Overall I give this book a "thumbs up", but there were several passages where the author came across as overbearing and pompous. It seemed the reader was being shouted at rather than advised. The good outweighed the bad, so I do recommend it to all you "new hires" out there.

I am not a rocket scientist, nor do I aspire to be one (I never studied math beyond geometry ...and my chemistry class partner and I almost blew up our lab); however, that said, I bought this book for two reasons: 1) I had a friend celebrating his 40th birthday, and I wanted to give him a book on rocket science as a kind of joke (said friend is now a midlife student of psychology, but professes that he wanted to be a rocket scientist in his youth), and 2) in my search for an appropriate birthday book, unearthed this little volume by Dr. Jim Longuski. I had the pleasure to meet Dr. Longuski many years ago, and found him to be a warm, informative person who enjoyed making his specialty (aeronautics) accessible and understandable to the layperson (me), and while this book has nothing to do with presenting the actual subject of trajectories and thrusts, it does inform the reader about how to negotiate the terrain of finding/securing/maintaining work in the aerospace field (including within the walls of academia)---all laid out by Dr. L. in the same warm, informative, accessible tone he uses with those he meets in person. The book is humorful and sensible, and, actually, his guidance could be used by anyone seeking a roadmap after college----be that person a rocket scientist or a shoe salesman. The basic, common-sense advice is applicable to most occupations. It's good to read a book by a gifted thinker, who is also down-to-earth and obviously caring. My only criticism is that I think he could have expanded some of the chapters a bit more, but one can make the argument that the brevity of the chapters makes the information more digestible. Nice work.

I had the privilege of overlapping in my time at the Jet Propulsion Lab with Prof Longuski. This book confirms many of the hard lessons of career life that the rest of us took years to absorb. I would recommend it to college-bound high school students, as well as college students and especially career engineers throughout their work life. There are so many "Ah-ha!" moments of real insight here, such as the "early burnout" point 10 years into an aerospace career, the fascinating overview of graduate school (from both the student and professor perspectives), how to "interview your boss" for a prospective industry job, and how teamwork really operates in the workplace. Much of this is applicable to just about any professional career. Thanks to Prof. Longuski for making a genuine contribution to the field of career development (and help others understand what makes a rocket scientist tick!).

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

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