Amazing opportunities and job satisfaction awaiting those willing to put in the effort. - Anonymous employee SpaceX Employee Review

5.0
Mar 12, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Note: This is from an Engineer's perspective. SpaceX has been in a state of growth since I first started at the company, constantly increasing the scope of it's projects, it's capabilities, and it's vision. With that comes the amazing opportunities that only comes from a small/medium sized company! There aren't many companies where you can have something you designed or built in space within 1~2 years! If flying something you've worked on in space is a career goal of yours, I can't think of a better place to be. Another side effect of a rapidly growing company is the opoprtunities for increased responsibility. SpaceX employees often find themselves responsible for very important elements very quickly. Responsibility it placed upon people based more on merit than tenure, which allows for career growth not possible with larger aerospace companes. In my experience, SpaceX does a good job of rewarding efforts and successes with perks and bonuses. While compensations may be below aerospace industry standards initially, SpaceX (in my opinion) does a better job of rewarding performance. At the end of the day, there isn't any thing quite like watching a rocket take off and a spacecraft at the space stations, and SpaceX captures that excitement and passion of that dream!

Cons

Hours and work/life balance at SpaceX is likely the biggest and most-common complaint, but in my experience it is what each person wants to make of it. SpaceX will take as much as you want to give it, which for a lot of energetic fresh from college engineers is alot. There are lots of folks who have made a successful transition from 60+ hour workweeks to something more sustainable, but you must make a concious decision to do so. For better or worse, there is definitely less structure, organization, and training at SpaceX than other companies. Nearly all of the training and learning is "on the job" training, as there are minimal mentoring programs. Also, some of the institutional protections of larger companies will not there at SpaceX (for better or worse).

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Pros

Good pay Good experience Hands on work

Cons

Long hours Intense management No sleep

4.0
Apr 6, 2026
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Pros

You learn so much because the work is so freaking intense, its a lot of fun if you're the type of person who loves to get emerged in hard problems. The hours for me were not too bad but I was the exception, all the other interns I was with dealt with 60-70+ hour weeks, some interns came in at 10am and left at 12am, when I say its intense, I'm not joking. This is however very unique to the Starbase location. I've heard Hawthorne is a lot more chill. I honestly despite how challenging the role was always look back on it with a sense of pride in my work, and longing to be back there. It really does feel that you're doing world changing things.

Cons

Very un diverse upper management, I'd say the company is pretty diverse in the lower ranks, but once you start to look at the org chart and see who's in charge, you realize that its mainly just white people. Makes you wonder if as a person of color you too will be able to move up. Housing sucks: there was limited housing on campus for full time employees, you have to wait a year plus to get off the queue and once you're off you only really get tiny homes as the option that are in an inconvenient location. Interns don't even have the option to get on campus housing, they give you 3k in a housing stipend and expect you to find a place in Brownsville. I'd say its very hard to maintain a relationship while working here if you don't have an understanding partner, the work schedule is brutal and you really can't slack off.

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