First, apologies for this not being in a "who's hiring" post. The powers that be are hoping to fill this position before February, so it can't wait for the next one.<p>Second, I'm not involved with hiring...I just want to give the college students of HN an opportunity to apply for this cool opening. If you get the position you will work with me a lot, so feel free to ask me anything about what I do.<p>Okay, here's the semi-official job req:<p>Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies in Houston, TX is offering an internship where you will get to work at the NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL)[1] and Mission Control Center (MCC)[2] working within the Mission Operations group at Johnson Space Center in charge of Extravehicular Activities (spacewalks)[3]. This group plans on-orbit activities, trains astronauts to perform spacewalks (at the NBL and other facilities), and assists astronauts with execution of missions from MCC.<p>The chosen applicant would be involved with all of these planning, training and execution activities. Additionally, they would be working on a project to improve the EVA Wiki (EVA's knowledge managment system using MediaWiki [4]). The extent of this project depends upon the chosen applicant's interests and skills. Applicants proficient in software development could help improve existing software or developing their own extensions. Other applicants could work on improving the content within the wiki.<p>Applicants must be graduate students or undergraduate juniors or seniors. Graduate students work 30-40 hours per week. Undergraduates work 16-28 hours per week. Application is open to all students, but goes through San Jacinto College. To apply please contact Linda Drobnich at Linda.Drobnich AT sjcd DOT edu.<p>[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Buoyancy_Laboratory
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Mission_Control_Center
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravehicular_activity
[4] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
The out of band advertisement [Who is Hiring was less than two weeks ago] doesn't suggest a company that has its shit together [there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that]. But out of band means out of band. And the mores of Who is Hiring are not applicable.<p>Working on the project Wiki is the only specific task listed. That's a red-flag in regard to gaining professional Computer science/engineering/programming experience. It's secretarial work [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that] not an extension of the CS classroom.<p>NASA in the headline is also a bit misleading outside the jobs thread, since this is just another contractor [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that], but in that industry there are companies that will take interns and give them work that extends the classroom.<p>I am not saying that this isn't an opportunity for work experience or an entry into the world of government contracting or that there's anything wrong with that industry. But it isn't a job at NASA and working on the Wiki is not the kind of experience that leads to the skill sets NASA seeks for software developers. They need hard computer science ~ they want people who can work with the Peter Norvigs and Margret Hamiltons of the world.