JPL Engineer Sees an Uncertain Future in the Stars

Today, as the spacecraft Galileo swoops past Jupiter’s volcano-ridden moon Io collecting images and scientific data, few will be as mesmerized by the close encounter as La Verne resident Eileen Clark. The 49-year-old space buff is a mission operations analyst at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. She trouble-shoots the Galileo project, anticipating problems before they occur.

Clark loves her job. In fact, she’d be thrilled to remain at JPL for years to come. But because of government space program cutbacks, JPL, the nation’s leading center for robotic exploration of the solar system, has been forced to drastically reduce its employee count. Already, it’s eliminated nearly 2,000 positions, most of which were held by highly skilled personnel, says Alice Fairhurst, JPL’s career development coordinator.

Through no fault of her own, Clark finds her $56,000-a-year job at risk. Like others faced with the prospect of downsizing, she has to make hard choices. Should she wait for the proverbial shoe to drop? Or should she explore other vocational options?

“I have a certain amount of hope about staying at JPL,” says Clark. “But I know I may have to look outside too. There are probably fields and directions that haven’t even occurred to me yet and specialties that have arisen in recent years I’m not aware of.”

Clark consulted with two professionals about her predicament. Fairhurst, an in-house certified career coach, had knowledge about JPL’s employment situation and could take Clark through a series of tests to help her pinpoint skills that would translate to other fields. Barbara Sher, a career counselor and author of several self-help books, could suggest creative paths for Clark to explore.

Fairhurst assured Clark that she wasn’t on any current layoff lists, but added: “We tell people here three things: to make the most of their current situation, to have a backup plan and to have a dream. It doesn’t mean [Eileen] won’t have employment here, but the probabilities are shrinking. Support for mission planners is beginning to fade.”

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Indeed, JPL’s approach to space projects is rapidly changing. It’s outsourcing more work while tackling shorter, more intensive in-house projects that might last only a few months, says Jo-Ann Ruffolo, a career counselor at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. After completing these newer short-term assignments, JPL team members could find themselves between jobs, unless they were able to scramble onto another project.

Clark doesn’t see herself as a consultant or freelancer. She’d like a long-term commitment from an employer who appreciates her talents. But, as Fairhurst notes, highly skilled specialists like Clark have a deep-space focus that’s hard to shift to other industries. That’s why Fairhurst suggested that Clark develop additional skills to make her more salable in the marketplace.

Months ago, heeding Fairhurst’s advice, Clark enrolled in a geographic information systems (GIS) certificate program at Cal State Long Beach so she could become adept at “smart mapping”--computerized cartography that allows users to layer data onto maps. But Clark wonders whether she can find employment in this field and whether she’d be happy immersed in it full time.

“I have supreme confidence that she’ll do well at whatever she chooses,” Fairhurst said. “Eileen is a complex problem solver. What she needs is someone to give her a really good puzzle to solve.”

Barbara Sher asked Clark to dream, to temporarily abandon pragmatism while fantasizing about desirable work.

Clark complied. She visualized a great long-term job at JPL (similar to her present job). She imagined winning the lottery, then using her windfall to finance worthy science projects. She fantasized about quick commutes to work along breathtaking outdoor paths. And Clark, a dedicated marathon runner and triathlete who took up running after recovering from an aneurysm 10 years ago, said she wouldn’t mind being able to continue her long lunchtime runs.

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Based on Clark’s responses, Sher raised a series of hypotheticals: Could Clark invent a new position for herself at JPL--perhaps consulting? The freelancer’s life didn’t appeal to her. Could she do GIS at the lab? JPL already employed another company for that, Clark said. Might Clark transfer to another department? Maybe, Clark said, but competition was white-hot for a limited number of positions. Clark’s skills as an attitude and articulation control system analyst couldn’t transfer well to most other company areas. On top of this, Clark, who lacks an advanced degree, would be up against PhDs and “post-docs” for employment.

It looked as if creating a dream job at a tightly budgeted, government-regulated, downsized organization was not a likely prospect.

Sher tried one more tack. What about another space-oriented outfit? Might Clark be able to land a job elsewhere? This was a remote possibility. Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center employed people with Clark’s skills. But the division currently had no openings. Orbital Sciences Corp.’s space systems group also uses analysts like Clark, but only at its East Coast sites, says Robert Hertel, senior vice president and general manager of Orbital’s sensor systems division in Pomona.

Sher asked Clark, What did you do before working at JPL? What interests do you have outside work? Maybe there was something in Clark’s past or present that could become her future.

