Advice for Ivy League student. Internship at military defense contractor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from an Ivy 20 years ago and I’m a career SES in the federal government. I look at my contacts who work at Raytheon, Honeywell, or any of the other big defense contractors with a lot of envy. I have 2 college classmates who worked for defense contractors and it has been extremely lucrative for them. If that’s his interest he should go for it.

We are the same age and similar career path. I wanted to work at NASA but then my program got cut and I ended up at NRL; so a similar trajectory.

Pay at top tier defense contractors can be great especially if you are in business development/sales. For actual engineers it’s kind of ho hum.

For your son, he should look at interning at RAND and CNA corp, and maybe Palantir. Economics is a lot of big data munging so NSA is a real option too. MITRE, APL, Aerospace are all good prestige places.

For more business side of contracting, I would start with Lockheed and NG, Parsons, GD, Raytheon; Boeing was good but the recent crisis on aviation side of house gives me pause. L3Harris and bae systems. I think anything else would be a bad deal and be more Beltway bandit than top shelf defense.

Can also look at Amazon and Microsoft which have huge contracts with JEDI and similar cloud offerings. Some of the computation resources should be familiar to him in economics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

Certainly does not seem to be a well-worn path. Career development office was little help. It is just a thought, maybe it will fade when he returns to campus.

I’m one of the Ivy defense contractors and this is very true. My classmates look at me like I’m from outer space when I tell them what I do. It just doesn’t pay as well, and with economics degree investment banks and PE firms will be at the door. He should do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

Certainly does not seem to be a well-worn path. Career development office was little help. It is just a thought, maybe it will fade when he returns to campus.

I’m one of the Ivy defense contractors and this is very true. My classmates look at me like I’m from outer space when I tell them what I do. It just doesn’t pay as well, and with economics degree investment banks and PE firms will be at the door. He should do that.

+1

He can always fall back to defense contracting when he’s older. That isn’t going anywhere. He should seize the great opportunities now while he can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

Engineers? I’ve worked with plenty at Lockheed NJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

+1

It’s like 10 rungs below Google, GS, etc. It’s filled with a bunch of old, retired military dudes.

What about World Bank?

In terms of pay, yes. In terms of workload, heck no.

Also, not everyone is motivated by money. The principal level engineers, many Ivy League grads, love working on radar/satellites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

+1

It’s like 10 rungs below Google, GS, etc. It’s filled with a bunch of old, retired military dudes.

What about World Bank?

In terms of pay, yes. In terms of workload, heck no.

Also, not everyone is motivated by money. The principal level engineers, many Ivy League grads, love working on radar/satellites.

OP’s kid wouldn’t be doing engineering. Just mindless, drone work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from an Ivy 20 years ago and I’m a career SES in the federal government. I look at my contacts who work at Raytheon, Honeywell, or any of the other big defense contractors with a lot of envy. I have 2 college classmates who worked for defense contractors and it has been extremely lucrative for them. If that’s his interest he should go for it.

We are the same age and similar career path. I wanted to work at NASA but then my program got cut and I ended up at NRL; so a similar trajectory.

Pay at top tier defense contractors can be great especially if you are in business development/sales. For actual engineers it’s kind of ho hum.

For your son, he should look at interning at RAND and CNA corp, and maybe Palantir. Economics is a lot of big data munging so NSA is a real option too. MITRE, APL, Aerospace are all good prestige places.

For more business side of contracting, I would start with Lockheed and NG, Parsons, GD, Raytheon; Boeing was good but the recent crisis on aviation side of house gives me pause. L3Harris and bae systems. I think anything else would be a bad deal and be more Beltway bandit than top shelf defense.

Can also look at Amazon and Microsoft which have huge contracts with JEDI and similar cloud offerings. Some of the computation resources should be familiar to him in economics.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I say leave no option off the table for an internship so have him look at those internships and others as well. Can’t hurt.

[Anonymous]

I think as a middle class student at an Ivy, he sees all the advantages his peers have at getting into connected jobs in banking and tech (private school classmates already working there, family connections, prestige job parents, even on sports teams like lacrosse (search for IB banker lacrosse poster, his brick headed son got IB job with terrible GPA through a teammates dad).

He may be worried he doesn’t have the connections or aptitude to succeed in the competitive world of BigTech and finance — and the stability and relative well paid work at a govt contractor (and probably better work life balance a Gen z staple) may be what is attracting him. He doesn’t have a fall back plan to work for his dads firm or what not, so probably looking at the long view.

I would tell him the gov contracting job will always be there, he has the degree to lateral in at any time even as a finance wash out. But it maybe an experience he may want to avoid and already feels out of place as middle class at an Ivy with 40% private school admittance.

An example job in BigTech that may align with his interests. https://www.salary.com/job/amazon-com-services-inc/aws-economic-research-development-manager-aws-public-policy-economic-develop/j202311031951112958890

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can't believe this question. I have worked at Ivys/elite schools. No student would even think of defense contracting.

+1

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think as a middle class student at an Ivy, he sees all the advantages his peers have at getting into connected jobs in banking and tech (private school classmates already working there, family connections, prestige job parents, even on sports teams like lacrosse (search for IB banker lacrosse poster, his brick headed son got IB job with terrible GPA through a teammates dad).

He may be worried he doesn’t have the connections or aptitude to succeed in the competitive world of BigTech and finance — and the stability and relative well paid work at a govt contractor (and probably better work life balance a Gen z staple) may be what is attracting him. He doesn’t have a fall back plan to work for his dads firm or what not, so probably looking at the long view.

I would tell him the gov contracting job will always be there, he has the degree to lateral in at any time even as a finance wash out. But it maybe an experience he may want to avoid and already feels out of place as middle class at an Ivy with 40% private school admittance.

An example job in BigTech that may align with his interests. https://www.salary.com/job/amazon-com-services-inc/aws-economic-research-development-manager-aws-public-policy-economic-develop/j202311031951112958890

Former Ivy commenter here--this strikes me as true. It could be he isn't making the connections others are making because he is middle class, so he is going to have to hustle to get the big finance internships. He needs to go to career services now to discuss his summer plans because most everything is filled in the fall.

RAND and MITRe are not a bad idea--both have intern programs. Both will also help with graduate programs. I still maintain the military might be a good option and will pay for a graduate degree or two as well.

[Anonymous]

I have a Dartmouth classmate who spent over a decade at Lockheed and is now a partner T a major government consulting firm on their defense contracts. He is extremely well compensated and seems to have had a fascinating and meaningful career.

[Anonymous]

Can't your IVY LEAGUE kid figure this out for themselves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is home for break and mentioned interest in interning for a defense contractor. He is an economics major at an Ivy League college. Great GPA. His best friend is in ROTC with a long-term goal of becoming a contractor, so I think that’s what piqued my son’s interest.

His other friends are landing internships in consulting, banking, tech, politics and preparing for law or medical school. Are there highly selective and lucrative entry level positions in defense? As in similar to having Google, Facebook or Goldman Sachs experience on your resume, if that makes sense.

Anduril

Palantir

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't your IVY LEAGUE kid figure this out for themselves?

the quality of the Ivy League has markedly decreased