Exciting with certain limitation - Structures Engineer SpaceX Employee Review

4.0
31 Jan 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Dedicated coworkers. No BS engineering environment where the best ideas win. The company is very good at making employees feel their work is appreciated, meaningful, and important to the common goal of colonizing Mars.

Cons

SpaceX is scaling up everything we do and as such, many aspects of the company start to lean toward a mass production company and less of an innovative / developmental. This will come eventually hurt morale as people generally do not want to work in a production company for 50-60 hrs / week. A lot of people only do production and reliability, where opportunities for creativity is more limited.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
29 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* **Unmatched Mission & Impact:** You are literally working on rockets and spacecraft. The cool factor is 10/10. * **Brilliant Coworkers:** You will be surrounded by some of the smartest, most driven engineers in the world. * **Insane Career Growth:** SpaceX on your resume is a golden ticket. You will learn more here in 3 months than in 3 years at a normal company. * **Hands-on Experience:** They actually trust interns with real, critical hardware. No boring coffee-fetching tasks.

Cons

**Cons:** * **Zero Work-Life Balance:** 70-80 hours a week is the norm, not the exception. Say goodbye to your social life and sleep. * **Extreme Burnout:** The "hustle culture" is toxic. You are expected to treat the company as your entire life. * **Mediocre Pay:** The hourly pay is average, especially when you factor in the insane hours and the high cost of living in LA/Hawthorne. * **Chaotic Management:** Decisions can change overnight based on whatever Elon Musk tweets or feels like doing that morning.

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