Very low pay, long hours, no ability to move up due to biased review process - Manufacturing Specialist SpaceX Employee Review

2.0
Mar 9, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mostly decent people on the team.

Cons

If you want to make $70,000 as an engineer in Los Angeles with a graduate degree while working 12 hour days, SpaceX is perfect for you. (Twelve hours is low-balling it. Most of my colleagues easily work 15-16 hours per day, every day. Many come in on Saturdays and/or Sundays as well. Depending on your team, Saturday or Sunday work can be mandatory.) Meanwhile, you will be expected to deliver to the moon and back. Targets are always increasing every week to unreasonable heights, forcing people to do more and more work. Reviews are unreasonable, with some of the best performing people getting some of the worst reviews from managers who might spend 15 minutes with them on a good week. It is not shocking that most of my original team has left. I've had 4 managers in the last year alone.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
Jun 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good place to work and earn money

Cons

Heavy workload and long time work

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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