NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA USA
“In school, I was so insecure. But understanding that I didn't have to be perfect and live up to crazy expectations from parents and society freed me. Embrace imperfection.”
Contracts Administrator
I'm an agent for technical people; I'm their advocate, guiding them through contracts bureaucracy.
Every day is different, but it's a balance between document preparation, research on various space technologies, and mitigating client expectations. It's a lot of balancing several projects in various states of completion at one time, so essentially we're talking about project management. Something that I take upon myself to do (because I'm Type-A sometimes) is constantly think about how I can make my job easier and also save taxpayers money at the same time.
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS. This cannot be stated enough. Learning how to make people feel like you're on their side is everything, and learning how to negotiate with people is key. Also, the ability to think outside the box and continually think about how to re-organize things to make them better is highly valued in any industry. Learn Lean Six Sigma.
Here's the first step for everyone
Do something. Do anything. In my experience, where you are doesn't matter as much as what you do with it. My cashiering experience at Wahoo's Fish Tacos at UCI directly led to my next job, which led to my next job, which led to my next job, and so on. None of those experiences were unimportant, even though the jobs weren't really related to one another. Treating the job like an opportunity and building something within it--even something small--can go a long way.
"It can't be done. You're never going to convince everyone to change."
