My name is JinJa Birkenbeuel. I'm the CEO of
Birk Creative
and the founder of the
The Honest Field Guide
Podcast reporting from
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
as I wait for the launch of the
SpaceX
Crew-8 to the
International Space Station National Laboratory
. Hopefully we'll be going off in a couple of days, but instead of me just sort of showing pictures of the places I visited at NASA, which of course would be amazing, and instead of talking about, you know, "what the rocket looks like" and "how great it was to be inside the assembly facility!" for the Artemis II, I really just kind of want to express some of the things I have felt since I've been here and also even share some ideas on what are some job opportunities at NASA.
This short post is really focused on what roles and careers you may not expect at NASA or you may not know about adjacent opportunities at NASA. I'm just going to roll off some things that maybe you hadn't thought about, which are really interesting opportunities.
So here we go. All right! What are some roles and careers you may not expect that exist at NASA? I would love for you to add some of your own ideas to this list.
- Boot designers, there are people that need to design the astronaut's boots. And so those are people that may have a fashion interest, background and perhaps even an engineering background plus an understanding of science and polymers and things like that.
- Filmmakers and cinematographers, did you know that NASA has people that do that work, that went to film school, but they ended up working at NASA? So that's an interesting job opportunity. There are also scriptwriters that work with Hollywood for concept and idea placement in films. That's a huge, huge opportunity as well. So think about things like that.
- Emblem designers, these are people that actually make the emblems that go on top of the suits, on the walls, on the doors, and things like that. Like these are really, believe it or not, these are really important roles.
- There are people that taste food and ingredients. I ran into a food scientist, and she worked in Antarctica, and she's working on how to grow food in impossible and extreme conditions. And one of the obvious requirements of a successful growth of any vegetable is how it tastes. So there are people that actually taste food, which is crazy to me. Maybe it's obvious to you, but it wasn't as obvious to me.
- There is such a thing as space medicine. NASA is actually working on the third edition book of Space Medicine. People that are doctors, listen up! You don't have to work in a hospital. You can work on a rocket with astronauts, which is crazy to me.
- Environmental services workers, these people are really vital at any organization in any place that's dealing with health and disease and viruses. Again, don't assume your only choice is to work in a hospital. Go work at NASA.
- There are also musicians and sound designers. These are people that work on the sound of space. They have music degrees, they have sound engineering degrees. And instead of going to work at a recording studio to put out the next Drake album, they're actually working on issues related to the human experience and our survival at NASA. Ok. I love Drake, so don't come at me! Anyway, these NASA employees working on the sound of deep space, which is really great. If you go to the NASA Instagram page, you'll see some examples music that represent the sound of space that have been converted to music. It's really, really fascinating.
- Of course, there are photographers.
- Public relations people.
- There are journalists, historians, and these historians put together books about NASA. They are publishers and need people with experience in publishing.
- There are brand and visual identity designers. There are actually several books out which show the history of NASA's logo, like what it's looked like, where it's shown up, where it's been, and what it's transitioned from.
- There are also truck and bus drivers, and they're not regular truck and bus drivers, but they actually transport people all around the facility here because it's huge.
- There are people that measure the wind, that's their only job because if it's too windy, you can't fly anywhere. So that's really fascinating.
- And then also there are gardeners. There are people not only that, like I said, that work in horticulture and work with seeds and water and all kinds of funguses and things like that, but there are actually people that take care of the grounds, you know, the people that take care of the grounds all around NASA.
- And then finally, I learned today, which is really even more fascinating, there are people that check the vital signs of specific sections on rockets. It's like, you know, when you get your blood pressure checked, you get your heart tracked. They actually check the vital signs of a rocket.
There are probably many other roles that are available. I would love, love, love to know if you can think of anything else that you're like, do they have a job like that?
Like I almost feel like whatever you can imagine you'd want to do with your career, you can do it here at NASA. And if you can't do it at NASA, NASA has a gazillion partners, corporate partners, you know, obviously Lockheed Martin.
But there are other mid-market companies that do a tremendous amount of work with NASA and working for those companies means you're still working with NASA, although it's adjacent.
Finally, and obviously, you know, Hollywood Studios is not at NASA, but NASA has an office in Hollywood too.
