Pros
*Incredible Company Mission* This matters a great deal for some and not as much for others. You do not realize how much this matters until you have it or you have it then lose it. Every employee has a high level of responsibility and the company survives on person-by-person accountability; if you have ever worked in an environment where this is not the case, you realize how vital this is for success and your sanity. Innovative Engineering, High-Rate Production & Polished Operations with an R&D soul - for engineers and those who enjoy technical challenges this is an amazing environment. World Class Talent and highly dedicated teams with a variety of backgrounds - we have traditional aerospace and college track employees, we have those with highly non-traditional paths into engineering, we have incredible IT, HR, Finance teams as well. We have a culture of 'Best Idea Wins' and where high performing individuals from any industry are welcome as we value the variety of viewpoints vs. only those from aerospace.
Cons
Easily one of the best decisions i've made in my life, however simply put: it's not for everyone. Even for those who *love* Space, SpaceX is not for everyone. The hours are long, weekends and holidays are often impacted, it is difficult to plan non-work, but the accomplishments are amazing. The pace is fast, super fast and every single individual and team must have great attention to detail or do you not last long. Progress and demands are unrelenting. Every single person is managing multiple projects at any given time, and all of them have aggressive performance targets - if you are bad self time-management, even with the best manager you will not be happy. Work-Life balance. Most people choose to work the hours they do because most are task saturated, sometimes they are driven by passive peer pressure (the whole team is working, one feels guilty taking more time off than others and letting the team down). i cannot remember the last regular work week of <40 hours.
