Pros
Opportunities to work with highly intelligent people/ be the dumbest person in the room. Satisfaction of seeing your work make an impact on actual product. Getting to work around rockets and their components. Down to earth colleagues. Tons of opportunity for growth and learning. It is okay to not know everything here and need to learn how to do something new. People are not protective of their respective work areas. When major issues are identified, they seem to float to the top quickly and are disseminated to the wider company. Its okay to make mistakes, but they need to be identified and resolved. If you have a good idea, people are willing to try it out (the best idea wins). Subsidized food (can get a full blown lunch from $3 to $5) and the food is actually good. Management has worked to provide a work-life balance. I haven't experienced the horror stories that some people have shared on here regarding the brutal hours. I've been working 45 to 50 hours per week, but do not work directly for production. My manager stated his main concern is I'm getting my assigned tasks done and him seeing results. My impression is if you work directly for production, expect brutal hours as you will have hard/ ambitious deadlines to meet. The stock award has the potential to pay out big time if the company's trajectory stays on its current path. Hands off on getting work done. My manager assigns me work and trusts me to go out and make an impact with practically no supervision. I have freedom to attack problems as I see fit. The processes here are not set in stone. If something is wrong or there is a better way, things can get changed quickly. The culture is very open. If you want to/ know how to dig through SpaceX's systems, you have full access to everything and can dig through rocket component drawings, issues, etc. Flat organizational structure. There isn't many layers of management here and SpaceX doesn't have the bureaucratic inertia other major aerospace companies have. The benefits very good. The onsite medical and dental makes seeing the doctor or dentist incredibly convenient. There are a variety of other perks you get for working here that many other companies do not offer. The chance to be a part of something that is truly inspirational and fun. When you're employed here, the suspense of a launch and the exhilaration of success is fantastic. Year round summertime in Southern California.
Cons
Many people here don't seem to understand how to make a quality product, or take the quality of a product for granted. People don't understand yet the impact my group's function has and my group seems to be an after thought most of the time. If we were involved upfront and our processes respected, SpaceX would save costs and improve quality. There are a ton of people in Southern California and a good chunk of LA has relatively high pollution areas. Living in areas with less pollution is more expensive. People can drive like maniacs around Hawthorne. Be careful when crossing the street or riding a SpaceX bike on the street. There are stories of multiple people being hit in the crosswalks on Crenshaw. There is some shadiness. People stealing equipment/ scrap materials and selling them for personal gain. People circumventing processes and using equipment they shouldn't be. People sleeping in their cars or walking around socializing all day. There seems to be a lack of accountability. People can get away with doing shady stuff and not get fired for it. From what I've gathered during my brief time here it is remarkably hard to get fired from SpaceX. They tend to lose people mainly from burn out or they get a job that offers more pay with less hours outside of the company. People have told me this isn't the best/ safest area of LA, but I haven't seen anything that has made me feel uneasy. On the walk to Wilkie along the train tracks you may see some homeless people along with piles of their garbage and the walk over the canal can stink. My manager and some colleagues can be/ are completely unresponsive to emails. Only time I can get questions answered is during 1:1s. Onboarding process was unorganized/ non-existent. I showed up expecting to hit the ground running and it appeared they didn't know what they wanted me to work on. My expectation was there would be a clear set of tasks and things to see/ do upon my arrival, and a process in place to accomplish these for a new employee. With my group this did not happen/ was not in place. Some groups have a lack of professionalism. Maybe it is what SpaceX considers scrappiness, but if you're expecting a highly professional, white collar environment that isn't SpaceX. There are plenty of blue collar/ Joe Schmoes at SpaceX that are a bit rough around the edges (for better or worse). I've also observed management talking about their employees behind their backs, which makes one wonder what management is saying about them behind their back. Senior management seems out of touch with what my group is doing and how to help us accomplish our goals. No 401k match. Pretty much all other major aerospace companies offer a substantial 401k match that provides an extra boost to retirement savings. The stock award is great but if the company tanks for whatever reason, the stock could be worth nothing. Plus the stock awarded to a typical employee doesn't have the same class as what the executives get, such that if the company does tank the executives get to claim the value of what's left of the company with the average employee not getting anything from their stock. Keep in mind in order to claim the full stock award, you will have to pay the taxes on it. If you can't afford to pay the taxes, it will be taken out of your stock award which means you will not get as much stock as they advertised in your offer. Base salary isn't as good as the other major aerospace companies (I took a cut in base pay to come work here).