Pros
There used to be some pros to working here, that was long ago at this point though. The people are good - they believe in renewable energy and a better future and most of them are cool people. It can also be pretty easy to fly under the radar and just coast along. Sometimes you can work from home.
Cons
Management is completely inept/incompetent. They constantly increase expectations and the amount of time/work to complete tasks. They generally will only hire people with engineering degrees and pay them well below the market value. There used to be a potential to earn bonus by completing large volumes of work but with the ever-increasing tasks and expectations, it is near impossible to make any kind of bonus. When asked about potential changes to compensation to account for inflation or the increased demands, management replies with a canned politically correct response of "you are compensated via your bonus" and they completely fail to recognize any of the above. They will also tell you how much they value you and appreciate your hard work but never take any actions to show that. Actions speak far louder than words. Staffing is a disaster - in my time at SolarCity I have seen multiple rounds of layoffs, including people in middle management. They almost encourage their best talent/A-players to walk out the door. After laying off a considerable amount of people, they find themselves severely understaffed and demand 12+ hours of overtime a week. Obviously they can't legally force you to work overtime but your manager and others in middle management will make you feel guilty for not doing your 'fair share'. When they are not over staffed they are understaffed. At times there is a 4+ hour wait just to get work. With these wait times, making any kind of bonus is not only unrealistic, but impossible. Weekend work is not only expected, but mandatory. I doubt people that went to school for engineering degrees are at all satisfied with being asked to work Saturdays and/or Sundays (yes, some people have to work both days) while also being paid considerably below the expected compensation for someone with those credentials. Management will encourage you to work your very hardest and taunt you with the opportunity of promotion - I have witnessed a situation (at one of the HQ offices) where an office full of people were told someone would be promoted into management within two weeks and they started interviewing existing designers. It would have done a lot of good to show that there are actually opportunities for career advancement - they interviewed people, got their hopes up, and then told them that there would be no promotion and that they would essentially just ask the existing managers to put in extra time to compensate. There is no opportunity to move up in this position. They also constantly promote people who are already in management to new positions with essentially the same tasks that didn't even exist before to make them feel valued and increase compensation. If you are in management, there is a possibility you will be taken care of, if you are a lowly designer then then you are essentially stuck - even top-producing designers with 5+ years of experience in the same position do not get promoted. Benefits package is ok, 401k is not matched, PTO is pretty poor and PTO accrual does not even start until 3 months on the job (you are literally not allowed to take any days off whatsoever in your first 3 months unless it is a company holiday). There used to be fun company events and snacks in break rooms - the events are gone entirely and the snacks still exist in some offices but now must be paid for by the employees. If you like being underpaid, overworked, and constantly stressed/yelled at then this is the place for you. I truly believe that most of the people still employed here in this department/position are waiting for the integration with Tesla and are hoping things will get better - I believe these people are naive at this point and will be highly disappointed when this department continues to decline.
