Peace, Love, and all that hippy stuff: robotics career outside the defense industry?

[Jared Russell]

I too had this dilemma. My own technical interests and proficiencies were highly convergent with those of the defense industry. My own ideology, on the other hand, was largely incompatible with the idea of working for the military.

Ultimately, I had a choice to make. Non-defense oriented opportunities were out there, but in general they were lower paying positions at fairly small (and therefore unstable) companies. In contrast, the defense industry is willing to pay you top dollar to ply your trade, and you know that the Boeings, Lockheeds, and BAEs of the world aren't going anywhere.

I eventually took a position doing applied research and development for a major defense contractor. The things I work on are generally far enough removed from the front line (think communications and intelligence) that I am able to live with myself at the end of the day. And many of the technologies that we work on may be funded by defense, but their applications will have far reaching consequences in the civilian sector as well. This is in contrast to one of the other places I interviewed where they showed me the bomb racks that I would be working on. Maybe it's just rationalization, but I think that the two situations are very different.

I guess what I'm saying is twofold:

1. Defense is a huge industry with many opportunities, deep pockets, and the ability to work on projects too advanced and/or expensive for other sectors.

2. Not all jobs in defense are equal.

Best of luck to you.

PS - I also should probably say that I am extremely happy with my job. I get to work on cutting edge projects with some of the best and brightest minds in the industry. Also know that even though our companies require that employees say things like "my opinion does not reflect the opinion of <my employer here>", likewise our employers don't necessarily reflect the opinions of their employees (at least at the non-executive level). I work in an office dominated by people of similar ideologies to mine.