i am currently a student of class 10th, and im really intrigued by aerospace engineering and i have always wanted to pursue that, but recently i have dug around and found out that lots of companies, when hiring, give higher preference to mechies rather than aerospace people, this has put me in a dillema. should i opt for mechanical engineering and then later get a masters in aerospace engineering or should i get a bachelors in aerospace and then later get a masters in aeronautical, because ultimately i want to get in the aviation field, please help.

my_qualifications: 10th grade

I applied to this job 3 weeks ago and just received my offer as a level 3 aircraft maintenance tech at 22 years old. The Air Force helped a lot haha!

I have 12 YOE in advanced NDT/NDE with ASNT Level III certifications, and currently work in commercial space. My undergrad is Business Administration in Project Management. No engineering undergrad.

My dilemma:

- MS Systems Engineering: stronger technical signal, better systems knowledge, and possibly more helpful since I don’t have an engineering undergrad, but also more academic friction.

- MEng Engineering Management: seems like the more natural complement to Level III depth, better aligned with leadership, and would be cheaper/easier to complete.

I plan to stay in NDE and move toward NDE engineering, Lead/Principal/Responsible Level III, and program ownership. Perhaps management later on. Overall I just want to climb and I don't mind working hard.

Would either masters effectively differentiate myself for promotions to lead principal and responsible NDT lv3 roles?

Would systems engineering meaningfully strengthen this kind of technical career?

Is engineering management useful to break into people's/ program management?

Would an either masters add an unusually high amount of value for me because i don’t have an engineering undergrad?

As a Canadian citizen, I’m curious about the legitimacy of working in aerospace materials R&D in other countries. I understand this field is sensitive, so I’m particularly interested in what the competition is like for jobs with a PhD in materials engineering and what roles are typically available.

Thanks!

I’m a junior in aerospace engineering, and I’ve been trying to get involved in CFD research.
Last semester I emailed a professor because I was really interested in her work. She got back to me after about two weeks and invited me to tour her lab. I left that meeting under the impression that I would be able to join. At the end of the tour she told me (and another student) that all we had to do was email her next semester and we could join the CFD lab.
Over the summer I emailed asking if I could shadow the lab to prepare before officially joining. She said she was in California for the summer, which was totally understandable. I thanked her and emailed again the week before the semester started. This time she told me she wasn’t sure if she’d have space for undergrads and had a meeting that Tuesday to figure it out. Afterward she emailed me saying there unfortunately wasn’t any room and to try again next semester.
I was disappointed, but figured it was just bad timing.
Here’s the part that’s bothering me. I had told one of my friends about the lab, and he ended up getting a tour with her this past Friday. She ended up telling him he could join the lab.
To be fair, he’s an honors student and has more formalized CFD experience than I do, so I understand why she’d pick him. But it’s hard not to feel discouraged after being told for months that I could join if I just emailed next semester.
Now I’m starting to feel like getting research is impossible. It’s already junior year, and I was really hoping to get involved this year. I know research experience is important if I want to go to grad school or work in R&D.
Has anyone else had something like this happen? Should I keep trying with this professor next semester like she suggested, or is that basically a polite rejection and I should focus on finding other labs instead?

Yesterday i called HR about my interview from last week, and she told me they would send me a second offer monday afternoon vía email. I waited all day yesterday and haven't received it. What should i do call HR again or go in person today? Yesterday i also had an interview at a different aerospace company and after two hours they called me for a second interview tomorrow with supervisor. What i should do.

Looking for students interested in aerospace, math, and space science!*

Hi everyone! I'm starting a student-led international project called AeroMath, where students from different countries can learn together and explore how mathematics and physics are used in real aerospace and space missions.

We'll cover topics such as:

Vectors & kinematics
Propulsion fundamentals
Orbital geometry
Control systems
Sensors & navigation
Space mission planning
Engineering & materials

The goal is to make these topics more practical and understandable by connecting what we learn to real space missions and engineering problems.

As part of the program, we'll eventually apply what we learn through a low-cost Mars rover project, where students can test their ideas and work together on simulated missions.

I'm currently looking for motivated middle and high school students to join the Founding Cohort.

You don't need previous experience. If you're genuinely interested in learning about aerospace, mathematics, physics, engineering, robotics, or space, I'd love to have you involved.

Students from all around the world are welcome.
Online
Free to join

If you're interested, apply here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdH6ZMLtKTb3NCoMK1IfO6xvNdSEtFGFPPXwdWt9LwZbz2xuA/viewform?usp=header

I'd especially like to meet students who are curious, enjoy asking questions, and want to learn with other students from around the world.