Before Clark’s 12-year engagement at JPL, she enjoyed a career as a costume and prop designer, staging exhibits for theme parks and, in one case, a museum. She graduated from UCLA in 1971 with a bachelor’s in environmental design. Craving science’s challenge, however, she eventually drifted away from theatrical design.

“Did you like that work?” Sher asked.

“Oh yes,” said Clark. “But I don’t know who does that or whether there are any jobs around for it.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Sher said. “There’s a wonderful color in your voice when you talk about it. You’re editing possibilities too quickly. You’re being too well-behaved in your thinking.”

Two Los Angeles County museums--the California Science Center and the Museum of Natural History--employ designers. Earning between $20,000 and $60,000 a year, they research a variety of subjects before explaining them as simply as possible through exhibits that strive to be seductive and entertaining.

“And durable,” adds Barbara Punt, director of exhibit project management at the California Science Center. “We’ve had over 2 million visitors since we opened last year. That’s 20 million fingers touching these exhibits.”

At the Science Center, which is gearing up to tackle $200 million worth of projects over the next seven years, exhibit designers, fabricators and others seek to explain scientific phenomena through interactive exhibits, says Punt. The nearby Museum of Natural History’s design staff works such educational exhibits as “Bears: Imagination and Reality,” which opened Saturday, and temporary and permanent displays of the museum’s collection, which numbers nearly 30 million objects.

“People come into this because they love the field, certainly not because of the money,” says Dan Danzig, special exhibits manager at the Museum of Natural History.

“My job is so unusual, I look forward to Mondays,” agrees Robert Reid, who’s been a background painter and muralist at the museum for 15 years.

Several of the Museum of Natural History’s design staff, including model maker Dave Cellitti, are deep in planning “The Tiniest Giants,” an exhibit featuring real and replica dinosaur eggs, baby dinosaurs and a nest. Staff at the Science Center are constructing videos, sets and a stage for “Magic: The Science of Illusion” (opening in July), which will explore how magicians use math, physics, anthropology and psychology to create their shows.

Clark was intrigued by the possibility of doing museum design. Representatives of both museums invited her to visit their exhibit departments. Impressed by Clark’s diverse art and science background, a higher-up at the California Science Center also requested her resume.

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Clark shouldn’t rule out geographic information systems while searching for career direction, says Susan Macey, associate professor at Southwest Texas State University, which has one of the country’s top-ranked undergraduate geography programs. Macey provided Clark with a list of Web sites that advertise GIS jobs.

“There’s a shortage of trained people in GIS right now,” Macey says. “In fact, the amount of poaching that goes on is phenomenal.”

Over the last few years, GIS has evolved into a formidable $1-billion worldwide market, according to a report in Utility Business, a trade publication.

This smart-map technology has almost limitless uses, experts say. For example, law enforcement uses it to coordinate search-and-rescue efforts. Health officials employ GIS to track disease outbreaks. Department store chains use it to choose new locations. And Internet surfers unknowingly encounter GIS when they generate destination maps.

“I love the visual abstraction of these maps,” Clark says. “And I enjoy working with the software, which is extremely intuitive and easy to use.”

So what should this mission planner do next? “My advice to Eileen is to ride Galileo out until the very end,” Ruffolo says. “But plan. Be prepared for the next step. . . . And remember during the difficult moments that every transition begins with an ending.”

Adds Sher, “She just needed reassurance that the things she enjoys are worth looking into. She has great skills, she knows what she loves, but she wasn’t giving them enough weight.”

Now, perhaps, Eileen Clark will be emboldened to take her next step. For this talented, inquisitive spacecraft analyst, the sky’s not the limit; the universe is.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ready for a Change

Name: Elleen Clark

Current Occupation: Spacecraft analyst

Desired Occupation: Spacecraft analyst or related scientific vocation.

Quote: “All I ask of a job is that it be able to pay my expenses (and allow me) to feel that I am making a difference. . .

Counselor’s recommendation: Museum exhibit designer or geographic information systems specialist

Meet the Coach

Barbara Sher is a New York-based career counselor and author of five bestselling books, including “Wishcraft: How To Get What You Really Want” (Ballatine Books, 1986), which sold more than 1 million copies: “It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now: How to Create Your Second Life at Any Age” (Detacorte Press, 1999); and, “Live the Life You Love in 10 Easy Step-by-Step Lessons” (Bantam Doubleday Deli, 1997), which won the Best Motivational Book of the Year award from the Books for a Better Life Award Commission