Amazing experience but still flawed and maintaining some start-up mentality - Engineer Rocket Lab Employee Review

3.0
29 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Incredibly dedicated and knowledgeable staff, despite the daily stress, vast majority are upbeat and fun to work with - the general overall working atmosphere is very positive and I will miss a lot of co-workers - Fast-paced company - always lots of exciting projects, missions, change, and new things happening. Learn a lot very quickly. Every working day passes very quickly, and most days I found enjoyable - Working with rockets is cool, and New Zealand is generally a good place to be. Exciting to work at an industry leading company, and I am proud to have worked at Rocket Lab. - Leaders in my department were good, and supportive , can't comment business-wide. General improvements in my department structure and people development (new starter training, 1-2-1s)

Cons

- Under-resourced for the work that is done and targets set by upper management - felt like every department I worked with was stretched close to breaking point - Long hours. Not all departments work crazy hours, but vast majority work a lot more than they are contracted due to amount of work, deadlines, and culture - Pay/compensation is poor - may be it is in line with New Zealand market, but does not reflect how much and how hard people work, and that many staff would be able to easily get better paid work overseas. - Raises/bonuses poor for most staff. With inflation and cost of living rising effective pay decrease for many. - Stock reward scheme is poor and I think setup going the wrong direction, still in the start-up mentality. Feels like a carrot dangled to encourage all to work even harder and longer short term, but not recognising that many are already stretched to breaking point - I think this risks burning out more staff. Those that push themselves further (inevitably all won't be rewarded) will end up disillusioned. Good that staff can now buy stock. - Constant change leads to repeating work and many of the same issues coming through. Feels like with the amount of change that is pushed through (with current resource levels) Rocket Lab is doomed to keep repeating same mistakes - At times felt like schedule and cost are the only priorities, potentially at the expense of safety (recommend to a friend - YES, but mentioning above caveats!)

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Rocket Lab Response
4y
Hi there, Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback. We definitely believe that our people are not only talented, but are positive and always willing to help out. We agree that the Space industry can be quite demanding and we do have very high standards. When you are going to the Moon, Mars and Venus, excellence has to be your starting point! In recent years we have worked hard to put in place reward and recognition systems, like our employee share incentive program, which has been very well received and is very lucrative. Further to this we have recently completed our 2021 culture survey and we have a number of ideas that we think will be very impactful on the topics you have raised. Thanks again for taking the time to give us feedback. Rocket Lab People & Culture

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Cons

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