Inspiring company to work for, though high burnout rate - Avionics Engineer SpaceX Employee Review

4.0
Aug 15, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Extremely fulfilling technical challenges every day, you are working on problems that no one else in the world has solved - Generally good corporate culture, people are focused on the product and design and the company has been kept pretty lean as it expanded - Compensation is fair when equity is factored in

Cons

- High burnout rate, the culture at SpaceX lends itself to people working incredibly long hours on high stress projects. General lifetime is ~5-years for a SpaceX employee - Not a whole lot of upward mobility options - Even though SpaceX still tries to maintain a startup attitude, there are signs of big company bad habits creeping in. Decisions have become harder to make quickly.

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5.0
Jun 29, 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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