Advice to Rocket Scientists: A Career Survival Guide for Scientists and Engineers (Library of Flight Series) (Paperback)

by Jim, Ph.D. Longuski (Author) "If you have a degree in aerospace engineering or in astronautics, you are a rocket scientist..." (more)
Key Phrases: Wonder Boy, Richard Feynman

Editorial Reviews

Review
An important book. . . I wish I had this book before starting my career!" -- Dr. Enrico Lorenzini, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

It took me years to learn much of what's in this book... The book is wonderfully written... -- Dr. William J. O’Neil, Galileo Project Manager, 1990-1998, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

This easy-to-read book explains the side of being successful that the professors do not teach... -- Dr. Gerald R. Hintz, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Product Description
As a long-time NASA engineer and astronautics professor, Jim Longuski watched first hand as gifted rocket scientists and students learned their way around the lab only to lose their way in the board room.

Longuski decided to write what he calls a survival guide for rocket scientists. In this small book, Longuski uses humor and personal anecdotes to give engineers and scientists an edge in an industry in which one gets ahead as much on interpersonal-skills as on technical merits.

If you are a rocket scientist, or want to become a rocket scientist, or know and care about a rocket scientist – then this book is for you, Longuski explains in his introduction.

The book is especially valuable for those who are attempting career transitions, whether from student to aerospace worker or from aerospace worker to university researcher or teacher. Longuski explains how the work place is different from the academic environment. He gives readers real-world advice about how to find jobs, negotiate offers, and keep bosses happy. He implores students to have confidence and speak directly with potential employers rather than simply mailing in resumes and hoping for the best.

He tells readers how to produce technical reports and give presentations that will keep colleagues interested. In a chapter called What if the Rocket Doesn’t Work? he helps engineers cope with failure.

Longuski presents a reality that too many scientists and engineers ignore: Getting ahead and staying happy involves mastering inter-office politics.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Ast (January 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156347655X
• ISBN-13: 978-1563476556
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #481,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great career advice!, March 6, 2004

By	Christoph Wagner (Joliet, Il USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really enjoyed this book. It is brief, has short chapters, is easy to read and has plenty of humor. Trying to figure out what I should do, I have read a few carreer books myself but became exremely bored with them very fast, because they would just spend too much time with unnecessary information e.g. statistics/surveys to support their arguments and plenty of analysis. This book has non of that. If I had a chance to ask the authors of the other carreer books one question, it would be: So, what are you NOT telling me? This book is the answer to that. Having worked in the industry for several years, I am very confident to make this assesment. I can also say, that many of the tips in this book can be applied not only to the US but to Europe as well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift for a college student, August 5, 2006

By	J. Dranchak - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two great gifts for college students are the books Hello Real World by Jengyee Liang and Advice to Rocket Scientists by Jim Longuski. Hello Real World is oriented towards a college student looking for an internship or summer job in a professional environment. Advice to Rocket Scientists is written for the soon to graduate college student in an engineering or other professional discipline. I have read both of these books and highly recommend them. They are both well written and a very easy read and most importantly the advice given in either book is invaluable for a neophyte professional that will last with them throughout their career.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great insight to real life after graduation , January 26, 2007

By	Behcet Acikmese - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an extremely well-written book. It covers valuable facts about real professional life that are extremely useful to know. Prof. Longuski has very useful information that come from his experiences as an engineer at JPL ( Jet Propulsion Lab.) and as a professor at Purdue Univ. He covers many different aspects of life after college or graduate school that are hard to anticipate before graduation. And I wish that I read this book several times before I got into real life. That would have saved me a lot of time and headaches as well! As a more experienced engineer now, I find this book very insightful as well as very entertaining. It also helped me to make sense of some of my experiences at JPL in the last several years. So, it is even useful for a seasoned veteran. I hope that younger engineers and scientists read this book before graduation, it will help them not only in adjusting to real life after school but also in deciding what they want to do in their careers after graduation.

Jim: Thanks a lot for writing this book !

Behcet A.
JPL