July 28, 2010
A Career As An Aerospace Engineer Is Promising
The last decade had not been a great one for the aerospace industry. The commercial airline industry and NASA, once two key employers in the industry had seen better times. In turn, this meant it was not a great time to be an aerospace engineer. This appears to be turning around, thanks in large part to the current presidency.
For starters, President Obama’s new NASA program, which commercializes a lot of the federal space agency’s R&D programs, means that many private corporations that used to be shut out of NASA now have a shot of making all manner of air and space craft. Another thing is his green economy initiatives. This is creating new opportunities for commercial crafts that will be much more energy efficient. Throw in the military and the Bureau of Labor Statistics sees the need for more Aerospace Engineers from "slow" (fewer than 9%) to average (9-13%).If you need more information about undergraduate degree. look on the internet.
Once considered one of the elite engineering specialties, aerospace engineers conduct and supervise the development, design, manufacturing and testing of aircraft and their components. They must also have strong communications skills as they are constantly doing progress and related reports to both their superiors and subordinates.
Anyone who wants to enter the field should have strong secondary school grades in math and the sciences. They should look for schools that have solid curriculum in the physical sciences and engineering. They might also want to consider the Air Force and Navy, which obviously has a strong need for Aerospace Engineers. They will be glad to enlist qualified candidates into their respective ROTC programs. It should be noted that after getting their Bachelors, most in the profession go on for their Masters or PhD. Many resources are available when researching online course.
There are other forms of financial assistance besides the ROTC. Like other forms of engineering, the profession is a STEM profession, thus eligible for S-STEM scholarships through the National Science Foundation. One should also do a little research for a number of private corporations and professional societies.
Key employers in this arena are universities, the military, federal agencies and aerospace manufacturers. One of the aspects of Obama’s NASA program is to put a lot of research and development into private corporations, so this landscape might be changing. As it stands though, primary areas of employment are along the South Atlantic, Southwest and Northwest Atlantic coasts.
As it happens, aerospace is one of the best paying of the engineering specialties. The average salary is nearly $95,000 a year. Currently the Bureau estimates approximately 73,000 in the profession. It also notes the compensation package is quite good for a white collar occupation. Understanding all you can about Online Technology Management Degrees may be the key to your success.
At the same time, there once used to be quite a bit of glamour attached to the profession, particularly if one got involved in the space program. Thanks to the new NASA initiative, some of the glory is starting to return. If all goes according to plan, one could even say that aerospace engineering is ready to take off one more time.
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