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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here, agree with 615 and thanks all for the discussion points! I really don't think I need to market myself much, I'm an 29 year old aerospace engineer focused on orbital mechanics. Not many of us and space is a growing field, think SpaceX. Have a wife and young child dependant on me so risk is a big deal, although I could survive 6 months with no pay and not dip into retirement savings. I've been a huge saver.

I'm probably going to stay fed for now and see what else comes up. Maybe a mid-size contracting firm would be great to get the feel for a smaller place. Wish I knew how to get ahead, but i know staying fed wont do it since years of service seem to matter more than productivity. [/quote]

615 here.  I would look into the companies that do that type of work if you want to make more than a GS 13/14 makes.  If you want to stay technical, it is really hard to advance beyond a 14.

I am in a field that is not rocket science, but still in computational physics;  I decided 1) not to go into management, and 2) not to go government.  I am in my 50's, still doing fun technical/scientific R & D and make decent money.  I work for one of the bigger Defense Contracting firms.  You could research those firms; you probably know who does interesting work based on your time as a government employee.

[/quote]

Interesting, We rarely see aerospace and physics careers in this forum! I am glad I am not alone, hard to coordinate career planning with lawyers whose path is so different.

OP, I am in aerospace as well (NASA) and it is definitely a very exciting time. If I was young and could handle the risk, I would be jumping into one of the new start ups in the aerospace field, such as spire, planet, one web, etc. The start ups all are trying to do ambitious and interesting things. However, just like spaceX, none of them are profitable at this point, most don't even have significant revenue, and are all dependent upon venture funding. So this new wave of space 2.0 is still a tentative process. This happened at the end of the last tech bubble, when iridium and all those other telecom space programs got off the ground and then went bankrupt.  This time is different, since costs for launch and space hardware have dropped significantly, so it could be the transformative time it looks to be.

However, it sounds like you have a kid and potentially a stay at home wife? So it comes down to how much risk you can take with them, like do you have family that can bail you out if your start up implodes, or do you stand as the firewall between homelessness and your family.

As far as ultimate career path, I agree with PP who recommended a defense contractor such as one of the big five. That offers you the greatest chance for a higher income, stable career, and interesting technical work. Working on a mid-size contractor can trap you in a body shop position which may not be as interesting work. Also starting your own contracting company would be interesting, but eventually most your time would have to be in business development and tactical management, then the actual hands-on science.

One of the significant risks in your specific niche is that there are a lot of companies doing orbit mechanics for  lights out operation, such as orbit logic; a lot of these new start ups are turning to the software solutions to do all of their orbit maintenance. I don't know if you're technical skills will continue to be in demand as the software and automation improves. They are throwing a lot of money at these problems because like you said there are not many of you, and it's cheaper to fill with software solution then train up staff. If you stay in the federal government, it's likely your job would be more secure, since generally federal missions are far more risk averse and won't jump to lights out operation.

One anecdotal note, I have never seen a federal employee engineer return to the private sector, after almost a decade of work here. I don't know, if it's because they don't want to leave, or because they can't get work elsewhere because of some bias against a government engineer, or what. One other thing is the risk of conflict of interest and such, if you apply for one of the big five defense contractors, they have a whole section where they query you about if you are currently a federal employee, and if any of your projects interest the with their contracts. I wonder if given two candidates they would always go to the non-federal employee to avoid any hint of appearance of impropriety.

Perhaps PP 615 can comment on the likelihood of transitioning from Federal employment directly to a big five. Has anyone in your division everything directly hired from the government?[/quote]

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