Southern California: Aerospace Capital of the World (Los Angeles, Long Beach: houses, buying)

[Charles]

I remember my first big aerospace job. I was in my mid 20s at Point Mugu and I remember some older guy, WWII vet, came up to me and said

"They're paying you for eight, you should at least work five."

Later, a few years ago, some chick I was working with in Colorado told me (after she got back from her three hour lunch break at the gym):

"Anything you can do in eight hours, you can do in one hour."

Another chick I worked with at Point Mugu explained her two hour lunch break at the gym:

"Well, I get one hour for lunch, plus two 15 minute breaks plus two 15 minute smoke breaks but I don't smoke, so that's two hours."

[HB2HSV]

You guys are much smarter than I was.

When I was young, eager, and on a big project with a major program review date coming up, I worked 16 hours a day for 2 weeks straight including weekends. At the end, my boss said you were not approved for over time pay, so you'll get pay for 8 hours a day!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

You guys are much smarter than I was.

When I was young, eager, and on a big project with a major program review date coming up, I worked 16 hours a day for 2 weeks straight including weekends. At the end, my boss said you were not approved for over time pay, so you'll get pay for 8 hours a day!

There was a guy like that I worked with....60 hour weeks for months, killing himself....

One day, I honored him by presenting to him "For your continuous, efforts of 60 hour weeks (only 40 paid) for months on end, I would like to present you with this Company Pride $10 gift certificate award..."

[Charles]

Very relevant to Los Angeles:

"Because two years of U.S. federal spending is essentially locked in, defense is proving to be a stable asset on the jobs front. But faced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, defense spending will come under enormous pressure.

"The bailout money has to come from someplace," says Chadwick.

To keep it from coming out of defense, AIA is lobbying Congress and the fledgling Obama administration with the view that defense spending is a "proven jobs provider."

from

Boeing Girds for Tougher 2009 With Layoffs | AVIATION WEEK

[Charles]

Northrop will cut up to 750 jobs in coming months - The Daily Breeze

Los Angeles - Is SoCal Aerospace Crashing -- Again? - LA Daily


Actually, these articles make it sound a lot worse than it is. Most of the layoffs at Northrop Grumman will be administration and support jobs (but they are still jobs so that isn't good) but I just searched yesterday and I found about 350 jobs for engineers at Northrop Grumman in California - that offered relocation benefits - a huge expense to NG.

So, with that, Southern California will most likely retain it's ranking as http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...tal-world.html

Want a six-figure job? Get security clearance - Handling Hard Times - OCRegister.com

"Los Angeles: Network systems and data communications analysts are two of the fastest growing occupations in both Los Angeles and Orange County, both of which command six figure salaries.

Huntsville: With 50 percent more jobs posted on ClearanceJobs in the past year for Rocket City, there appears to be no limit for candidates in computer sciences and integration, communications services, biotechnology and engineering."

from

ClearanceJobs.com :: ClearanceJobs.com Names its Top Ten Cities for Defense Jobs

[impala666]

This is a great thread, but just remember all those security oaths you took!!

[ironjello]

I know JPL just layed off around ~300 employees (not included contractors) due to the technological delay with their latest Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover....which because of orbital mechanics, resulted in a 3 year launch window slip!

--I'm sorry, but I just DO NOT want to move to Huntsville!! Houston is better.
--The thing about Cali is that everything got expensive!! -- which is why it's cheaper to build something in Virginia, Texas, or Colorado.

[Charles]

Big things to be announced at 1030 CA time today by SecDef Gates. Will affect Southern California Aerospace.

You can watch and listen to Gates on CSPAN1:

C-SPAN Live Stream - C-SPAN

[jkbatca]

Originally Posted by Charles

Big things to be announced at 1030 CA time today by SecDef Gates. Will affect Southern California Aerospace.

Here are two general observations on my part about the current SoCal aerospace employment situation. I'll attempt my best at keeping a cheerful, upbeat City-Data policy...

First, there is still employment IF you specialize in some niche technical field, such as communications or RF engineer. If you know RF like your alphabet, you can write your ticket in many places if you know where to look.

Two, one word: "UAVs". Huge growth area, even in this economy. The "trick" is to know where in the "food chain" to insert yourself.

By the way, Charles, I apologize in advance for being personal, but could you say who do you work for in Huntsville? You don't have to if you do not want to. Would you ever want to return to Southern California (San Diego, Palmdale area)? I just ask out of curiosity since you appear to still keep track of the Southern California area and you used to work at Pt. Mugu (I used to work at Port Hueneme).

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jkbatca

Would you ever want to return to Southern California (San Diego, Palmdale area)? I just ask out of curiosity since you appear to still keep track of the Southern California area and you used to work at Pt. Mugu (I used to work at Port Hueneme).

You never know. Right now Huntsville is a perfect place to be for us. It had the ninth highest real estate appreciation in the US, (only 3.8% but it's better than nothing; Decatur, AL was No 1 with 9%). The unemployment rate for engineers with degrees in Huntsville is 0.2%, that's 2 out of 1000. Between 4500 and 10000 BRAC jobs are on their way here over the next two years. High demand, low supply -> good salaries.

But our parents (our four kids' grandparents) still live in LA County so sometimes we think of returning if things stabilize out there.