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Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

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Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#51
post #34

How's Israel this time of year?

My first thought was North Korea

...except they dont allow access to the rest of the world.. All they can access is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmyong_%28intranet%29

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#52

I'm trying to think of "famously aggressive" and "little", and all I can come up with is one of them Koreas.

Or Venezuela. But most likely Israel.

Venezuela aggressive?? Chavez speaks a lot, but that's about it. And it's not really a little country either, at nearly 1 million square kilometres.

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your criticism is right, this is a sensationalist appeal. Do you think I shouldn't have made it?

Do you think my satire contains a moral judgment? (I hear you like to answer questions with questions over there.)

Touche. Your satire was pretty funny.

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#54
post #36
post #28

I wouldn't want to hire someone who was willing to compromise his ethics simply for a "very good salary and benefits."

I don't know the whole story, but I have known very good, moral people who worked for companies that they didn't completely agree with ethically because they put their family or their health first. Ethics isn't always so simple. If "a very good salary and benefits" is the difference between being very sick or getting that surgery you need, or if it's the difference between sending your kids to a good school or a bad…

[deleted]

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#55
post #8

I've never worked in defense. Can someone explain what "these kind of people" means?

I don't know exactly what the poster meant by "these people", but my own experience having worked at a defense contractor was that the facility I was at (which designed and made missles), all of the managers were upset that there wasn't presently a war going on. I suspect that the past few years have been better for morale there. Every day they would have meetings going over global hot spots and assess whether there…

Strange, since most of the US big money spending is mostly unrelated to the wars. They didn't start the F-22 when the war in Iraq broke out, the new aircraft carriers are rolling out to replace ones that are getting old, not ones that got sunk ... etc.

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know exactly what the poster meant by "these people", but my own experience having worked at a defense contractor was that the facility I was at (which designed and made missles), all of the managers were upset that there wasn't presently a war going on. I suspect that the past few years have been better for morale there. Every day they would have meetings going over global hot spots and assess whether there…

Strange, since most of the US big money spending is mostly unrelated to the wars. They didn't start the F-22 when the war in Iraq broke out, the new aircraft carriers are rolling out to replace ones that are getting old, not ones that got sunk ... etc.

That's less true of "perishable" items like munitions.

Generally, the US Government has a set stockpile (which may increase or decrease based on policy changes, but is usually static).

This company made guided missiles (very expensive, medium to long range), and needed the existing stockpile to be depleted (which is a nice way of saying that they needed things to be blown up).

Other divisions of the company I'm sure were working on different kinds of projects, the contracts for which weren't as contingent on being in a skirmish.

There's a difference between having a contract to develop and design an F-22 (which thankfully occurs before they are needed in warfare) and to actually build replacement F-22's (such as when they are shot down).

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#58

How's Israel this time of year?

Don't think it's Israel, he would have already spent time in the military if he was Israeli.

The down voting is really strange.

If he is Israeli, and in his mid twenties then he has already served in the IDF, likely in a CS capacity. Also if he was Sherut Leumi, then I wouldn't think he would apply for a military contract job in the first place. Furthermore, its especially difficult for people with highly desirable backgrounds like CS or engineering to get Sherut approval.

My only point was that an Israeli in their mid twenties has already served in the military and if they have, or plan to get a degree in CS, they have served in the military in a capacity relating to CS or engineering.

Of course it's totally possible that I'm wrong and he is from Israel.

Just out of curiosity, anyone have any explanations of the down voting? Don't really mind, I just find it kind of bizarre.

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#59
post #2

The standard advice I've heard is: Work for defense companies to learn the technology, and then leave to transfer this technology toward peaceful (and often lucrative) applications. Swords into Ploughshares.

Speaking for the U.S. context only: once you have a security clearance, which will become necessary at some point for defence work, it becomes difficult to move out to non-classified work. On one hand, the pool of people with clearances is smaller than the general labor pool, so you can have a higher salary & benefits, therefore it's more attractive to stay at that kind of work. On the other hand, prospective employe…

> Speaking for the U.S. context only: once you have a security clearance, which will become necessary at some point for defence work, it becomes difficult to move out to non-classified work.

Huh? None of my friends with clearances seem to have that problem. Do they have the "wrong" clearances?

Re: Somebody please hire me before I take a job in weapon development

#60
I have a problem believing this is about Israel since:

a) Defense companies in Israel _do not_ offer "very good salary." In fact, it is a generally accepted fact that they universally offer lower salaries than civilian companies. This is offset somewhat by the benefits that stem from being a large and influential enterprise as well as the inherent governmental bureaucracy.

b) Engineers at Israeli defense firms don't tend to be particularly militaristic or in any way "these kind of people," and I know quite a few...

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