Charles Player - College of Engineering - Purdue University

Undergraduate Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Graduate Institution: Old Dominion University 

Current Occupation/Sector: Principal Engineer 

What led you to pursue your current career sector? As a child I was interested in flight, and the higher, the faster, the better. Getting into aerospace was a natural extension of that. I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door via an internship, and have been able to pursue a rewarding career in government and industry working on satellites, reentry systems, and advancing enabling technologies. 

If you could give one piece of advice to graduate students exploring career options, what would it be? Keep an open mind and utilize all the opportunities to network and connect with others. I can point to multiple positions that I've had in my career that were unexpected off-ramps from what I planned to do. But, when the opportunities to do something "different" arose, I took those paths, and it has resulted in an interesting and rewarding career.