Mission is great, management is subpar. Working here can be toxic to your mental health. Job stability is shaky.
Pros
-It was nice to have rotating food trucks and meal options that were cheap -Swag was cheap and you were proud to wear their merchandise. -Some opportunity to go to other departments and learn other skills -Stocks were okay. The 5 year vesting schedule kind of sucks though if you dont make it past the 5 year mark. -Free EPO insurance and 24 hour fitness memberships were great but I wouldnt be surprised if they axed these benefits soon due to budget cuts -Some opportunities to visit launch sites -Coworkers were cool. I have good relationships with them. -I suppose SpaceX looks good on the resume.
Cons
-Super long hours sometimes up to 13-14 hour days. As a technician who is always on their feet, this can be physically and mentally exhausting after awhile. If you are single then this may not be a problem. But if you have a family or a significant other, dont be surprised if you only see them on Sundays. -$5000 "cash bonus" was laughable. You get paid $1000 in November and then $500 in May, then $500 in November for 4 years! So you dont actually see the full $5000 for another 4 years. If you quit or get laid off, you do not get the rest of the bonus that YOU earned. -No 401k matching -A lot of 1st shift vs 2nd shift animosity. Finger pointing was non stop and management never really did anything about it. We have brought up to management how lazy and uncoordinated our counterparts were on the other shift and nothing was done about it. As a matter of fact, they kept some of the laziest people after the 10% layoff! -Pay is very subpar compared to other established aerospace companies out there. You can probably make more working less hours elsewhere. -If you are lazy but are in a good social circle with your supervisor/manager, then you have nothing to worry about. -The layoff seemed more about retaining people who got paid less to do the jobs of people who earned a bit more but had a longer tenure and worked hard. They also said that laid off employees would get 8 weeks of "severance" when in actuality, SpaceX is required by law to give them 8 weeks of WARN pay because they did not give a 60 day layoff notice. So in essence, they blew smoke up everyone's butt to try and soften the blow. -Planning is super unorganized. Sometimes you will see engineers or other technicians run around like chickens with their heads cut off because they lack foresight.
