It's Official

I called Lockheed today to turn down their offer and I then called L-3 Communications to accept theirs. I'm looking at a start date of 28 May 2007 so that my benefits, including health insurance, will start on 1 June 2007. :)

Decision Time

L-3 Communications called and emailed me today to make it official. I have 72 hours to decide and I don't know what I'm going to do. I think it's time to do a pro/con analysis!

Lockheed Martin's Offer:
~$60,000 annual + benefits
I'd be working on requirements management for the new crew vehicle.

L-3 Communications' Offer:
~$69,000 annual + benefits
I'd be joining their Constellation Program contracts team and probably working on the full-scale test simulator for the new crew vehicle.

I'm having my doubts about Lockheed Martin's offer now because A) the pay is significantly lower, even when I take their automatic 4% bonus into account B) the job would be more about management and databases than real engineering and C) my friend who helped me get the interview has found out that the manger I'd go work for has been having some serious personnel problems lately of his own making.

L-3 Communications is essentially offering me everything I told them I wanted... and Lockheed Martin is asking me to bank on them for the long haul, saying that I can expect a promotion as early as January and that I'd be well-positioned for transferring to another, more hands-on engineering job after I give this a couple of years of solid work.

One of the professors here I really respect has flat out told me that he's afraid Lockheed wants to turn me into a paper pusher for them and he thinks I can do better for myself at L-3. Now that I write it all down and compare them side by side... I think he's probably right.

Update

Lockheed moved faster than I expected. The recruiter got everything signed off today and was authorized to email me the offer. I have a week to decide and, if I say yes, fax the form back to her. I guess her bosses didn't want to give L3 any extra time to get an offer together. I left a message with the senior program manager at L3 this morning.

The Offer

Lockheed Martin called me yesterday to inform me that the official offer should be on my doorstep on Monday. It's a bit less than what I was hoping for, but the recruiter took the time to explain to me how they arrived at that number and we had a long talk about all the non-monetary benefits to working at LM. They have a low attrition rate, internal hire rates are high (if, say, I end up not liking this job for whatever reason), good healthcare, reputation for integrity, they've had people take pay cuts to come work with them, etc... She also raved about how the group I'd be going to work with is the nicest bunch of people she's ever recruited for (the recruiter is in California, the team is here in Houston). The recruiter also told me that I should absolutely press L3/Titan to see if they can come up with a counter-offer so that I can make an informed decision... but she thinks I'll go with LM, just the same.

Guess I need to call L3/Titan this morning and tell them that I'm going to have to make a decision by next week.

I think my decision is about to get harder

I had an interview with L3 Communications/Titan Group today (formerly LinCom) and they're working really hard at getting me to consider them over Lockheed. They have a long reputation for technical excellence and their simulation program is the NASA standard now. They're also building the Constellation simulation and training lab, so I would still get to work on CEV. L3 also lets them continue to operate more like a small business than a subsidiary of the seventh largest government contractor, so everyone seems to absolutely love working there.

The fact that I was invited for a personal interview means that I'm on their very short list of candidates. Their engineering manager told me that he thinks I would be very well suited to join their "work family" and he expects to fit me with a team and give me an offer within a week or so. And I made it clear before I walked in the door that Lockheed has an offer pending, so... here it goes.

I'm torn because Lockheed is offering me the exact job that I want, but L3/Titan has the ideal work environment. Most of the guys I talked with today are former Lockheed, Boeing, etc. people who wanted to get out of the big corporate style and work for a smaller organization with more of a focus on excellence than on just making money.

But the Lockheed Martin team I interviewed with seems to be largely made up of the same kind of people as I met today... so, it's tough. I honestly didn't expect to find myself in a position where I would have to choose like this.

It's not official... yet...

... because HR hasn't done their thing. But it looks like I'm going to work for Lockheed Martin.

My interview with the gentleman who is most probably going to be my new boss went extremely well today. He said that he is going to tell HR that he wants me for the job as soon as they respond to his e-mail and completely sold me on the idea that this is the place I want to be.

My friend that helped set this up said she dropped by his office a little while ago to ask how it went. His answer was, "We'll take him!"

My new job will be to help set and manage the requirements and specifications for the new crew exploration vehicle. I'll essentially be responsible, along with the rest of the team, for ensuring that the Orion does what Lockheed Martin tells NASA it is supposed to do and communicating those requirements to the teams responsible for building its sub-systems.

I'm gonna help build spaceships for a living. I'm going to get to live my dream. I'm grinning from ear to ear right now. :)

Looks like yet another interview is coming...

L3 Communications' Titan division at JSC called me tonight to talk to me about projects they have going on with Constellation. The gentleman I talked to said that he will certainly recommend that I be called in for an on-site interview next week so that I can meet their technical managers and see if the organization would be a good fit.

These guys were LinCom. They then got bought out by Titan. L3 bought Titan. They're still the same core group of highly professional, highly skilled people that I remember hearing about as a JSC intern, though. The guy who interviewed me said that their average satisfaction rating from NASA is 4.98 out of 5 and that the NASA contracting manager gives them straight fives. If these guys give you a call, it's a hell of a compliment because they are very selective.

I'm a little torn at the moment. The Lockheed job is still my first choice. Though the L3 contracts for Constellation sound interesting, the Lockheed systems engineering job is what I really want to do. But L3 has an incredible reputation for being an awesome place to work that really takes care of its people. If the Lockheed thing doesn't pan out, I would almost certainly have to take an offer from L3.

Another Step Closer

I have an interview with Lockheed on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Getting Closer to the CEV

The interview went extremely well. One of the recruiters said my cover letter was among the best he'd ever seen and that he was certain from it alone that Jacobs needs to find a place for me in the organization before someone else does. He almost didn't believe that a 25-year-old has both the depth and breadth of experience that I do.

We spent the entire hour chatting about my goals, my priorities, my thoughts on safety and people management, and what kind of work would interest me most. The recruiters asked me to go home, pick out the top 5 jobs that seemed most interesting to me, and email them that list so they could talk to the hiring managers and find my best fit.

To say that I was happy with the result would be the understatement of the year.

But it gets better.

Fast forward to yesterday, Saturday, night. The wifey returned home from a week visiting her family in East Texas. My monthly Firefly/Serenity gaming group also decided to meet yesterday. She was infinitely unselfish and insisted that I go see my friends, so long as she had my undivided attention once I got home.

A new couple joined the group this weekend and everyone chatted and caught up before the game started. I shared my good news about the interview and the wife, we'll call her "L" to protect the innocent, started asking me what my background was. It turns out that L works on systems engineering for Lockheed and is on the team that is designing the interfaces for the CEV with all the other modules.

I think everyone heard my jaw hit the floor and I know my eyes got as big as quarters. She smiled and asked me what my professional interests were. I said that I was interested in systems architecture and configuration evaluation. Then it was her turn to get excited. The design review is coming up in August and her division needs engineers to help with exactly what I want to do.

We exchanged information and chattered amongst ourselves while her husband looked on proudly and joked about Browncoats (Firefly fans) taking over NASA. Someone else in the group looked over and asked what we were doing. L beat me to it and said, "Trying to get him to come work for my division!"

I'm so happy I could bounce. I just sent my resume and cover letter to L at her work e-mail. Bounce, bounce, bounce. :)