that you found about them from One Day, One Job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about the private aerospace industry?

Southwest Airlines

Willy Franzen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:08:56 +0000

Periodically the news is riddled with stories about how the airlines are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Lately the focus of doom and gloom commentary has shifted to finance and insurance companies, but that doesn’t mean that the airlines are doing any better. There’s one company that is seemingly never in the conversation about struggling airlines – Southwest Airlines. If you’ve ever flown Southwest, you probably know why. They do things differently, and it makes flyers happy. Even though it seems like almost no one can succeed flying commercial routes, Southwest continues to impress. A One Day, One Internship reader tipped us off to some amazing internship opportunities at Southwest Airlines, so we thought that we’d look at their entry level jobs today too. Air travel isn’t going anywhere – it’s too important to us, so don’t write off an entire industry because the other losers can’t get their acts together.

Future Booking at Southwest

Honestly, I’ve never heard of a company cited in more case studies than Southwest is. When I was studying Human Resources in college, I swear that I heard about Southwest’s corporate culture every week. It must make the CEOs of other airlines sick to their stomachs. Just look at the honors Southwest has received recently:

Ranked 12th on Fortune’s “Most Admired” list in 2007
Made Forbes “Platinum List” in 2007
Ranked by Business Week as one of the top “50 Best Places to Launch a Career”
“Most Admired Companies Among Women” by Professional Womens Magazine in 2006
“100 Best Corporate Citizens” by Business Ethics magazine for eight years in a row
“Corporate 100” by HISPANIC magazine since 2000
Included in the “Top 100 Most Innovative Technology Organizations” by InformationWeek in July 2007

And in case you aren’t already dreaming about working for Southwest, you should know that they offer “FREE UNLIMITED space-available travel anywhere Southwest Airlines flies” in addition to a laundry list of other benefits or “freedoms,” as they like to call them. To get a sense of what kind of jobs are available at Southwest Airlines, you should first look at their position profiles. These will give you a brief overview of each type of job that Southwest offers, so when you look at their actual job listings you will have a good understanding of what you’re looking at. Their Careers site is exceedingly simple, and really easy to navigate. It’s also loaded with information. We love (LUV) it.

Of the 39 non-internship job openings that we’ve identified on Southwest’s site, here are some that might be a good fit for a new college grad.

There are certainly more jobs to look at, some with slightly higher experience requirements. Most of the jobs are located at Southwest’s Dallas, TX headquarters (Ramp Agent openings are in Denver, Philadelphia, and Baltimore). Applying online for any of these jobs should be quite easy, so get to it!

Southwest Airlines also offers an RSS feed and e-mail alerts to notify you of new job postings, so if you don’t see anything that you like right now, you can sign up to be notified of future opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you flown Southwest? Did you LUV it?

Masten Space Systems

Willy Franzen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:34:25 +0000

“Just gas ‘em up and go!” is not the slogan that you’d expect to hear from an aerospace company, but that’s exactly how easy Masten Space Systems would like space travel to be. They’re a space startup, and they’re working on “developing a line of Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing (VTVL) launch vehicles,” although Masten is also know for offering to send your junk into space for a reasonable fee. Anyway, the whole idea behind what Masten Space Systems is doing is to create rocket vehicles that are reliable and reusable.

Vertical Takeoff for Your Career

<div><a href='http://www.omnisio.com'>Share and annotate your videos</a> with Omnisio!</div> <p>

Masten Space Systems’ CFO and VP of Business Development, Michael Mealling, recently did a pitch at Startup Riot and posted the video presentation on the Masten blog. We’ve posted the video above since it is the best way for you to get familiar with the company.

Masten Space Systems still has a very small team, but they do seem to be adding people occasionally. Right now they’re looking for a Senior Engineer / Project Manager, a Technician / Fabricator, and an Office Manager. The Technician / Fabricator job is the only one that seems like it could be well suited to a new college grad. It requires welding / brazing experience and manual / CNC milling experience, so you shouldn’t apply unless you’ve had your hands dirty before. Masten is growing, so you may want to try sending a resume and cover letter for an unlisted position. If you stick out as someone who would be perfect for their team, they’ll probably hold on to your resume until something opens up. Another option is to try for an internship at Masten Space Systems. They give their interns extremely high level work, and it might be a good way to get a foot in the door. Masten Space Systems is located in Mojave, CA and requires that all job applicants fill out an employment application and attach it with a resume and cover letter in an e-mail to info@masten-space.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Know anything about Masten Space Systems? Leave a comment.

