Interested in hearing opinions about this

[Xyius]

Hey all!
Just wanted to hear some thoughts about this.
My girlfriends sister currently works at NASA. I am not exactly sure what she does, something with cooling liquid nitrogen to temperatures at almost absolute zero. The thing is, she doesn't have a science degree. In fact she was picked over Physics majors who applied for the same job after college. (She was a womans studies major.) She however did do lab work in astronomy in college and was a TA for an astronomy class.

My question is, why would NASA pick her over Physics majors? Could it be solely based on her experience in the lab? I feel like a student with a Physics degree must have the same if not more lab work. I feel like the job must not require an extensive knowledge of physics otherwise they would have picked someone with a degree in Physics.

Don't get me wrong, I think its great she works for NASA. But I keep imagining myself in the Physics majors shoes who also applied for that job. (I AM a physics major, not done with school yet though :p )

[AwesomeSN]

She slept with her boss?

On a more serious note, the only thing that could come to my mind is over-qualification? It happens

[Darken-Sol]

when i hire guys to run a crew they want to be paid well. i can hire monkeys to pick up garbage and pay them peanuts.

[JaredJames]

Yep, DS seems to have it I think.

Why hire someone who expects to be paid highly for the work after a degree when you can get someone to do the same job, for a lower cost? Especially if the job isn't technical.

[Evo]

Many of the people that work at NASA actually work for contractors. She possibly has a technical job.

[DaveC426913]

Hey all!
Just wanted to hear some thoughts about this.
My girlfriends sister currently works at NASA. I am not exactly sure what she does, something with cooling liquid nitrogen to temperatures at almost absolute zero. The thing is, she doesn't have a science degree. In fact she was picked over Physics majors who applied for the same job after college. (She was a womans studies major.) She however did do lab work in astronomy in college and was a TA for an astronomy class.

My question is, why would NASA pick her over Physics majors? Could it be solely based on her experience in the lab? I feel like a student with a Physics degree must have the same if not more lab work. I feel like the job must not require an extensive knowledge of physics otherwise they would have picked someone with a degree in Physics.

Don't get me wrong, I think its great she works for NASA. But I keep imagining myself in the Physics majors shoes who also applied for that job. (I AM a physics major, not done with school yet though :p )
This is idle speculation. Find out what her role is. Then we'll figure out if some Physics major is better qualified.

[Xyius]

It's hard for me to find out exactly what she does, I do not get much chances to talk to her and my girlfriend doesn't really know either. All I know is she works at Colby Labs at the NASA in Washington and she uses liquid helium to study things at very cold temperatures. :\

[lisab]

It's hard for me to find out exactly what she does, I do not get much chances to talk to her and my girlfriend doesn't really know either. All I know is she works at Colby Labs at the NASA in Washington and she uses liquid helium to study things at very cold temperatures. :\

Dave's right, there's no way to know if she's under or even over qualified for her job. There's a lot of routine, tedious tasks involved in lab work. Her job could be something like:

Take samples from point A, move them to point B.
Repeat until quitting time.

[DaveC426913]

It's hard for me to find out exactly what she does,

Right, so it is folly to judge or worry. Unless and until things change, she's not taking anyone's job.