The Front: a Job-Hunting Perspective
Blaine is a guest contributor who graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a BS in Aerospace Engineering.
I have been searching for a job now for about a year. I would not let this scare you as I graduated from college at the worst possible time ever — at the beginning of a recession.
But regardless of the fact, I have had much experience in job hunting, so I have compiled a list of things that I think might help an undergrad student in finding a job.
Chuck E. Cheese Redemption
Cheese!
Ponder this. You must be 21 to gamble on the floor of a Las Vegas casino. Yet you don’t even need to be house-trained to gamble on the floor of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.
The Chuck E. Cheese business model has always fascinated me. As a child, there was something almost magical about it: the lights and sounds, the fun games, the unyielding drive to collect tickets, getting prizes, begging your parents for “just one more quarter”. This drive was undeniably a gambling-complex — one that was directly aimed and marketed toward children. Now in truth my uncle taught me Blackjack when I was 5, so those feelings weren’t new to me. But I still bought in.
LCROSS
LCROSS - Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite
“No, we’re not going to break the moon. But we’re gonna put a dent in it.”
It’s Thursday, June 18th, 2009 and LCROSS is patiently waiting atop an Atlas V-Centaur at Cape Canaveral Florida. Patience is the word of the day. 2700 miles away at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach California, James Wehner, the LCROSS Deputy Program Manager, is taking questions from a roomful of engineers and their families.
LCROSS, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, was a dual build between Northrop Grumman and the NASA Ames Research Center. What was described as a “fast-track, low-cost” project, LCROSS is billed as an overwhelmingly successful display of system engineering. A piggy-back to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), LCROSS was quickly designed and built by Northrop Grumman to fill excess space on NASA’s launch vehicle. Using many recylced and off-the-shelf parts, LCROSS was delivered early this year — on-time and under budget.
Mr. James Goes to Nigeria [part two]
The anti-climactic conclusion to my Nigerian scammer adventure. [Part One]
Subject: RE: Playstation for Mr James ready for to go!!!
Thanks so much for sending me the pictures of the Game and am so glad to recieve the picture from you, yes am ok with it and have it send to my cousin as you promised this week. Also the game wont break in box if you pack it well ok? As soon as you pack it wel in the box it wont break and have told him that you will be sending the game to him this week hope he will get it next week. As soon as you send the game, do let me know and get back to me with the confirmation number which i will pass to him over there.
Do send me your payment details..
Sincerely, Mr James.
Big Brother
“A buddy of mine is obsessed with government conspiracies. Almost a little too much.
He subscribes to a lot of them, but more than anything he’s concerned about Big Brother. He’ll rarely leave his house, he always shreds his mail, and he’s suspicious of anyone with a Bluetooth headset.
So last week I hid a geocache in his front yard.”
Tell Your Friends
