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Old 05-02-2016, 09:41 PM
 
817 posts, read 747,228 times
Reputation: 810

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Hello. I graduated college in 2003 and relocated to a job at Raytheon in El Segundo, CA. El Segundo was the Aerospace capital in simpler times, eh you probably know that. Anyway. These are not simple times. Jobs hard to come by, wages low, L.A. cost of living getting too crazy. (Always a little more expensive but housing is out of control again). Most companies insourcing labor to interior states.

I'm just curious about Huntsville. Always heard kind words about folks (I'm from the Midwest). Are jobs plentiful? How's the cost of living? What do you do on the weekends? Thanks for taking your time to answer a bit
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Old 05-03-2016, 08:12 AM
 
169 posts, read 204,447 times
Reputation: 225
You're right next door to SpaceX in Hawthorne and they're hiring lots of people. That area may become the aerospace capital again some day.

Huntsville is great, but the recent win by SpaceX may portend some belt tightening by ULA (Boeing/Lockheed Martin). There's plenty of other aerospace in town, depending on what exactly you do, though.

Compared to LA, Huntsville is another universe in terms of housing prices, traffic, recreation access, etc. We don't have a lot of movie stars, though. We do have humid weather and mosquitoes.
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Old 05-03-2016, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Alabama!
6,048 posts, read 18,332,714 times
Reputation: 4835
Quote:
Originally Posted by rock90 View Post
You're right next door to SpaceX in Hawthorne and they're hiring lots of people. That area may become the aerospace capital again some day.

Huntsville is great, but the recent win by SpaceX may portend some belt tightening by ULA (Boeing/Lockheed Martin). There's plenty of other aerospace in town, depending on what exactly you do, though.

Compared to LA, Huntsville is another universe in terms of housing prices, traffic, recreation access, etc. We don't have a lot of movie stars, though. We do have humid weather and mosquitoes.
And very low housing and tax costs compared to Cali.
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Old 05-03-2016, 10:19 AM
 
817 posts, read 747,228 times
Reputation: 810
SpaceX is tough for a family man, they start you out 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, on second shift. And they pay much less than their counterparts Raytheon and Boeing did, like $10/hr less.

I'm a technician, I can do about anything. Lasers, vibration, environmental, assembly, testing, troubleshooting.

LOL, never been around movie stars. 99.9% of us work and live like any other city. I'm a midwesterner, grew up on gravel roads and corn field keggers
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Old 05-03-2016, 10:49 AM
 
Location: Madison, AL
1,614 posts, read 2,282,610 times
Reputation: 1656
Quote:
Originally Posted by 69Charger View Post
SpaceX is tough for a family man, they start you out 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, on second shift. And they pay much less than their counterparts Raytheon and Boeing did, like $10/hr less.

I'm a technician, I can do about anything. Lasers, vibration, environmental, assembly, testing, troubleshooting.

LOL, never been around movie stars. 99.9% of us work and live like any other city. I'm a midwesterner, grew up on gravel roads and corn field keggers

Then you would probably enjoy this area much more than SoCal.
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Old 05-03-2016, 11:54 AM
 
Location: The Mountains of AlaBAMA!
300 posts, read 602,948 times
Reputation: 170
The cost of living in Huntsville is much lower than where you are in El Segundo. I'd start looking elsewhere. Look at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Lots of manufacturing and technician type jobs there in the aerospace field. Boeing, Lockheed, and Jacobs are out there so they may have something you can do.
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Old 05-03-2016, 11:54 AM
 
8,742 posts, read 12,856,404 times
Reputation: 10524
Quote:
Originally Posted by 69Charger View Post
Hello. I graduated college in 2003 and relocated to a job at Raytheon in El Segundo, CA. El Segundo was the Aerospace capital in simpler times, eh you probably know that. Anyway. These are not simple times. Jobs hard to come by, wages low, L.A. cost of living getting too crazy. (Always a little more expensive but housing is out of control again). Most companies insourcing labor to interior states.

I'm just curious about Huntsville. Always heard kind words about folks (I'm from the Midwest). Are jobs plentiful? How's the cost of living? What do you do on the weekends? Thanks for taking your time to answer a bit

Sure. Come on over. This is the land of milk & honey. Jobs are plentiful especially if you are self-motivated & willing to work hard. A plus if you already have clearances (having worked at Raytheon, I'd reckon you do). There is a Raytheon plant here (or soon will be) for missile production at the Arsenal (or the Research Park), you may want to ask around.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rock90 View Post
You're right next door to SpaceX in Hawthorne and they're hiring lots of people. That area may become the aerospace capital again some day.

Huntsville is great, but the recent win by SpaceX may portend some belt tightening by ULA (Boeing/Lockheed Martin). There's plenty of other aerospace in town, depending on what exactly you do, though.

Compared to LA, Huntsville is another universe in terms of housing prices, traffic, recreation access, etc. We don't have a lot of movie stars, though. We do have humid weather and mosquitoes.
Nah. SpaceX wants you to work 60 hrs a week for a 40 hr/week pay. They do provide free ice cream daily & all the coffee you can drink


ULA is in a lay-off mode for this year & the next. They will lay off 450 people this year and another 500 next (according to the Space News).


The "traditional" aerospace prime contractors are shrinking & dying because they are so ingrained in sucking government's ... umm.. .milk. Well, this sort of traditional contracting is changing to a hybrid of venture capital funding & government pays for the ride only. To survive, you'll need to change along with the business environment.


If you're willing to work hard, there're pockets of opportunities in the LA area for a good technician like yourself. Check out the Virgin Galatic, they are in Long Beach (old McDonnell Douglas plant). Another small company, called Garvey Spacecraft, also in Long Beach. Masten Aerospace in the Mojave Desert (frying eggs hot! but dry!). If you like Las Vegas, check out Bigelo Aerospace. If you like to go to Austin Texas, check out this start up company called Fire Fly. You can find them online & check out their web sites. Both Blue Origins & SpaceX do their rocket testing in Texas as well.


Don't go to the "primes", they don't do the work themselves anyway. Go to the smaller guys or the "subs". They have more work & they need people who can do rather than just generate power point charts.
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Old 05-04-2016, 06:51 AM
 
Location: Madison, AL
3,297 posts, read 6,225,556 times
Reputation: 2678
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamnbam View Post
The cost of living in Huntsville is much lower than where you are in El Segundo. I'd start looking elsewhere. Look at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Lots of manufacturing and technician type jobs there in the aerospace field. Boeing, Lockheed, and Jacobs are out there so they may have something you can do.
My husband is moving over to the SLS program and he will be traveling to Michoud quite frequently as well as Kennedy....that is where they are building the SLS rocket

Quote:
Originally Posted by rock90 View Post
We don't have a lot of movie stars, though. We do have humid weather and mosquitoes.

I'd take mosquitos over movie stars any day
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Old 05-04-2016, 07:03 AM
 
2,054 posts, read 3,316,270 times
Reputation: 3909
You may find the mosquitoes are about as big as movie stars.
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Old 05-04-2016, 04:26 PM
 
Location: Huntsville
468 posts, read 901,537 times
Reputation: 296
Movie stars suck as much as mosquitoes... if not more.
Movie stars are all just buzz ... just like mosquitoes.
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