Aeros Corporation

Willy Franzen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:18:13 +0000

Sometimes we come across companies that aren’t currently offering entry-level jobs but are just too cool to not post about immediately. Aeros Corporation is one of those companies. The people at Aeros think that they’ve seen the future of air travel, and it’s chubby looking – at least compared to the jets we travel on today. Why is it chubby? Because blimp-like airships are the future. Aeros currently considers themselves “the world’s leading lighter-than-air, FAA-certified aircraft manufacturing company;” however, the future lies in the Aeroscraft (you need to click the link to check it out) which is not quite lighter than air. It is to be a “partially buoyant craft [with] a rigid hull structure” that can takeoff and land vertically, hover for extended periods of time, land practically anywhere in any weather, and will be extremely safe.

Not Quite Lighter Than Air

Aeros Corporation has big plans for the Aeroscraft, and they’re working to make it happen. Still, we think this could just be a lot of hot air (FYI: they actually use helium to float the airships). A project like this is extremely ambitious, and changing the way people fly will not be an easy task. Aeros is certainly on the way, as you can see in their Photo Gallery and Videos. On the other hand, if Aeros is successful in changing the way we fly, it would be pretty freakin’ cool to say that you were a part of it. Only time will tell if travelers will choose the extreme comfort and luxury of the Aeroscraft over the speediness that jets currently offer.

Anyway, we prefaced this posted by saying that Montebello, CA based Aeros Corporation doesn’t have any entry-level jobs. Their Careers page shows two job openings – one for pilots and another for engineers. The pilot position is clearly out of reach for new college grads, and the engineering position requires 2 years of experience “in design of steel or aluminum structures or heavy machinery.” It’s possible that some new grads who majored in Mechanical, Structural, Design, or Aerospace engineering might be able to land these jobs, but we really can’t say. Aeros’ Careers page also says that they typically hire Avionics Engineers, Design Drafters, Mechanical Designers, Mechanical Engineers, Military Programs Manager, Pilots, Quality, Assurance Engineers, Sales and Marketing, Senior Engineers, System Engineers, Technical Writers, and Test Support Engineers. That means that cold calling might be a viable option with Aeros. They must do some entry-level hiring.

If you think the future of air travel includes partially buoyant craft, then you need to be working at Aeros. We’d love to see you help them succeed, but we realize that ambitions as grand as Aeros’ are really hard to achieve. We’ll see what happens.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Would you fly on an Aeroscraft?

NASA

Willy Franzen — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:00:21 +0000

Typically young children are quite realistic about their career aspirations. They want to be firefighters, policemen, and teachers – professions that are in constant, steady demand. The more ambitious children might want a job as a doctor or veterinarian – still steady, but requiring a significant investment in education. It almost seems that as children we’re more realistic about life and careers than we are when we reach adulthood – except those kids who wanted to be astronauts. Since the beginning of the space program, there have only been 321 astronauts selected. Ever. There’s no surefire (or easy) way to become an astronaut – pilots, schoolteachers, doctors, scientist, and engineers have all been astronauts – but if selection as an astronaut is one of your life goals, you need to start preparing now. If you’re not ready for the commitment that it takes to be an astronaut, there are still plenty of entry-level jobs at NASA that will enable you to have a meaningful impact on the space program and NASA’s other endeavors.

NASA is a large government agency with many entry-level jobs, so instead of identifying each job opening, we’re going to guide you through how to their jobs website and help you find the information that you need before you decide to apply for a job. Usually, we complain that companies shortchange job searchers in terms of career related information on their website, but with NASA the problem is one of too much information. Maybe it’s a test to weed out candidates who can’t deal with navigating through complex situations, but we were a bit overwhelmed by NASA’s jobs site. Before you jump in and start looking around the site, you might want to read NASA’s Applicant Guide. It’s audaciously long, but it covers everything you need to know to get a job at NASA. If we left you to navigate the site, it would probably take you quite a while to find the guide, but we think it’s important to reward our loyal readers with shortcuts straight to meaningful content (if you like shortcuts, subscribe to One Day, One Job).

If you read our post about entry-level jobs at the US Forest Service, then you’re aware of the fact that all jobs with the United States government are posted on USAjobs.gov. Since NASA does not accept applications for unspecified positions, you must go through this site and search specifically for NASA jobs. We couldn’t find any information on an application process tailored specifically to entry-level candidates (probably because there isn’t one); however, there is a guide for college students who are seeking employment. There are also lists of occupation types, applicable entry-level pay ranges, and NASA locations to help you determine which jobs you should apply for. NASA also offers a FAQ for students. Like we said, there’s a ton of information.

