[quahada]

Former aerospace, current iPhone app guy here. Each career path has its pros & cons. Working at a place like NASA or Lockheed lets you work on some very cool projects, often times you are working on some project that never sees the light of day (canceled due to budget cuts and what not). Also, the bureaucracy at large aerospace organizations can be stifling.

Having said that, Space X seems like it offers the best of both worlds.

[dchichkov]

I should have been slightly more precise, the advice was specifically about taking an internship in aerospace as a kid. I don't have any advice about having a career in aerospace industry... Haven't had one. I only had a short internship as a high school student at aero/space R&D company back in Russia. But that [aero/space R&D, not Russia ;)], I can highly recommend.

I think actually, a more general advice is to take an internship in any high tech industry area in which a cost of software or design failures is very, very high.