Looking for students interested in aerospace, math, and space science!*

Hi everyone! I'm starting a student-led international project called AeroMath, where students from different countries can learn together and explore how mathematics and physics are used in real aerospace and space missions.

We'll cover topics such as:

Vectors & kinematics
Propulsion fundamentals
Orbital geometry
Control systems
Sensors & navigation
Space mission planning
Engineering & materials

The goal is to make these topics more practical and understandable by connecting what we learn to real space missions and engineering problems.

As part of the program, we'll eventually apply what we learn through a low-cost Mars rover project, where students can test their ideas and work together on simulated missions.

I'm currently looking for motivated middle and high school students to join the Founding Cohort.

You don't need previous experience. If you're genuinely interested in learning about aerospace, mathematics, physics, engineering, robotics, or space, I'd love to have you involved.

Students from all around the world are welcome.
Online
Free to join

If you're interested, apply here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdH6ZMLtKTb3NCoMK1IfO6xvNdSEtFGFPPXwdWt9LwZbz2xuA/viewform?usp=header

I'd especially like to meet students who are curious, enjoy asking questions, and want to learn with other students from around the world.

Little bit of context: I work as an aerospace engineer (aircraft development) of one of the big 4 manufacturers in America, with a masters degree in progress. My undergrad is aerospace too.

For personal reasons, I've been considering a job in Europe. I thought about migrating to Airbus, basically doing the same thing if possible, or finishing my masters and trying teaching in college.

I'd appreciate very much any insight of anyone who's done anything like that or met people that did. Some questions:

- is it common for Airbus (or universities) to accept foreigners with no connections? Do you have to know someone inside to get a shot?

- how is academic career there?

1.The work hours in Airbus (comparing to America) are a big deal in my case. Do professors usually work the same? More? Less?

2.Would I need a doctorate just to have a shot or is there room to begin with only a master degree as an adjunct teacher or something else?

- My English is advanced, but I speak little to no French. Is it prejudicial somehow? How do they take it?

Also Toulouse is an obvious option because of Airbus but I wouldn't discard other universities in other places, or even abroad.

I appreciate thoughts on any of these questions or on topics related to the subject. Thank you in advance.

Hi, as title says, I am about to go for my onsite interview at spacex for a new grad software engineer role for the Starlink team.

They have told me I will be starting with a presentation on a technical assessment I did, followed by a series of 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 interviews with the team.

I am wondering if anyone has experience with this process and can share details of what to expect. I have seen a lot of horror stories of the spacex recruiting experience so also wondering if anyone has any positive experiences.

To prep I am preparing my presentation, doing leetcode practice, system design questions and grilling myself on my resume. Wondering if there is anything I am leaving out or I should be specifically prepared for.

Also regarding my presentation, as I mentioned they are asking me to present on my technical assessment I completed earlier but they mentioned that they encourage me to improve upon my solution. I have found my own optimization to my original solution that essentially saw a 10x improvement in runtime performance. However, after talking with AI, it suggested an improvement that was approximately 2x faster than my optimized solution (20x faster than my original). The only issue is I believe it is a much more complicated solution and one that I almost definitely would not have thought of on my own. Wondering if it is better to stick my own optimization and keep the further optimization as a talking point for future work, or I should just talk about the best solution period, even if its decently more complicated and not something I would come up with on my own?

I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone with experience in this process (or has an insight into what SpaceX would be looking for in this kind of role).

Update, i had an interview last week at an aerospace company. I called HR to follow up and she told me they would send me a second offer vía email later afternoon. I haven't received the second offer email yet. Should I call her again tomorrow or visit the company in person?

I’m a CS student trying to figure out whether the direction of my current project is actually worth pursuing for aerospace/robotics research.

Live: https://bhuvanspace.vercel.app

GitHub: https://github.com/Sheel34/BHUVAN

The current version takes terrain data, processes things like elevation, slope, roughness, curvature and hillshade, and puts the result into an interactive 3D environment.

The software side is currently Python/FastAPI + NumPy/Rasterio/OpenCV on the backend and React/Three.js on the frontend.

I built it because I'm interested in digital twins and simulation for aerospace/physical systems, but I'm not interested in making a 3D scene just for visualisation or a game.

What I want eventually is an environment where you can actually perform an operation on a representation of a physical system.

The project is still very early. I haven't implemented robotics simulation, terrain-relative navigation, ROS, Gazebo, Isaac Sim, etc. yet. I'm trying to figure out what should actually come next rather than adding technologies for the sake of the stack.