In addition to NASA’s jobs site, there are a few other sites that are worth mentioning. First is NASA People, which is a site that appears to be targeted towards current NASA employees. It covers almost any question that you could have about what it’s like to work at NASA, so serious job searchers should spend some time browsing this site. Second is the annual ranking of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, which ranks NASA at fourth. This gives in-depth statistics about what kinds of people are more likely to be happy working at NASA (most employees), and what types of people are less likely to be happy at NASA. It also breaks down the rankings into a number of factors that may or may not be important to you.

Finally, there is this Wired article that details the struggles that NASA is having connecting with young people. The problem is pretty obvious. The space race to put the first man on the moon created an amazing amount of interest in NASA for our parents’ generation, but we have been given technology like the Internet to explore the world that we live in. Many young people don’t see the point in exploring space, when there is so much to discover right at our fingertips. The article includes a presentation that was given to NASA management by some of NASA’s younger employees on how to improve engagement with Generation-Y/Millennials/whatever you want to call us by emphasizing NASA’s continued relevance to the issues that concern our generation. Even people who are not interested in jobs at NASA would do well to read this article as it brings up a lot of important questions about NASA, science, and the workplace. The Wired article ends by pointing to OpenNASA.com, which is a blog by NASA employees. It’s excellent, and as authentic of a resource as you’ll find on what working at NASA is like – especially for someone who is not far removed from college. Although the blog is unofficial, it’s the type of resource that every company could use to improve their recruiting practices.

If you want an entry-level job at NASA, you’ve got a lot of research to do. Get moving!

Note: On April 25th we revisited entry-level jobs at NASA.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Want an internship at NASA? They have a lot of them, and we’re talking about them at One Day, One Internship.

BAE Systems

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:00:51 +0000

BAE Systems is a global defence (they’re British) and aerospace company. They are quite huge, employing close to 100,000 people across the world, which means that they do an enormous amount of entry-level hiring. BAE Systems operates in a wide range of businesses – from land armaments to regional aircraft, from military air solutions to communications and electronic warfare systems. Their timeline of milestones will give you a better idea of the specifics of what they do. BAE Systems is probably not the best fit if you participated in a peace protest during college, but if you want to be in the industry that is pushing the bounds of engineering, it’s hard to overlook defense.

When we first took a look at BAE Systems, the link to their Careers page was broken and took us to their news page. That was enough for us to pass them up and say that we’d come back later. Well, it’s later, and BAE Systems has fixed their little linking problem. Now, we can see that they have quite an impressive Careers section on their website. It is full of information, and even has a special section for college career opportunities.

If you’re interested in a career at BAE Systems, take a look at the list of entry-level jobs that they typically offer to new grads and their schedule of on-campus recruiting events. BAE Systems has done a great job of upgrading their Career site from nonexistent (or at least not linked to) to having more information than we can digest. We especially applaud them for having a special section for college students.

If BAE Systems isn’t coming to your campus, then search their open positions for college students and apply online. Their website has more information than you could ever digest in one sitting, so start clicking around and find a great job in engineering. Doing the research is easy on this one.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at BAE Systems.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever heard of BAE Systems? How can companies that don’t sell products that college students use do a better job of employment branding?

jetBlue Airways

Willy Franzen — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:00:19 +0000

Well, we made it back home from vacation, but not without 3 hours of sitting on the runway due to Curacao’s random decision to close their airspace. Our pilot told us that we had to file a flight plan through Venezuelan airspace instead, and Venezuela’s being run by an unfriendly dictator didn’t make that the easiest – or fastest – process. By the time our new flight plan was filed, Curacao had lifted the flight ban and we finally went on our merry way. As painful as it was to be on the runway for 3 hours, jetBlue made it pretty bearable. They gave us drinks and snacks, although they did plead with us to take it easy, as they were running out and did not have catering services at this airport. Of course the request to back off the goodies created a run on the galley, but the flight attendants were still able to do a full snack and beverage service in-flight despite the excessive pre-flight demand. It was also nice to have the most legroom in coach and a little tv in the seatbacks in front of us. Another One Day, One Jobber flew a different airline out of the same airport at the same time and had a much more miserable experience – no food, no movies, and too much air conditioning with no blankets. jetBlue has been ranked by Conde Nast Traveler as America’s Best Domestic Airline for 6 straight years now, and their unparalleled devotion to customer service is the reason.

