Ariel Waldman

I was really into design and art.

And so I went to art school and got my degree in design and worked in advertising for many years, which I loved because it was really creative.

And then very unexpectedly, I was watching a documentary about NASA many years ago.

And they were talking to these guys at NASA about how they were figuring out how to send humans into space for the very first time.

And they were talking about how they didn't know anything about spacecrafts or rockets or orbits.

They were having to figure it out.

And I became so inspired by this that I was like, well, I don't know anything about space exploration and I want to work at NASA.

And so I sent someone at NASA a random email and I said I was a fan, never expected to hear back.

Ended up getting a job at NASA from that email.

What?

Yeah.

Utterly, completely changed my life.

How good was this email?

It was not that great.

It was just like, hey, I'm a fan.

If you guys ever need like a volunteer or something, like, let me know.

I was a fan for like all of two weeks at that point.

And they replied to me and they're like, oh, we just posted a job description today you might be interested in.

And it read like my resume at the time.

They were looking for someone who had no experience at NASA because they wanted someone to help translate between communities inside and outside of NASA to collaborate.