No Place Like It - Anonymous employee SpaceX Employee Review

2.0
12 Aug 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- In all areas of the company, a person will find fast paced work, high expectations, creativity, brilliance and challenging work. You are pushed to be the best, beyond what you thought you were initially capable of. - Awards for hard work - Onsite restaurant, coffee and ice cream bar - Swag - Being part of history - Working with brilliant people

Cons

- If you are an engineer who is above average (exceptional to the outside world) you will do fine. If you are not an engineer, you don't count. - If you are not above average every moment of every day of every week of every month of every year, you will not be successful or find career satisfaction. Is SpaceX impacting history? Yes, it is. And, many of my coworkers paid/are paying the price and sacrificing their personal lives to reach "the dream." (We joke that we're the #1 cause for being single, break ups and divorces.) - Is it "cool" to work for Elon? Sure it is. He has vision and courage to impact the future. There's a price to pay for working for a "cool" company. - Designs/direction that keeps changing. Any small change has a ripple effect on each rocket produced and each launch that is scheduled. We had an awesome launch from VAFB. On time and flawless. Why change what worked? Yes, there is room for improvement but consistent perfection needs to happen first.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
30 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very open and cooperative culture Can-do mindset Break-through mindset

Cons

Weak HR with weak processes to protect employees Always on survival mode culture Less of training and more of performance management Some managers use review process as a weapon to bring people in-line

1
4.0
6 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You learn so much because the work is so freaking intense, its a lot of fun if you're the type of person who loves to get emerged in hard problems. The hours for me were not too bad but I was the exception, all the other interns I was with dealt with 60-70+ hour weeks, some interns came in at 10am and left at 12am, when I say its intense, I'm not joking. This is however very unique to the Starbase location. I've heard Hawthorne is a lot more chill. I honestly despite how challenging the role was always look back on it with a sense of pride in my work, and longing to be back there. It really does feel that you're doing world changing things.

Cons

Very un diverse upper management, I'd say the company is pretty diverse in the lower ranks, but once you start to look at the org chart and see who's in charge, you realize that its mainly just white people. Makes you wonder if as a person of color you too will be able to move up. Housing sucks: there was limited housing on campus for full time employees, you have to wait a year plus to get off the queue and once you're off you only really get tiny homes as the option that are in an inconvenient location. Interns don't even have the option to get on campus housing, they give you 3k in a housing stipend and expect you to find a place in Brownsville. I'd say its very hard to maintain a relationship while working here if you don't have an understanding partner, the work schedule is brutal and you really can't slack off.

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