Born and raised in Dallas, Sergeant knew he wanted to pursue a career in aerospace at an early age through his father who was an engineer working at Vought. His father never pressured him into working in the aerospace industry but he grew up with it and became interested in aircrafts. When Sergeant was in 9th grade, he changed his trajectory to become an EE major after he took an electric shop class and was inspired by rising stars Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. However, later in his high school career, he realized that electrical engineering is too detailed, and he was more of a macro-view person. He decided to pursue aerospace in college. He began his journey into the industry through college and working at Lovefield airport, based on his brother’s advice.

As briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, Sergeant entered into aerospace through education and summer work experience. He worked at Lovefield Airport, Addison Airport, and Vought as a summer hire. Interns at the time were not a common hiring practice at the time. When he started working at his summer job, he did manual labor work such as cutting grass and whatever was required. However, just being near airplanes, he learned a lot about aviation from being able to visit the hangars and talk to more experienced workers. With his summer experiences, he began helping to fix flat tires on aircraft and eventually helped the Navy design missiles to transition to his long-time work at Lockheed as a Flight Test Engineer.

Sergeant’s most meaningful and exciting project for him has been the ability to work on the X-35.  The project was organized, and he was able to be highly involved in the project. He was able to work on planning, write proposals, prototype, and perform tests for the X-35.  He was also able to test-fly in F-16 reconnaissance and the YF-22 as part of testing features for the X-35. The project resonated with him because he was able to work in the whole design cycle of the fighter jet, analyze its life-cycle, and learn from experienced design engineers. Some of his favorite moments were being able to work with General Dynamics engineers who had experience and craftsmanship from working on the B-58, F-111, and B-36. With the ability to collaborate with GD engineers, Sergeant would work with them to look at footage of test crashes to learn from it to save lives and correct issues on the project for the X-35.

One of the major challenges that Sergeant has faced throughout his career is working with people. There are always technical challenges, but working with people and bringing them together is a difficult task. Scheduling and collaborating with differentiating energy levels, work presence, personalities, and hidden baggage that people carry can make it challenging to make an efficient and content team. With a multitude of different factors affecting teamwork, it turns affects logistics. Logistics was a big issue because hundreds of different parts and tools are required to build the plane. Upper management worked out any money issues. Putting together a good team is highly important to flight test engineers. Problems can only be overcome by working together and getting to know one another. Thankfully, Sergeant had great mentors to help him overcome challenges with assembling a team and technical problems, such as overheating of the X-35. 

Working as a flight test engineer controller is very stressful, and the stress levels accumulate. Sergeant had to learn how to cycle off and take necessary breaks, regardless of being asked sometimes to continue a task. He has lost several friends during X-35 flight tests, including a photographer in the F-16 incident. It's important to him to take breaks when needed, but to also be 100% focused on a task to avoid fatal accidents and ensure safety. He also recommends peer support programs to be able to move forward and be motivated. People react to stress differently, and it's important to support them.

Some key qualities that Sergeant has seen to be best for his workplace culture are the ability to work in a team environment, staying focused, and being selfless. Learning to sacrifice credit and ego to promote the betterment of the team and the movement of the project overall.

In general, one of the common mistakes that Sergeant notices in newcomers is the inability to work well in a team setting. However, in a flight-test setting specifically, common mistakes are inaccurate and imprecise work. It's important for flight test engineers to have accuracy and perfection in their work because it's not just a task that needs to be done. It's a task that could get someone killed if it is done incorrectly. He recommends younger grads to check their work multiple times and not rely on their boss to check their work for them. An example of inaccuracy with work can be seen with the B1 Bomber accident.

Based on the Sergeant’s experience, cross-functional team coordination is quite poor on major projects due to the introverted personalities of engineers. Engineers don’t like to reach out and coordinate things, or may have a “Sheldon-type” personality. A good cross-functional team listens to its team members and creates a compromise to get things done more efficiently. Furthermore, a central network for communication is key. Having a bunch of emails and meetings does not improve performance or progress on a project if there is no central connection. The central connection can also change depending on the project; there is no one-size-fits- all scenario.

Sergeant has seen that timeliness, responsiveness, accuracy, and clear communication are all behaviors that leadership values on his team. Giving small feedback on little things is always greatly appreciated because it gives a clear response to the other person. For example, the Vice President of Lockheed always gives Sergeant clear communication signals such as “ I have to take a quick call” or “Hey, it's going to take a little longer”. He values this because it lets him know what is going on. 

For someone trying to build a career in aerospace, Sergeant suggests doing professional studies, but also just going out there and doing something in your field. Do something that goes beyond just studying the material. He also suggests joining professional societies such as AIAA.