Complete disaster and lack of leadership - Anonymous employee SpaceX Employee Review

2.0
Jul 23, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Cool to say you work there - brand name recognition -Smart engineers who are really passionate about the product, exciting to be around, great great people -Launch day - still gives you goosebumps no matter how long you've been there -Free Frozen Yogurt/Sodas/Coffees -Insane company parties with free drinks and food. -Equity was really good (if you got in early) -Working for such an innovator and forward thinker (Elon Musk - he's brilliant)

Cons

Where do I start, I might be here all day/night: -They work you against impossible expectations and expect that you'll deliver quickly, cheaply and at the highest quality. -The workload is like none I've ever seen - They treat their employees like garbage, it's never apparent when you're in the thick of it but as soon as you're out you realize how poorly people are treated there. You think it's because you're not doing enough or working hard enough, when it's really complete disregard for the employees - this stems directly from The President - Gwynne and CEO - Elon. - I wouldn't relocate if you're considering a job here, as other reviewers mentioned, you'll be looking again very soon after you start there when you see what a disaster it is. - The new leaders in HR they hired and then fired within a matter of months were an absolute mess - they destroyed and dismantled the entire HR/Recruiting dept for no reason, now its complete chaos in that dept. -They hang onto crappy employees for political reasons and fire good ones for no reason. -Leadership is completely lacking - they have these artificial expectations that only excellent engineers make good managers, where some of the best engineers i've seen there make the worst managers and are better off sticking to an engineering role. -Cult like following - very scary actually - people only tend to hang out with other "SpaceXers" and then complain the entire time about how terrible it is there. -They've lost all of their top leadership due to overworking and again, a complete lack of human compassion for these people that they overwork - always promising to compensate and give more stock. -The people who are treated the worst and as if they're just garbage are production folks. They're expected to have the best schooling, Bachelor Degrees, and then asked to work for $14 an hour and 50 - 60 hour weeks. They are completely walked all over, talked down to as if they're beneath the guys running the show. It's actually really sad to watch. -Last but certainly not least - The President/COO- she really knows how to lie to all of her leaders and promise them everything and then completely change her story as if she's never had that conversation in her life. She plays both sides of the field and hides away whenever there is bad news to deliver or lies about it. She's had to keep up with her lies compounding on lies for a while now, it will eventually catch up to her. Great salesperson, terrible leadership. They should put her back in Sales, that's what she's good at, not running a company. -Everyone seems scared to tell Elon the truth, the man loves this company and wants to know the truth but everyone covers up for themselves or finger points to blame someone else for fear of being fired. It's so sad.

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5.0
Apr 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Lots of fun work to do! Your manager will make or break it for you!

Cons

Burnout culture Depending on department learning is very much a self guided journey

1
4.0
Apr 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

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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