I'm particularly interested in the intersection of:

digital twins, 3D simulation, aerospace/robotics, real physical operations.

One direction I've been reading about is terrain-relative navigation / TERCOM and how terrain itself can become part of a navigation or mission system. I'm not claiming the project implements this — I'm trying to understand whether the terrain pipeline I've built can be developed into something along those lines.

More importantly:

What would make this go from "3D terrain visualisation project" to an actual engineering/research system?

The current deployment is on free infrastructure, so the backend may take a little time to wake up. If it doesn't load immediately, wait a few seconds and refresh.

I'd appreciate criticism of both the technical implementation and the direction.

Hi, I've been designing a small model rocket powered by a Klima B4-4 engine.

This is the first rocket I am making from scratch so I would be grateful if someone could review the project. I am open to all corrections and advice.

Hi everyone,

I’ve (27F) been trying to switch company for the past 8 months, but haven’t been able to find a role that’s a good match for my experience.

I have 4.5 years of experience in aerospace structural analysis/stress analysis, primarily working on aircraft structures.

I’ve applied to companies like Collins Aerospace, Boeing, and Airbus. I received a rejection from Collins, and I’m still waiting on other applications. I also recently interviewed with Belcan — the interview went well, but I haven’t received any updates yet.

At this point, I’d really appreciate some guidance from fellow aerospace engineers:

- Which companies are actively hiring for structural analysis/stress analysis roles?

- Are there any companies I might be overlooking?

- If your company has any relevant openings, I’d really appreciate it if you could share them or DM me.

I’m primarily looking for Structural Analysis / Stress Engineer / Aircraft Structures roles.

Any leads, referrals, or advice would mean a lot. Thanks! 🙏

Edit: I'm looking for roles in India Bangalore.

Hello!

So i am currently a 5th year senior getting my BS in mechanical and BS in aerospace engineering. I have had one internship in project management at a construction company. This last summer instead of a standard internship i worked for a school lab doing aerospace research. I am continuing doing the research through my last year. I have experience in a first place rocketry club and have completed my aerospace capstone in small satellites by designing and manufacturing a small sat (3d printed and using school PCB machines to create) and working in on my mechanical capstone in robotics. My GPA is about 3.1. I wanted to know your guys experience and let me know my options and help me out with any information i cant get. Thanks!

Just completed my Masters in Mechanical Engineering - did a bunch of aerospace modules, some work with Rolls-Royce through an internship with its partner company, also an automotive research internship along with being with automotive engineering team and doing uni projects(like building gliders). Feel like my interest isn't necessarily in the automotive side or even the conventional aerospace side(spacecraft or aircrafts), instead have a super niche interest in the implementation of eVTOLs in cities - was planning to do an online course on it as I have a strong interest in the urban development of cities too. Is specializing in this niche a good idea or is it fairly oversaturated? What steps could I further take(outside of applying for internships or positions) to be a more suitable candidate for such roles?

So my son is interested in planes and engineering and hey presto, Rolls Royce do a 4 day work experience placement for Year 10 kids from all over the country called 'Emerging Talent'. This happens in Filton, Bristol (there may be one in Derby too).

It's billed as a 'look behind the scenes' and a chance to find out more about working with an internationally acclaimed engineering company.

Now he has done the 4 days (March 2026) we can give some feedback to other parents interested in this exciting sounding opportunity.

Basically, if you have a young scientist who is fascinated in engineering don't bother with this. It was 60 kids in a room all week and they covered basically nothing about engineering but did team building exercises making houses out of spaghetti.

They also had a 'project' to work on all week in groups which was to design a noticeboard that 'attracts more girls into engineering'. This involved cutting, colouring in and sticking. (Crucial skills in engineering 😂)

There were 2 plane engines in the room but the people running the workshop didn't have a clue how they worked because they were HR professionals not engineers. My son knew more about the plane engines than they did at 14 years old.

The 'behind the scenes site visit' took about 20 minutes and involved looking at offices, because it's very high security and all the interesting stuff was happening behind locked doors.

Rolls Royce are missing a trick here. They couldn't even wheel out a member of staff to talk enthusiastically to the kids about their job. Absolutely first class way of putting 'emerging talent' off joining your organisation in the future!

So choose something else for your Year 10 work experience if you don't want to demoralise your teen is my advice.

I’m a recent Computer Science graduate, and I’m looking for career advice from people who have experience in aerospace, avionics, flight software, or other safety-critical software domains.

