Fancy a space career? Go after Jeffrey Gorissen!
Describe a typical day at your job
On a typical day I have quite some variations. As the YGT for Gravity-Related Experiments for University Students, I follow up on the teams from the Your Thesis! programme. These are Spin, Drop, Fly and Orbit Your Thesis! It ranges from reading proposals, organizing meetings, going over documentation, verifying the feasibility of experiments, to ensuring milestones and deadlines are kept. In short, I interact with students and platform experts to provide the students with an as close as possible approach to the professional versions of these experiments.
What’s the coolest part of your job?
The campaigns, during a campaign the students execute their experiment after a year worth of preparations. This is the moment where all comes together. It’s also a nice break from the ‘regular’ office days. The coolest of them is probably the Fly Your Thesis! campaign. During this campaign parabolic flights are performed with Novespace’s A310 resulting in about 22 seconds of weightlessness per parabola.
Are there any elements of your job that you dislike?
Not really, I really enjoy my job. When studying I always had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. My interests are very broad, which led me to engineering. The experiments students come up with can vary a lot from each other. We see experiments from all fields of expertise, Life sciences, fundamental science, engineering,…
How did you get your current job?
Before applying to be a YGT, I participated within the Orbit Your Thesis! programme myself. During my master’s I was part of the OSCAR-QUBE team and together we put a payload on the International Space Station (ISS). With this I found the courage to pursue a career in the space industry and applied for a YGT position at ESA ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
What subjects did you take in school/college and how have these influenced your career path?
In high school I followed sciences-maths with 6 hours of maths. My first two years at university I did Physics, but I switched to Electronics-ICT which I followed up with a master’s degree in industrial engineering technology with a focus on Electronics-ICT. I always wanted to know a lot about everything. So, I tried to follow an educational path that would teach me skills from more than just one specific field. Having a broad knowledge makes it easy to connect with all kinds of projects that students come up with.
What non-technical skills are necessary for your job?
Communication skills are important in any job, but especially in an international organisation like ESA. On a daily basis I interact with people from all over the world. In addition, being able to work in teams of people is also needed. And to ensure you can make everything run as planned it is always good to have some project management experience.
I always thought it would be impossible to pursue a job in the space industry but yet I am here.
What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?
I am still early on in my career, but the most rewarding event was going on a parabolic flight during the Fly Your Thesis! campaign of October 2021. I got to join on 2 of the 3 flights, meaning I got to be weightless for 62 times and each time was about 22 seconds. It is an experience to never forget.
What do you expect to be the biggest challenges/changes someone in your role will face in the coming 10 years and do you have any advice on how to tackle them?
Ik denk dat de grootste uitdaging in de komende jaren de sterk groeiende interesse in de ruimtevaartindustrie zal zijn, niet enkel in landen en bedrijven, maar ook aan universiteiten, scholen en bij studenten die willen deelnemen aan een ruimtevaartprogramma. Zeker die zeer praktisch gerichte projecten zoals diegene die ik begeleid zullen heel wat interesse blijven wekken aangezien de groeiende ruimtevaartindustrie voortdurend op zoek is naar mensen met een grondige achtergrond en knowhow in de ruimtevaartwetenschappen. We zijn nu al aan het zoeken naar zoveel mogelijk manieren om het educatieve luik van ESA bij zoveel mogelijk mensen verspreid te krijgen.
What is your dream job?
That is a really difficult question. I am still orientating a bit. But I do want to stay in the educational team of ESA, if possible. I thought about doing an educational master after my master’s in engineering, so I am currently doing something I was dreaming about already. It is amazing to combine education and space into one and the same career.
What advice would you give to someone considering this job? Are there, for example, important personal characteristics or good work experiences they can undertake?
I always thought it would be impossible to pursue a job in the space industry but yet I am here. As long as you love what you do and enjoy putting in the work you can become everything you want to be. For sure, it is not always easy, but that is part of what makes you the person you need to be.