Exhilarating Experience, Toxic Work Culture
Pros
- fast-paced - exciting work (it's rockets!) - lots of responsibility & scope - opportunities to shift positions and teams within the company - opportunities to grow quickly - cool coworkers (and there's a lot of turnover, so it's great for networking) - does look very impressive on your resume
Cons
- cult vibes - will wring every last drop of work out of you and then ask for more - unrealistic expectations from management (especially senior management) - lack of support from management, they are also overloaded but have bought in to SpaceX as a lifestyle and have convinced themselves it's fine (again, cult vibes) - lack of diversity, and few effective actions are taken to change that (but you'll get plenty of lip service) - systemic bro culture that puts everyone who is not an engineering bro at a constant disadvantage (ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, whatever the word is for discriminating against people caring for young children, etc.) - pay is definitely not comparable to other companies, you pay the "cool tax" for working at a trendy company - an unspoken expectation that you are available 24/7
