Recent BS in Comp Sci graduate looking to get into fusion

In summary, the person is from Texas and has been successful in getting a degree despite having struggled in the past. They are now looking to pursue a career in fusion research, but are unsure of where to start. They are open to advice on either option 1 or option 2.f
  • #1
Hi all, per the title I'm looking for career advice on getting into fusion. Whether that is working at a fusion company or doing research in the field.

The university I graduated from was the best I could get into at the time, due to the poor grades I left there with (~2.5 GPA) from 06-08.

I returned there in spring 2019 to resume my studies and averaged a 3.82 over the next 5 semesters while living out of my car (PTSD and money issues). Although my goal since returning has been to work in fusion, I stuck with CS to complete my degree before my GI Bill benefits ran out. To finish in time I was also taking pretty difficult course loads 3 semesters in a row, with 5 courses (3 of which were CS, not engineering/physics level difficulty, but often huge programming workloads for each).

I don't think I have the physics/engineering background to get a job with a fusion company, even though I know software engineering is useful pretty much everywhere these days.

My current thoughts are to either:

1) Try and email fusion companies with my admittedly meh resume and a thorough cover letter explaining my high levels of motivation to work my ass off and be an asset however I can.

2) Return to university for a 2nd bachelors in either physics (knowing I would need to work to a PhD) or mechanical engineering (maybe less likely to need grad school).

I'm from Texas originally and with the Hazelwood Act I could attend any Texas public university I get accepted to tuition free for up to 150 hours now that I've used up my GI Bill. So money isn't a huge obstacle in returning to university.

Thanks for reading, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
  • #2
I returned there in spring 2019 to resume my studies and averaged a 3.82 over the next 5 semesters
Well done, and thank you for your service. Sorry to hear about the PTSD, and I hope you have good resources to help you with that. (If not, please PM me by clicking on my avatar and "Start a conversation")

So is your goal to write simulation software in fusion research?
 
  • #3
Well done, and thank you for your service. Sorry to hear about the PTSD, and I hope you have good resources to help you with that. (If not, please PM me by clicking on my avatar and "Start a conversation")

Thank you and I appreciate that. Part of the problem has been an 8 year disability appeal with the VA that thankfully was resolved in my favor December of last year. I've been avoiding therapy as the 8 or so that I've been to in the past haven't been very helpful. I know I need to keep looking for someone I do like, life has just been very unstable these past few years.

So is your goal to write simulation software in fusion research?

I would enjoy doing that or writing embedded software for the machinery controls/sensors. I really just want to be involved.
 
  • #4
Well done, and thank you for your service. Sorry to hear about the PTSD, and I hope you have good resources to help you with that. (If not, please PM me by clicking on my avatar and "Start a conversation")

So is your goal to write simulation software in fusion research?
Probably should have you used the quote function so you'd get notified instead of just using quotes in-line haha.
 

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