My CS fundamentals are reasonably strong, and I have experience with data structures and algorithms, including some dynamic programming. I also have an AIML project. After graduating, however, I joined a company where I was assigned to the aerospace domain. I initially worked on software testing, and recently I’ve started getting exposure to different aircraft systems and concepts such as the Flight Management System (FMS), guidance, and related areas.

What I’m starting to notice is that there seems to be a shortage of experienced people who can mentor and guide engineers in this program. Even though the company wants to hire experienced professionals, finding people with the required combination of aerospace domain knowledge and software experience appears difficult. At the same time, many fresh CS graduates seem to view this domain as a temporary stop before moving into AIML, mainstream software, or an MBA.

This has made me think differently about my career. I may be completely wrong, but I wonder whether specialized engineering domains such as aerospace and avionics could become increasingly valuable because fewer people are deliberately building deep domain expertise, while generic software development is becoming increasingly crowded.

My main question is:

Would it make sense for someone with a CS background to intentionally build a career in aerospace software?

I’m considering spending the next few years developing both software skills and aerospace domain knowledge, and eventually moving from testing into areas such as aircraft software development, flight software, avionics software, guidance/navigation-related software, simulation, or other engineering-heavy software roles.

I would especially appreciate advice on:

- What does the long-term career path in aerospace/avionics software look like?

- Are there good opportunities for software engineers who develop deep aerospace domain knowledge?

- How difficult is it to transition from testing into actual development?

- What skills should I focus on if I want to make this transition? For example, C/C++, embedded systems, real-time systems, control theory, guidance/navigation, software verification, or safety-critical development?

- How does compensation compare with more generic software engineering roles, especially as experience increases?

- If you were a CS graduate in my position, would you deliberately specialize in this domain or keep your career focused on mainstream software/AI?

I’m not necessarily looking for a “guaranteed” or highest-paying path. I’m trying to understand whether this is a field where developing deep expertise could provide a strong and interesting long-term career, particularly for someone who enjoys both software and learning about aircraft systems.

I would appreciate honest opinions from people working in aerospace, avionics, flight software, or safety-critical software.Thanks in advance☺️

Hi everyone,
I’m from India and currently working in a Quality Assurance role in UAV manufacturing company . I have a Bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering and about 3 years in quality , but I’m considering pursuing a Master’s abroad to move into a more technical role with better long-term growth.
I’m especially interested in:
UAV and drone systems
Systems Engineering
Safety and Reliability Engineering
Airworthiness and aviation safety
Industrial Engineering and Management

The problem is that I’m not sure which direction makes the most sense for my background. I’m also trying to figure out which country would give me the best chance of finding a job after graduation.
I’m currently considering Germany, the UK, France, and possibly other European countries. My biggest concern is spending one or two years and a significant amount of money on a Master’s, only to graduate and struggle to find a job.
I’d really appreciate advice on the following:
Which Master’s specialization would suit someone with my background and experience?
Which countries offer the strongest job opportunities after graduation?
How difficult is it for international students to find work in aerospace, UAV, or systems engineering?
How much do security clearance and citizenship restrictions affect aerospace jobs in Europe?
Which field offers the best career flexibility: Systems Engineering, Safety/Reliability, or Industrial Engineering and Management?
Are there any universities or programs I should seriously consider?
What skills, certifications, or projects should I work on before starting the Master’s to improve my chances of getting hired?
I’d really value perspectives based on actual job markets, employability, salaries, immigration and work opportunities, and long-term career growth.

There isn't a lot of information out there for students considering an internship at AeroVironment (AV) in the Minneapolis office. Having interned there, I wanted to share my honest experience and perspective.

The Minneapolis location is a very small satellite office with fewer than 15 people in a noisy area with fairly unremarkable facilities.

On paper, it is a high-impact defense company tackling technically interesting engineering domains. The initial onboarding attempted to project a positive, collaborative environment, but underlying cultural and operational issues quickly surfaced.

The day-to-day reality differed heavily from what was advertised. Instead of substantive machine learning or computer vision engineering, the work was largely reduced to low-level data labeling and debugging undocumented, broken internal tools.

There was a clear double standard: junior-level documentation and output were hyper-scrutinized, while the internal systems and developer infrastructure we were expected to use remained neglected and fragile. Mentorship felt defensive and unsupportive, offering little to no constructive feedback before sudden, reactive management decisions were made.

Overall, I found the culture rigid and cold, with weak onboarding and an environment that struggles to manage junior technical talent. For students looking for strong mentorship, mature development infrastructure, and clear project scoping, be cautious about smaller satellite offices like this.