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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 category

      3.7

      Career opportunities

      3.6

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.5

      Culture & values

      3.3

      Senior management

      3.2

      Compensation and benefits

      3.1

      Work/Life balance

      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).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      262 reviews
      1.0
      Jan 23, 2020

      Toxic

      Technician
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Great coworkers, great working relationships between coworkers and teams

      Cons

      Unrealistic expectations, completely ignorant executives, rockets come before employees, and those at the bottom of the totem pole or outside the management inner circle get the rotten end of the stick every single time. Indirect harassment has been long reported and very aware around company culture but no steps are taken to fix it and often exasperated by the office gossips. Long hours, terrible pay compared to US counterparts but they aren’t much better off either. Not surprising considering how little managers care about employees. The only ones who have stuck around are kiwis who want to stay local or those who are lucky to have caring supervisors.

      avatar
      Rocket Lab Response
      6y
      Hi there, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. We are really glad to hear that your relationship with your colleagues is such a highlight of working at Rocket Lab. We're sorry to hear that we aren't meeting your expectations in some other areas. It takes a huge amount of dedicated effort to get a rocket into space and this would never have been achieved without the incredible efforts of the team. We know this and we are so grateful for every contribution each and every person here has made. As we grow and mature as a company, we are continually streamlining and improving the way we work, including our systems and procedures. This will mean everyone has more free time and hopefully alleviate some of the pressure that you may have been feeling. If you would be able to please provide some more detail, particularly around the indirect harassment issue and your interactions with our management team, we would really appreciate this so we are able to investigate further, address the issue and make improvements. You can drop by the People and Culture office any time to speak with one of the team, or email us at peopleandculture@rocketlab.co.nz - and of course, anything you choose to share with us will remain 100% confidential. We hope to hear from you soon! - Rocket Lab People and Culture
      3.0
      Feb 18, 2022

      Great projects and company vision, but lots of room for improvement

      Engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Hugely ambitious, and satisfying projects to work on. Employees are trusted with responsibility to get their projects over the line. Technical ideas and concerns are always listened to. Talented, hard-working coworkers. Lucrative equity scheme (for those fortunate enough to be noticed). Generally a great place to work, you won’t be falling asleep at your desk. Despite the feedback points below, I would still recommend to a friend if they were looking for something more than the usual 9-5.

      Cons

      Pay is absolutely not in line with the “industry standard” claimed by management - especially in this hot job market. There should be more emphasis on keeping current employees happy, and making the remuneration more lucrative for potential new hires (from NZ and abroad). Engineering programs often have extremely ambitious timelines, and employees are often working many projects in parallel. Most teams are understaffed, so working longer than your contracted hours is often necessary to get projects over the line. This can be exausting and sometimes leads to shortcuts which affects the quality of the end product. There is no overtime pay for salaried workers, even though working extra hours is commonplace. During the recent culture survey it was proudly announced “around 20% of the workforce received a promotion last year”. To many, this translated to: “on average, you can expect to be promoted every 5 years”.

      2.0
      Jun 6, 2018

      happiest employees are the former employees

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      place has a really exciting startup culture with lots of hype and media attention. Really good team of people to work with and some employee benefits such as coffee and food.

      Cons

      Very long hours with next to no life. Very little HR to mediate where required which has resulted in a number of ex-employees launching law suits for a variety of employee relation issues. A lot of great talent has left due to these working conditions including a number of headhunted ex-spaceX employees who spent 1-2 years at rocket lab despite 5+ years at other space firms. Your yearly review is pretty much you saying why your job is important to to the rocket program which will 'change the world'. And the media is kept on a leash with noone allowed to speak to the media and all of these 'official statements' being all this self praise of how amazing the company is.

      Viewing 124 - 126 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.