How One Dissenter Left Boeing
inkstickmedia.com
One young Boeing employee found himself in a St. Louis student encampment. One year later, he’s left the “moral gymnastics” of the defense industry behind.

Andrew*, a Washington University engineering student, was moving all too quickly through his senior year in 2022. He was painfully aware that soon he’d need a job. So he did the same thing as many of his classmates at the McKelvey School of Engineering: he signed on at Boeing. After a quick recruiting process — he didn’t have to leave campus to be interviewed — he was offered a job as a Quality Engineer, working in Boeing’s Berkeley plant, out in the North County suburbs in the shadow of Lambert St. Louis International Airport.

  • ZorsithEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    I very much spent a few years “developing the Death Star” as it were. And I don’t at all regret it. It was some of the most fulfilling research of my life and it taught me a lot of useful skills and has informed my life view. But I’ll also always remember what one of my mentors explained to me before putting me in for certain paperwork: Anyone with a soul turns to either activism or alcoholism. And… I am definitely a bit of column A and a bit of column B if you catch my drift.

    As someone actively working on getting out from “developing the death star”, you hit the nail on the head. I don’t regret having done the work, and i learned a lot, but I’m burnt out (mentally and emotionally) and its past time for me to leave.

    I wont begrudge someone taking the opportunity. Its a fantastic way to start in IT; get a SEC+ or NET+ cert, more or less guaranteed contractor job if you can get clearance. But it is absolutely still a deal with the devil, and you will get burned if you stick around too long.