We think the best place to find an entry-level job is at a company that does something you can be passionate about. The company you choose to work for should offer a product or service that you love, work towards a goal you admire, or be at the forefront of a field that you find fascinating. It is impossible to perform excellent customer service without extremely happy employees. We love the flying experience that jetBlue offers, and that’s why we think they might be a great place to work after you graduate college. They even offer a Customer Bill of Rights that ensures fair treatment and compensation for bad service when it happens. No other airlines can pull off this kind of guarantee with their pissed off flight attendants and incompetent ticketing agents. We’re not sure which came first, great customer service or great places to work, but we do know that the two are consistently linked.

As for finding a job at jetBlue, you’re going to have to go through their search page, which is unfortunate. A search only interface is a pet peeve of ours. We prefer it when jobs are listed in an organized format that is accessible to job searchers and search engines like Google. The good thing about JetBlue’s search interface is that it lets you specify your search to only entry-level jobs. We also recommend looking at jobs at the Professional level (2 to 5 years experience) because some of these seem to be a better fit for top college grads. We wish there was a descriptive term in recruiting that differentiates between entry-level jobs requiring little education and those that require a college degree (if you can think of one, leave it in the comments and maybe we’ll start using it).

We are consistently impressed with the attitudes of jetBlue crewmembers (what they call all of their employees). With a focus on a strong service culture and excellent benefits (we can’t find information on flying benefits for crewmembers, but we’re sure they exist), it’s not a surprise that jetBlue is succeeding because of its people. Although the only information about on-campus recruiting by jetBlue that we were able to find is that they went to a career fair at Harvard in 2005 and have had some sort of training partnership with NYU, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t looking to hire new grads.

Note: On April 23rd we revisited entry-level jobs at jetBlue Airways.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have any good flying stories from your Winter Break? Share them with us in the comments.

Insitu

Willy Franzen — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:00:59 +0000

Not too long ago, the only unmanned aerial vehicles were planes flown by women. Now we live in a world where planes can fly themselves. We thought we were pretty high-tech when we set up a blog, coded our own template, and figured out how to optimize our site for Google; however, the companies that design, develop, and produce autonomous aircraft put us to absolute shame.

Insitu is one of those companies. They build UAVs that have amazing reconnaissance, communications relay, and geophysical surveying capabilities. Most of their work has been with the military so far, but Insitu is operating in an infant industry with an amazing potential for growth. In fact, over the last 3 years Insitu’s revenue has grown by 1,702.4% to $50 million annually. This performance has put them on Inc. Magazine’s List of the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2006 and 2007. Insitu CEO Steve Sliwa was also named CEO of the Year for 2007 by Seattle Business Monthly. Clearly this company is taking off. We’d tell you more about what they do, but the business of autonomous aircraft is way over our head.

On that note, let’s take a look at the jobs Insitu is offering. Most of their job descriptions contain words, terms, and abbreviations that we don’t really understand. Usually we’d complain about this, but for these types of jobs it makes sense for them to be explicit about the skills needed for the job. We did our best to find jobs that might be appropriate for a recent college graduate since Insitu does not have an entry-level hiring program. With the amazing accomplishments that some college students have achieved (the DARPA challenge contestants for instance), we think that it’s quite possible to have the equivalent of 2 years of relevant experience by graduation day. Individuals with a military background will be particularly well equipped for jobs at Insitu. Here’s a quick run down of the jobs we think might be attainable right out of college: Electronic Technician (Software Team), Software Engineer, Flight Test Engineer, and Field Systems Representative. Those who are seriously interested in working at Insitu might be better off looking over Insitu’s job openings themselves.

Beyond the cool factor of what Insitu does, we’re also impressed with their corporate culture. They describe themselves as “a lifestyle company with innovative and creative employees who pour as much into their personal lives as they do into their work at the office.” Insitu has a “business comfortable” dress code and is dog friendly. There is also a heavy emphasis on “Living in the Gorge” – meaning the Columbia River gorge, which offers extraordinary outdoor opportunities. You can go kite surfing, mountain climbing, steelhead fishing, or snowboarding with just a short drive. There is even a list of nearby activities on the Insitu website. The way Insitu treats its people has to be part of their amazing success.

So if we’ve piqued your interest, start researching! Don’t put your job search on autopilot, leave the autonomous systems to Insitu.

Note: On April 22nd we revisited entry-level jobs at Insitu.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

If you’re the type of person who could work at Insitu, you probably aren’t interested in the Nintendo Wii that we’re giving away. What’s exciting about a video game when you can help create a plane that flies itself? Those Wii remotes that interpret your motions so that playing Wii Tennis is like playing real tennis just don’t seem that special compared to an unmanned aircraft.

Leave a comment and tell us why you don’t want a Wii.