Awesome, for a period of time... - Structures Designer SpaceX Employee Review

4.0
Oct 17, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to be an important part of and full on own lots of extremely important and projects. Lots of pride comes with being the only person to have cartooned, analyzed and designed a$100,000 piece of spaceship or rocket, especially coming straight out of college. I know for a fact i wont have this level of impact or responsibility at any other company. parts I've made and designed are in youtube videos with millions of views and fans. It definitely boosts your ego a bit...

Cons

This place takes whatever you're willing to give for as long as you're willing to give it and will always ask for more. The high energy, super positive reviews are almost always from new employees, and the super negative reviews are almost always from burnt out or fired employees. In reality, this place is awesome and there's no other company like it in the world. period. However, you WILL burn out eventually. some people make it 5+ years, some only make it a year. Everyone's tolerance is different but if you're able to force yourself not to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week you'll be able to last a long time and probably enjoy most of it. I dont think there could have been a more rewarding or exciting job i could have gotten right out of school. Pay is tricky, on one hand the salary is very average for aerospace (maybe below average, 75-85K for structures, prop, general engineering undergrad) but you do get stock awards vested over 5 years. joining the company now you dont get many and the tax you have to pay to receive all of them is generally out of reach of your salary so you need to trade stock for tax, but its still a nice forced savings account type of investment. Also raises are between 0-3%, with 4 or 5% given to very few people, they're normally every year but last year we went 18 months with out a raise so its not consistent.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
Jul 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The vision No desk jobs here Powerful company with determined employees Pays below avg and for full time employees and extract as many hours as they can

Cons

Long hours can be challenging if you don’t have a good manager or understanding partner Stocks are good Vacation starts with 3 week/year On site food is not bad Sabbatical at 5 years

5.0
Jun 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* **Unmatched Mission & Impact:** You are literally working on rockets and spacecraft. The cool factor is 10/10. * **Brilliant Coworkers:** You will be surrounded by some of the smartest, most driven engineers in the world. * **Insane Career Growth:** SpaceX on your resume is a golden ticket. You will learn more here in 3 months than in 3 years at a normal company. * **Hands-on Experience:** They actually trust interns with real, critical hardware. No boring coffee-fetching tasks.

Cons

**Cons:** * **Zero Work-Life Balance:** 70-80 hours a week is the norm, not the exception. Say goodbye to your social life and sleep. * **Extreme Burnout:** The "hustle culture" is toxic. You are expected to treat the company as your entire life. * **Mediocre Pay:** The hourly pay is average, especially when you factor in the insane hours and the high cost of living in LA/Hawthorne. * **Chaotic Management:** Decisions can change overnight based on whatever Elon Musk tweets or feels like doing that morning.

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