[Matt Leese]

In many ways suprising to myself, I've never gotten a job through FIRST (although it almost got me an interview one time; Delphi never got around to calling me back after they said they wanted to interview me). My current job at Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems (I start full time on December 9) I got through the career fair.

About two years ago, when I was looking for a coop, I went to the Boeing booth towards the end of the career fair and talked to one of the recruiters. I gave my little spiel about my invovlement in FIRST and I was asked why I wanted to work for Boeing. My answer was simple: I always wanted to be an astronaut, never really got over it, and now I wanted to work on space craft. Apparently, despite the fact that the poster Boeing brings has a picture of the Space Shuttle on it, very few people know Boeing makes space craft. About six months later, at 9 PM, I got a phone call asking if I wanted to do a 7 month coop in Seal Beach, CA. After some thought (they only gave me two days), I accepted and dutifully traveled west. At the end of my coop, I was offered a full time position which I accepted.

I'm currently sitting in Long Beach, CA waiting to start work on December 9. I never realized everything that has to be done to move (even if you get lots of it taken care of by your company!).

Matt