Hi everybody! Welcome back to my channel! I know it's been a while and as you can tell,
I've had a change of scenery. Um, so that's why I've been very very busy, but we're back
and I have a brand new series for you guys where I'm going to be talking about all things NASA.
First of all, just a few updates. Number one I am using this brand new microphone right here
so if it's rubbing against my shirt or my body I'm sorry,
um I'm learning how to use it and I won't know how it sounds until I'm editing so
fingers crossed but we'll see. Now as you may have noticed, I didn't really talk about where
I worked, what I did at work on my channel. I was pretty vague and that's just personal preference.
I don't really like to give too many details about my current place of employment which is
why I'm talking about it now. I decided to take a leave from working so that I can focus on grad
school. Now you may remember that I did attempt to work full-time, do grad school part-time, and then
do my science communication and social media work also part-time, but it was honestly just
too much for me so I decided to talk to my supervisors they were extremely supportive
and we all agreed that the best thing for me would be to focus on grad school and you know finish
up as soon as I can so I can get back to my work. So if you guys have any questions about that feel
free to drop them here and I'll definitely talk about it. So let's get started... NASA. This is
going to be a series of videos talking about all things NASA. This first video is going to focus on
how I got my NASA internship then I can talk about how I was able to turn that internship into a
full-time position in another video. Then, I have another video called what it's like to work at
NASA planned so if you have any other video ideas be sure to drop them here so I can add them to
this series. Okay, how I got my NASA internship. Let's get started, then after that I'm going to
look through my story because I left a question sticker and I'll be answering some questions
for the next few videos be on the lookout on my story as well if you have any specific questions
you can ask them there or you can leave them down in the comments and I'll address that in
the future videos. When I was at community college, I applied to transfer with a 4.0.
I had a very good gpa, a very good application, I had so many extracurriculars and volunteer work
and it was honestly a solid application and it showed because I was able to get
the regents scholarship at ucla coupled with the jack kent cooke foundation scholarship.
I was able to have not only a full ride education but also all of my expenses like rent um you know
books bills everything of that nature completely paid for and I actually had some left over as well
so that was honestly a huge help for me. Definitely if you're in that position to apply
to those scholarships and you're scared just do it. I do have another video about my scholarships
and kind of my community college experience so if you're interested in that I'll link it down
in the description. But, let's move on. So I get to ucla right. I decided to go to ucla there's
this whole thing I wanted to go to berkeley originally and I changed my mind and that's
a whole other mess that I talk about in another video as well but anyway so I'm here I'm at ucla
and I kind of was used to being the best student right and now I'm at a school where everyone
here is used to being the best student. I was terrified. I was doing so badly, I was not used
to the quarter system. When you transfer, that first quarter now becomes your gpa because your
community college gpa sort of it's not like it's wiped but as far as the uc is concerned
they only took the units and not the actual grades so you have a different gpa when you start out and
you can list your community college gpa on your resume as part of your community college education
but as far as your current gpa that would be your uc gpa and for me my first quarter...
it was bad let's just put it that way and this is the gpa I had to use to
apply for internships. Okay, I was... I uh I don't even want to think about those days.
I felt so defeated. I felt so bad and I mean, I.. not only did I feel that way,
but I was also getting a lot of rejections from the places I was applying for which kind of
just was reinforcing that whole like well I'm not good enough, I shouldn't even be applying
for these things. I'm just wasting my time. So I stopped applying pretty much for that whole first
summer that I was going to be spending at ucla and I was really down, but at the same time I thought.
You know, okay. So, I did have experience though. I think a lot of it really was me telling myself
no before they could to just protect myself in a way ,but that's not the right way to do things. So
that first summer I didn't get anything and that was my doing to be honest. That was completely my
doing, it was my own insecurity because I did have experience. I had research experience.
I had had another internship already so it really was just me being scared of rejection but
particularly I was scared of rejection from the one place I had always dreamed of, you know, NASA.
So I didn't even apply, but what I did do was that summer I spent it teaching myself how to use the
professional software for pcb design that is used in industry. Um because in industry at least not
that I've seen, no one's using you know eagle or things like that they're using Altium, they're
using cadence. So I spent that summer working at Mcdonald's because ya girl had bills to pay and
teaching myself pcb in the afternoons and sleeping in my parents - it was like a little basement
room - so that's what I did and I added that to my resume. I made sure to really develop that skill
and I started applying. I started applying and applying applying. I went to conferences.
