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      Rocket Lab

      Engaged Employer

      Rocket Lab reviews

      3.6

      68% would recommend to a friend

      (262 total reviews)
      avatar

      Peter Beck

      95% approve of CEO

      74% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Rocket Lab has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 262 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rocket Lab employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      262 reviews
      2.0
      Jul 13, 2020

      Cool Company on the Wrong Track

      Engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Work is about as interesting as it gets. There is still so much work to be done. With the teams kept as lean as they are, you get to hold a lot of responsibility. There is no shortage of challenges. You are working alongside some fantastic coworkers. There are very few technicians or engineers at Rocket Lab who I think could be replaced by someone who would do a better job than the current individuals are doing.

      Cons

      Management is a mess and spend all of their time trying to show their bosses that they have the situation under control. Senior management has hired people at great expense who will be loyal to them regardless of their ability to do the job they were hired to do. These managers don’t seem to care about their teams and that mentality continues all the way up the food chain. This ineptitude and misguided priorities among management is steering the company into future problems. While the technicians and engineers are spending long hours trying to make the rocket as amazing as it can be, everyone above them is trying to make the company appear “profitable” with no regard for the backs they are standing on. No one has the support they need. Salaries are extremely inconsistent. Do not expect to make as much as someone hired after you doing the same job. Now more than ever people need employers who care about them. When someone at Rocket Lab asks what the company is doing about the COVID-19 situation, they are given a piece of paper that states what Rocket Lab is legally obligated to do. Employees have started to recognize this and that is why people are leaving faster than management can replace them with someone half as competent.

      avatar
      Rocket Lab Response
      5y
      Hi there, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We really appreciate the feedback as it plays a vital role in helping us grow and improve as a workplace. We're glad to hear that you've found working with us to be stimulating and interesting, and that your working relationships with your colleagues were such a highlight of your time with us. In terms of your salary comment, we recently underwent an audit of the entire company's salaries, comparing employees both to market data and to each other based on their skills and experience in the recently introduced Engineering Matrix and Technician Banding structure. We put our company values at the core of everything we do, and this includes looking out for each other and being kind to all our fellow team members. We hold everyone to this standard, regardless of seniority, so it's concerning to hear that this was not how you felt while working at Rocket Lab. If you would be willing to share some specific examples about what you experienced, or would like to provide additional feedback on how we could have improved your time at Rocket Lab, you can email us completely in confidence at peopleandculture@rocketlab.co.nz. Thanks again for the feedback and we hope to hear from you soon. - Rocket Lab People and Culture
      2.0
      Apr 1, 2023

      If you are a robot, Join, work for a year and leave!

      Senior engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      You work in Space industry! Cool to tell your friends & family. Watching rocket launch in lobby with everyone like movies. You will learn a lot of cool stuff.

      Cons

      Space industry in general is not a family friendly environment at all & Rocketlab is not an exception. If you care about your family, have kids or planning to have a kid, stay away! There is no WFH, no good maternity/paternity & no flexibility. work life balance is a joke. 80% of employees are in their 20's and 30's, single, university grads. There isn't enough space to fit everyone in office so if you have your desk for 2-3 months, you are lucky. Facility changes your sit all the time. Work environment is open area, so no room to move like factory production line & It's too noisy, everyone on a call and they talk all together, you need a noise canceling headphone if you are sensitive to noisy areas. Workload is terrible, everyone is buried with tasks and all projects are due yesterday. In general, there is no culture, they don't care about having a culture. relationship between teams are just work related, no one have time to get to know you. On your first day, don't expect a warm welcome and bring your lunch, they wont take you out for lunch, they are busy! Have you heard how terrible working at SpaceX is ? RocketLab is a smaller version . If you are dying joining space industry, live close to Long Beach and don't care about culture/high quality/professional organization, then join, work for a year and leave!

      2.0
      Mar 11, 2024

      Grow your technical skills and get out

      Engineer, space systems
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      You get to work on some truly exciting space missions alongside extremely bright coworkers. You are a crucial employee no matter the role. You will have meaningful technical contributions and ownership over your work. Your technical skills will improve significantly in breadth and depth - you can learn in 2 years here what you might learn in 5 years at other companies. Your technical achievements and skills will be apparent when you inevitably interview for other companies. Lots of good publicity and employee swag (shirts, hats, etc.)

      Cons

      Top 3 issues with company: Turnover, money, schedule. The pros are amazing, but good luck surviving here for more than 2 years. More below: Root cause of all issues in my opinion boils down to business development bidding laughably low on contracts, resulting in lack of resources to meet contract deadlines unless employees work unpaid overtime. Management is incompetent and does not support your team. Many program managers chase schedule at the expense of you, the engineer. Long-term planning and technical improvements will be sacrificed for short term payment milestones, program after program. Even if you have a program manager trying their best to support you, they themselves are firefighting for the entire contract duration. Company is stingy with money and raises - single percent raises year after year. Teams are understaffed - not a single team i’ve encountered across operations, AIT, flight software, systems, mechanical, etc. has enough people to support the number of programs occurring. Extremely high turnover, especially of critical engineers. Those who developed the first Rocket Lab satellites’ architecture, test infrastructure, software, etc. are no longer with the company. New engineers are hired in at lower salaries and cannot replace domain knowledge. Average tenure is ~2 years across all experience levels. Long work hours - Collaboration with New Zealand means US engineers frequently are in meetings until 6pm or later. I’ve had workdays from 9am-11pm. Overtime work is not compensated and implicitly expected. Work from home is not allowed. Excessively lean teams prevent long-term and cross-program technical planning. Every product feels delivered with band-aid solutions.

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      ReviewsRocket Lab reviews

      Glassdoor has 302 Rocket Lab reviews submitted anonymously by Rocket Lab employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Rocket Lab is right for you.