Military Space Operators and the problem of translating skills

Posted on by John Holst

Here it is, another post of mine right here on Clearancejobs.com.  It’s essentially about the problem of identifying skills certain space operators might have, if they’ve experienced space broadly.  A bit of a paragraph for you, but you’ll have to go there to read the rest:

“Skills translation is a tough job in any industry. Military skills translation for transitioning vets can be even more cumbersome. Hiring managers, the ones staffing space operations teams, might approach the task of who they hire with what they know.  If a program or hiring manager representing the company is one of those space operators who never conducted operations then the company is blind to the other potential space operators out there.  How does one increase the chances of becoming the clear choice in the land of the blind?…“

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Published by John Holst

Ill-Defined Space is written by me, John Holst. ​If you’ve ever asked the following question, “What is this commercial space industry thing?” then welcome to my world. I will never have the answer to that question, but I do offer insights based on my industry experience and observations. I’ve tried defining, decrypting, deciphering, analyzing, and then translating the endless stream of the world’s space industry activities, policies, and press releases. I’ve experienced varying degrees of success in my attempts to do so. The upshot is that if you want thoughtful, occasionally useful, observations about the world’s space industry, then you may want to read my analyses. Boring, but potentially credibility-building information follows: I have a Master’s in Commercial Enterprise in Space through the Florida Institute of Technology. I was an undergrad at the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating from there with a degree in Journalism. My analysis of the space industry has been a definitive source for national lawmakers and departments, news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the San Francisco Chronicle, publications like National Geographic, and National Public Radio. It’s been published in The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity from 2014-2023 (here’s a link to a 1Q19 promo copy). You can also see my work in Quilty Analytic’s series of LEO Broadband Reports. ​ I’ve worked in the United States Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, Cobham, Space Dynamics Laboratory, the Space Foundation, and Quilty Analytics. I focused on space operations in the first few and conducted space industry research and analysis with the last two.