I really got out of my comfort zone and spoke to a lot of these different companies and particularly
NASA and JPL at the conferences and I was able to make some pretty good connections.
Particularly I believe my position eventually came from a talk I had with an engineer at a SHPE
conference. If you don't know what SHPE is that's the society of hispanic professional engineers.
I went to the conference in kansas city missouri and I spoke to someone there and I remember,
I distinctly remember this. Right after speaking to them and handing over my resume I remember
seeing them put my resume in a really small pile and he like marked something on it so I was like
did I do it? Did I do it? Um but then I also remember that during that same conference,
I had some other classmates who were getting interviews with JPL and I didn't really hear
back so I was like man... but you know it's a learning experience and I kept applying. Now, I
don't really remember when that conference was but I want to say it was in the fall and the following
year around march I had already forgotten about this and pretty much thought I didn't get it.
I get an email from someone at jpl nasa's jet propulsion lab asking me if I'd be interested in
a internship that would be during the school year so not in the summer it would be for the
spring quarter. Of course I said um heck yes and I decided to go through with the interview.
Now when I tell you I cried... My husband can attest to this. He probably thought that like
something horrible happened because I just started ugly crying... like Kim Kardashian ugly crying
That was me and he comes over and I show it to him and I don't know it was just such
an emotional experience for me because after everything that I've gone through
if you don't really know my story I'm not sure if I've told it to you guys here um
I've gone through some stuff you know I've gone through a lot... I come from
not much and I've been able to do all of this by myself so that moment is just
I don't know it was really special for me. Now I've never prepared for
an interview as much as I prepared for this interview and the reason for that was that
once I actually read the job description, it was more for a software engineering position
and I'm an electrical engineer who specializes in electronics. I do have to take several
programming classes as part of my degree, but I did not want that to be my career,
but you know a foot in the door is a foot in the door. Especially at a place like jpl, so
I got myself as ready as I could. I looked up the engineer who was going to be interviewing me.
Looked up all the projects they've been a part of. I looked up all the current missions, past
missions, you know I basically I took it as an opportunity of... if I don't get this position I
still have a nasa engineer on the phone with me so when it comes to the q a portion, I have a lot of
questions for them. You know, how do you like your job? What's the coolest project you've been a part
of? Have you switched positions a lot? What's been your favorite project? What's been your favorite
uh role that you've had you know? So these are all the questions that I gathered for him and I asked
him and we had such an amazing conversation where it was kind of just like two people
talking and enjoying conversation. After the interview and I remember that when
it ended you know we had such a good talk that right before he hung up he said to me
"I genuinely believe that you belong here and I don't want you to get discouraged. This isn't the
only position out there so please keep applying you belong at jp" and I just thought oh no
I didn't get it you know because I don't know how else am I supposed to take that which on one hand,
it's a very nice thing for him to say that I belong here you know after everything that I've
gone through and all those feelings of insecurity and of self-doubt and self-rejection for him to
say something like that to me it was it was really beautiful, but at the same time I was hearing what
he was saying and what he was saying is he doesn't want me to give up because I didn't get this one.
