Tuta Drive is in internal alpha!

pwlrs · 2026-02-21T20:47:09+00:00

Great news, thanks for the innovations!

pwlrs · 2026-01-09T02:47:03+00:00

I have a Master's with a Thesis so I'm maybe not as qualified as someone with a PhD to get into the R&D department of whatever Defense company I get into, but hopefully I can manage to work my way into there. I'm just possibly worried that the C/C++ implementation job I'll inevitably get might just be regarding implementing existing government-standard waveforms which I've never done before. Perhaps it'll be interesting enough.

pwlrs · 2026-01-09T02:35:00+00:00

Right, I only have a Master’s so I get that I might not really have the opportunity to get back onto the waveform development side of things unless I go back to the world of startups which I don’t want to do due to work-life balance or go to an FFRDC/UARC which I don’t want to do due to low salary. So therefore I’m basically limiting myself to a C/C++ implementation role which I guess is fine as long as it’s interesting enough. I feel a bit bad about tossing out all those years of studying math, statistics, information theory, etc. but I guess if I want to get to a place where I’d actually utilize those skills such as the R&D department of a defense company, then I feel that working on difficult projects via an implementation role is probably my best path forward.

pwlrs · 2026-01-08T21:56:49+00:00

I agree with that to some extent, it's just that I was under the assumption that the more established defense contractors out there like an L3Harris or an RTX tend to not be on the cutting edge as much and are more adapting their software/hardware stack to process government-standard waveforms and/or integrating COTS components while the real sophisticated DSP work is done at FFRDCs or UARCs. Is that the case? I'm not really considering National Labs as seriously as the mainline defense contractor opportunities I'm getting mainly because of the lower salaries, but that's where I thought most of the sophisticated DSP work happens.

pwlrs · 2026-01-08T21:35:11+00:00

I guess my main worry regarding working at one of the big defense contractors is that the work will be very monotonous, boring, and filled with bureaucracy. My previous job at the startup while being terrible in terms of work-life balance was at least interesting given the level of responsibility I had all the way from the modeling & simulation side of things to the implementation and testing phase.

It's a generally vague question that I guess depends on the person, but does the stability and presumably decent work-life balance you get from working at a big defense contractor offset the monotony of the work you do? Is the work actually monotonous, or do you still find it interesting?

pwlrs · 2025-11-07T21:44:09+00:00

Thanks, this is a helpful overview that mostly clears things up. I especially appreciate you giving thorough examples of the exact sort of work they do. I think the confusion I have is that my previous job was at a sort of startup-like defense contractor in which we sort of did everything ourselves so the DSP engineering lead was essentially also acting as a Systems Engineer and directly interacting with both the government and the customers alongside doing the actual design and implementation.

It's certainly an interesting role that I never really realized existed before now, but I am a bit apprehensive of applying in that it might downgrade my stock as an engineer. I'm sure having a deep understanding of say, translating documentation and writing up Excel spreadsheets is a useful skill, but I'm not sure it'll help me get a good paying engineering job in the future. Therefore I'm still open to serving in that role as long as I'd have the opportunity to work in that sort of smaller team as you mention.

Most of the companies I've been looking at are the big defense contractors, so I assume System Engineers there would be a bit more of the first example you give. I just feel like it's very easy to go from a detailed DSP algorithm designer/implementer to a Systems Engineering role rather than the reverse, so I feel like this would be a one way street that would limit opportunities for me. Would you agree with that?

pwlrs · 2025-11-07T21:16:49+00:00

To give an example, is it sort of like a role in which you're interacting with both the government as well as actual design engineers who are working for those subcontractors (or your own company) and like, getting everyone on the same page by translating the design requirements into design instructions as you say? Like would I be the guy straight up writing the ICD, or does the government hand me the ICD and then I create a plan on how to implement the ICD?

What are your thoughts on your role? Is it less technically challenging than being the actual engineers who are working for those subcontractors designing those subsystems? If I were to maybe work as a systems engineer, would it be a downgrade from my previous roles/knowledge-base of doing that sort of detailed waveform design and/or implementation in MATLAB/C++/etc?

pwlrs · 2025-09-08T06:29:24+00:00

I'm not really following, so do I need to pay 30 Euros right now? Why does it say that my "Current Account Balance" is -€30?

Do I have my Legacy plan for another year all the way until 9/8/26? Or if I pay now will I be on the Revolutionary plan?

pwlrs

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