What are the career prospects of studying metallurgy and material engineering?

How stringent are security clearance restrictions in the US/UK for working at Aerospace/Defence firms for a non-US/EU national?

• I am an Indian national currently studying Computer Science at one of the better schools in the UK and have had a long-standing interest in Aeronautical Engineering, in particular the fields of Aerodynamics, design and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). I made a hard decision to put my dream of studying AE on hold at university because I seemed to be stonewalled from a career perspective; everybody I spoke to and everywhere I looked, there was a myriad of restrictions that wouldn't even let me apply for internships/jobs, and if I could apply, I was told frankly I shouldn't expect to get a clearance for the "cooler", more advanced projects. Despite that, I still love AE and my current strategy is to read up as much as I can on the side from things like MIT OCW (any other resources for learning about CFD and applicational aerodynamics in general would be appreciated; I have a fairly decent Math and Physics background and I gobble up online courses I find interesting), and alongside look for the Aero angle in everything I do for e.g. I do a lot of robotics at school and have in fact started the only undergraduate robotics project/interest group there is and in that, I focus mostly on quadcopters not just because they're big right now but because I hope they'll give me the tiniest of insight into the flight dynamics themselves. For a management project, I single-handedly wrote a (admittedly quite high-level and surely with some gaps in knowledge) business proposal for an indigenous British UAV. I still harbour dreams of writing my own flight simulator, high-level as it may be, and I plan to get started on that during the summer. I've met others like me who are unsure about their prospects as well, and it seems quite difficult a thing to work around. As I see it, my options are to stay on in the UK for a while, get residency, and then apply for grad school/a PhD. However, I was looking to go to grad school in the US, so is there some way I can join a school in the US for a Masters in Aero and then get hired there? I've spoken to quite a few people about this only to come up against a brick wall, but that doesn't really bother me. I've actually been drafting an e-mail I plan to send to the Chairman of British Aerospace (BAe Systems) over the last couple of days about the situation and seeing if there's any wiggle room not from an individual standpoint, but as a means to alleviate the problem to as great an extent as possible for everybody out there who has to give up on their dreams just because they were born in the wrong place (yes, I have some degree of contempt for immigration rules in general, but that's a debate for another time). Essentially, I'd really appreciate a chance to get an insider opinion on what the situation's really like and just arm myself with enough information moving forward. I may mention (not quote, mention) some of it in future correspondence I send to execs at firms, but if you let me know I shouldn't, I'll gladly accept.

• Answer:

  It sounds like at least one of your limitations is self-imposed. One is that you're studying computer science and not aerospace, or even mechanical engineering. Most defense firms have strict requirements on who they're looking for, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for them to hire someone as a computational fluid dynamicist when that person doesn't have the appropriate academic or work background. Needless to say, writing software and CFD have little in common except that you use computers for both. CFD is actually more akin to computer aided design than programming. Your second limitation has nothing to do with the companies themselves, but their customers. Government contracts for defense work usually specify what type of person the company allowed to assign to a project. The reason you are seeing job postings open only to citizens is because they couldn't hire you even if they wanted to; their hands are tied. One reason for this, which isn't so obvious, is it ensures that locals, veterans, and other preferred groups get hired before anyone else. Aerospace jobs are not exactly plentiful, but they are sought after (even though the pay is not usually that great). Basically, it is an elegant way for politicians to put money back into the pockets of their constituents. Emailing the CEO of BAE won't get you anywhere, as he's not the cause of this problem and he won't have any solutions besides, perhaps, suggesting that you first become a citizen. But even if you did become a citizen, that would be only one less hurdle, because then you might not necessarily pass the background checks that some projects require of prospective employees. Like many of us, at some point you will have to decide whether it is worth gambling your time by pursuing advanced degrees in something that doesn't really have the payoff you expect, versus leveraging your talents into something you can use to build a better future for yourself. Aerospace jobs are a lot more mundane than you might think. I advise you to keep pursuing aviation as an amateur (like your RC aircraft and flight simulators), but never to try to convert this passion into a means of making money, because you will surely lose the joy and wonder that you have now. Good luck with your future endeavors.