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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
      1.0
      Mar 4, 2018

      Very Poor Longterm Workplace

      Engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I thoroughly enjoyed the team spirit and the work ethic of my peers. This is a great place to work if you live and breathe rockets and space and live in New Zealand.

      Cons

      I found that engineers were often employed as assembly technicians, test technicians, assembling kits, acting as procurement officers and even 'engineering assistants'. Engineers are paid very poor salaries and still expected to work 7 days a week at times to meet deadlines that were unrealistic. There were 100 employees before a HR advisor was hired and the first 2 quit in a year.

      1.0
      Jul 12, 2019

      Worst decision of my career

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Opportunities to stretch the envelope of the technology, free t-shirt & mission patches.

      Cons

      Worst management I’ve ever come across. No structure, no business processes & very disorganised overall (had to share a computer for the first 2 months after joining & expected to use personal mobiles for company business - no office/desk phones for 95%+ of staff). They still have a startup mentality with very little planning & big consequences for getting it wrong where they need to think, act & plan like a real company. Long hours are the unwritten expectation & don’t expect to have a life outside of work. They have a VERY (can’t emphasise that enough) well earned reputation for getting rid of anyone that doesn’t fit their mould precisely despite them desperately needing people with real world experience in the wider business world. If they actually used real HR processes to recruit, onboard and manage people properly they wouldn’t have such a bad reputation for using the 90 day trial on experienced technical people.

      3.0
      May 29, 2022

      Awesome projects, awesome team, poor culture

      Technician
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I was lucky to be able to start and finish my apprenticeship at rocketlab. I was trained by some of the best techs in New Zealand and their skills are amazing. Rocket Lab is great to have on your CV I fortunately got to work on R&D projects during my time at rocketlab, and I feel that everybody gets to work on these exciting projects regularly which keeps it interesting. Even standard production work is made interesting by constant improvements to the launch vehicle. Engineering support setup is incredible, iPad apps such as flame and redmine are super helpful and great for tracking non conformity, and making improvements. Everybody you meet at Rocket Lab is super interesting and very good at what they do, when they aren’t being overloaded….

      Cons

      Pay. Every year is a massive muck around when it comes to pay reviews. For example, this year reviews were started in feb, and we were told we would have our pay rises by April, I finished at the very end of April and nobody had had their pay rise, and I hear they have only just got their pay rise, but are still waiting on back pay…. It’s now end of May… If it’s anything like previous years, the raises will be far below expected… Burnout is common. Employees at Rocket Lab are expected to be the “best of the best”. To get noticed in a place like RL, this means you have to work to the breaking point, and past it. Even if you just want to get through a normal day you will have more than enough to keep you stressed, and this is seen in critical areas of production teams. High turnover. Fresh employees love it for the first 6 months, but after that you can see them start to go downhill quickly… I don’t know many people who make it past 3 years at RL. By the time they leave they are exhausted and sick of the BS that comes with working here. It’s really a shame to see awesome people so broken.

      Viewing 115 - 117 of 262 Reviews
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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.