Now you know that was fine because we had a great conversation and I did take his words to heart
that I was going to keep applying there were other positions and you know time to move on. Now
what I didn't know was that behind the scenes he liked the interview so much that he went back to
the team that was actually hiring, he wasn't the one that I was going to be working with,
he was just the one interviewing um he went back to the team and they had a discussion and thanks
to that interview they decided that they would add on another position for a electronics intern
and then they would choose somebody else for the software position. So yes, I didn't get the
software position, however, they opened up another position for me so that I could come and have my
internship there as well so if you take anything away from this video please let it be that
a foot in the door is a foot in the door an opportunity is an opportunity and just
because an opportunity looks like maybe it's not what you're looking for doesn't mean that you
shouldn't give it your full 100 effort and energy because that's what I did and I was able to secure
my position out of nothing so of course actually this is another funny story so he calls me up
that same engineer and um I was sleeping. I was taking a nap and I remember I just saw the area
code for La Canada which is where jpl is located and I thought oh shoot! I think that's him so I
answer but I'm still kind of drowsy and I'm just like hello and um he tells me you know like they
really want to extend that position to me um he tells me a little bit about what it's going to be
how it's going to be an electronics position and I was still like, you know those naps where you wake
up and you don't even know what day it is, like you don't even know what dimension you're on,
that's the kind of nap I woke up from and I remember I kind of was just processing and I
guess I stayed quiet for a little bit too long because I just heard him go is that okay do you
accept and I was like oh yes I'm so sorry I yes yes yes yes thank you um and then we hang up and
I don't know I think I was just so excited but so terrified at the same time because this is just
you know everything I've been working for. Now when I told my parents because obviously
my mom has known all my life that I wanted to eventually work at nasa. I remember I
sat her down with my stepdad and I was with my husband, boyfriend at the time,
and we were like we have to tell you something and she thought I was gonna tell her that I
was pregnant and so she was just like and she really wants a grandchild so she was so excited
um so when I told her like no I got a position at nasa for an internship she was just like
so no baby and I was just like no no baby, nasa, nasa baby.
All right so that concludes this story time about how I got my internship now we're gonna get right
into the q a portion for this video. All right ignore my phone now some of these questions
I'm going to be answering in another video if it's a little bit more relevant in that video,
so I'm going to be looking through some of these choosing some and answering them now. Are there
any opportunities for international students? Yes there are a few different programs for
international students and I also have a list on my blog with different opportunities you can apply
for depending on your current level and status so I will link that down in the description,
check that out it's called opportunities in aerospace and I will also leave down there a
list of the different internships and programs you can apply for if you're an international student.
How do you get someone at nasa to review your resume? so the best and easiest way would be to go
to a conference that nasa is also attending. That is honestly, I think that's why I was able to get
my position because later on I found out that that person I spoke to at the shpe conference,
I forgot to mention this was that same person who emailed me and asked me for the interview so it
was the same man that I met at that conference who had separated my resume mark something on it
it was him so if you are really interested in nasa I would definitely recommend going to a conference
and speaking to someone and if you want someone to for example review your resume maybe let them
know if there's anything you can improve on it be honest with them and tell them hey can
you please let me know if there's anything here that's not too clear anything here I can improve
or is there anything that you're looking for that you don't see on my resume. They're people too. I
promise you they're really really nice the recruiters from jpl are so so kind and they
would love to do that for you. Here's another question, what was the interview process like?
Um so the interview process for an internship was I wouldn't say it was scary at all.
Um it was a phone interview and so I did have to find a quiet spot make sure that I had
enough service you know last thing I wanted was for my call to drop while I'm having an
interview. It was pretty short, I think it was maybe like 30 minutes um and we mostly spoke
about things on my resume my experience they had me talk about the projects I've been involved in
just explaining the complexity, the projects themselves, any difficulties I've had with them
and just kind of going a little bit deeper into my technical skills. There weren't really any
technical questions that I got that all came later during the actual internship.
So for the most part I'd say that it was actually a really pleasant experience and I really enjoyed
it but I do know that different groups work differently so when I was actually interviewing
for my intern because we had an intern for a summer well a few interns, we did ask them
a few technical questions but don't be afraid because some of the people we ended up hiring
didn't actually even know the answer what they did was they sent us an email a few hours later
with pictures of their textbooks and the answers written out saying thank you for this question
here are the answers. You know, I'm a really quick learner and I really wanted to thank you again for
your time. So that to us showed us that they were extremely proactive and that it doesn't really
matter if you don't know it now you're going to go and find out without me having to tell you
so keep that in mind. In the next video I'm going to talk about what my internship experience was
like. I didn't want this one to be too long so if you have any questions about that drop them down
we're going to talk about everything imposter syndrome feeling like you're not good enough,
feeling like you're not going to finish your project, how to communicate with your supervisors
how to communicate with other interns so all that good stuff we're going to talk about stay tuned
and thank you for watching. Please feel free to subscribe, feel free to like feel free to comment,
it really helps me out a lot. I know I've been absent for quite a bit but I'm going to
really really try to get back into it and I have a few new series that I'm going to
be starting some relating to electronics so stay tuned for that and thank you so much for
being here for watching and for supporting me it really helps a lot bye