Lots of people asked me how to get a job at JPL, so here is my brain’s vomit. Hopefully this helps.
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The first thing is getting the interview
And for that I have no fucking idea what to tell you, except to just apply. I think I got really lucky and the job description was a really really good match for my skills and interests. Which I think is generally how you want to think of this kind of stuff. How do you get hired at a place doing exploratory, wild, interesting technical work? Do that work on your own. For this job, I was purely hired based on my hobbies and interests and my demonstrative projects that I built out of passion or interest, not because I wanted the job. This is generally how I’ve seen success with this kind of stuff, never aim to work at an outstanding place, aim to be an outstanding and passionate human. Those are generally the ones they recruit, anyway.
But yeah, I think JPL or any mission focused company like this really really cares about the passion of the person. I think they want you to shoot for the stars and have JPL be the vehicle, as opposed to JPL being the goal. But, I digress.
💡 To get the interview, you need the skills they want, and you need to show passion in the field they’ll put you in.
How do you get those skills? Easy. Just look at their job description and work accordingly.
Now that you know what they want and now that we know the rules of the game, how do you get there? Now that we’ve defined the rules, we can just hack and optimize our route to achieve exactly what we want. I’m not sure about other fields, but in CS especially, you can just learn the skills and take an online course or two and level yourself up to be the ideal candidate. It’s actually so easy. People think its incredibly hard to learn programming languages or put out projects, but all you literally have to do is buy any decently rated Udemy couse for $10 and sit down for 20 hours and do the work. It’s spoon fed to you basically. Each course will give you 3 high quality personal portfolio projects, and a teacher teaching you the material, often times wildly accelerating your learning and motivation.
Think about what the recruiter wants to see. You want to craft your resume so that if the recruiter reads your resume and then the job description, there would be absolutely no way they don’t offer you a job/interview. You want your resume to be an exact match to what they are looking for. If you actually want the job, cater your resume to it. How do you do this? Hit every bullet point/sentence in the job description as if it was a checklist. E.g. “Preferred experience in react + redux” then just go build a project or two in react + redux. Look up react + redux course online and in a weekend or a single day, you’ll be an infinitely more appealing candidate. Not hard, just follow the checklist put the work in. That’s exactly
Also if you’re worried about technical interviews:
If you’re applying to JPL, don’t. They just ask me to go over some of my projects.
If you’re applying anywhere else, the recipe/checklist is there. And it’s foolproof. Just do and learn 100 leetcode questions and try your luck, you’ll pass any technical interview easily. It’s not a matter of intelligence much like SAT/ACT and standardized testing, you just have to do the prescribed work (go down the checklist).
So you get the interview, how do you get hired?
As with everything in life, you should examine the rules of the game. Look for what they want, and then do precisely that. I asked around a lot, old NASA employees, co-ops, other swe candidates at other companies.
How do I do well at this interview? What do you think I should do? What are they looking for? Anyone else I can talk to that might have general pointers or advice?”
Again, just examine the rules, and play the game. With my own research, I found out that they want you to be excited and passionate about the work. They want to know you want to learn and they want you to be genuinely interested in at least the work or the learning environment. You don’t have to shoot off rockets every weekend and win rocket competitions to win here. But you do have to be genuine and excited, it’s really easy to see when someones faking it. I think with JPL, that shouldn’t be a problem though.
You’ll want to stalk every thing about the job opportunity. What would you be working on? What kind of technologies would you be using? What exists on the internet about said projects or technologies. Build that competency. I think I got some major brownie points when the technical manager offhand mentioned some obscure technology that they were using on some tangential project that I found and researched during this process. I was able to mention a small feature of a tangential project that was only loosely related to what they’d be hiring me for. But I think my competency in that really left an impression. Again, not sure bc no feedback. BUT! Stalk the hell out of your job description and become conversationally competent.
PRACTICE FOR THE INTERVIEW!!!!
Think of things you might be asked and give those spiels to people. Have mock interviews. At least 1 if you’re lazy, but at least a couple if you really want the job. Make sure the person giving the mock interview will give you the most dead honest feedback possible. It’s how you’ll grow and get better.
My prep plan went like this:
Build projects with the skills that the description required.
Write possible questions and answer those.
Be careful not to over do this here. Interviews are very much 2 way conversations, and you actually would do better by leading these things. Dont have it be a question response with rehearsed speeches. Go over your main talking points in your head, but be totally natural. I found it best to not try to repeat anything verbatim but rather just have points to talk about. As always, just be super super comfortable and likeable. That matters a lot. IDK the proportion but it matters a lot.
Ask as many people you can get ahold of for help and advice.
Be a good person. Realize people have no reason to talk to you except out of the kindness of their heart. But be a good person. Look to help and teach people in any chance you get. I’m writing this because you asked for help. Do this for other people :p It helps a lot in life. Again, I digress.
Find the rules of the game and then optimize for it.
And so you get to the interview, how do you do it?
Be enthusiastic. That was adivce I got from another co-op. Love what they do and make sure they can tell.
All that research on the job/technologies? Demonstrate that highly specific knowledge when conversing.
Ask lots of good, deep questions, especially if it can show your curiosity, desire to learn, or technical knowledge.
Be natural, its just a conversation.
And for high pressure situations in general…
This section is how I was able to perform really well in this usually high pressure/high stakes situation for me.
Realize (or act) like the thing you’re anxious about is nothing. You will be good before during and after whatever you’re worried about. If you don’t get the job…
I’ll finish this section later actually, its important but I’m lazy:
But for now, basically, pump yourself with confidence, play hard to get, and go into it with the mindset of “I prefer this to go well, but am fine if it doesn’t”
Especially with nervous CS kids, everyone can tell when you’re sweating. You speak better, are more personable and funny and likeable when you act like this is just another day, just another task.
Of course, stay a bit professional, but be you. You’re better than you think. Also, everyone else kinda sucks more than you think, but that’s another essay as well.
Again, these are just my thoughts. If they help or could be improved please let me know.