John's Page

Hello, wonderful person!
I wanted to share how I landed an internship with NASA even though I had a psychology degree at the time. And I was 37 when I started this process, I turned 38 during the internship. This is one of several pivots I've made in my working years. I thought this one might be of interest to the widest number of people. At some point, I will probably write more about other job changes I've done and how they have built upon each other and helped my current goals of working in the tech industry.
You might be wondering if there's a "magic" formula to do something like this. Well, yes, I suppose there is: networking (the human kind), putting in work, and some luck. I know some of that might seem boring or intimidating, especially the networking part, but it is doable. You, yes YOU can do this too. A lot of networking happens organically just from the human interactions you have with people.
A brief background. I served in the US Army for six years working on RADARs. After getting out, I had jobs in the medical field, customer service, and teaching military courses. I finally decided to go back to school and get my bachelor's in psychology. Towards the end, I had a couple of statistics. I barely survived the first one which involved lots of formulas. Oh yeah, I failed Algebra the first time in High School and passed by the skin of my teeth the next time. Math and I were not friends, or so I thought. The next statistics class focused more broadly on how statistics can be applied, rather than the formulas themselves. I was fascinated by that.
Much to my wife's shock, I announced I wanted to apply to a master's program in statistics. My Psych degree didn't give me enough math credits to apply to a program. I spoke to someone at the place I wanted to apply and they told me what I would need and strongly suggested I save money by taking classes at community college. So that's what I did. I buckled down and did the extra work to tackle math, Algebra (again), Pre-Cal through Cal 3, and a couple more. I went from being super intimidated by math to realizing I COULD do the math, even if I might have to work harder than someone who seemed naturally good at math. And I managed to get A's on everything.
I developed a rapport with my teacher. It helped that he was also a military vet. I also made sure if he said he preferred work to be shown a particular way, I did it that way, even if there were other ways to come to the correct solution. I think it's easy to try and prove you can do something different or better, but in school, and work, don't underestimate the value of learning to do things someone else's way. Even if you don't stick to that method later, it's a learning experience and can help in other ways also.
During one of the classes, he mentioned the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program. At first, I didn't think I could be qualified. A 37-year-old (that's ancient to someone who was in the military, probably to anyone in their 20's too) with a Psych degree applying to something affiliated with NASA? No way! But I noticed I met the minimum requirements thanks to the math classes I had been taking. I needed a recommendation letter and when I approached my teacher he was happy to recommend me. As I said, we had built a rapport and he knew I was willing to put in work to succeed. I attended an online info webinar provided by the staff and they said as long as you applied properly there was a really good chance of getting accepted to the online portion. A smaller number of people get invited to a four-day engineering design workshop at one of the NASA facilities. To complete the online portion there were materials to engage with, quizzes, and a final project to submit. I did well enough to be invited to an onsite experience, which I did at Mashall Space Flight Center! It was an incredible experience and I met amazing people, both the staff involved and the other students. We got to tour parts of the center, hear from several employees, NASA engineers of course but also people in other career fields working for NASA. And we were also told about NASA internships.
Again, I thought it was a long shot, but I decided to look for internships to apply for. Not surprisingly, a lot of internships are geared for people pursuing a STEM education/career, whether it's some form of more traditional engineering or software-related. I found an internship to apply for at Marshall that involved doing STEM outreach with the Academic Affairs office. Our family was about to make an international move when I applied. My wife had accepted a job at a University in England and I didn't expect to get the internship. I was pleasantly surprised again! Of course, it did help that I had done the onsite experience at NCAS. The person responsible for interns had briefly met us while we were there. I later found out the person who ran NCAS at Marshall had put in a good word for me when she saw I had applied since she had seen me working with my team. That human connection helped (Networking!). I'll also note that while it helped me, it's not required to do NCAS first. One of the other interns I worked with had applied for both programs at similar times and did NCAS during the internship.
The internship was an amazing experience! I have kept in touch with people I met during NCAS and the internship. I've got a few more people who would be willing to be professional references for me. I've written recommendation letters for some of the other students I met. So yeah, networking is helpful. I want to say that I did not develop any of the relationships because I might get benefit from the other person. I developed relationships with great people just because they are great people! The bonus is that I now also have more people I can reach out to for help and that I would gladly help also.
If you're a community college student check out NCAS as a great stepping stone. And check out the page with more information about internships and fellowships offered by NASA. Even if you don't meet the criteria right now, you might be closer to being eligible than you realize.
If you're interested in pursuing something different, keep networking (developing human relationships AKA being a decent person), keep on the lookout for opportunities, and don't count yourself out if you initially think you're not the "right type" for something.