Rewarding, but not for everyone - Manufacturing Engineer SpaceX Employee Review

3.0
Aug 18, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company structure is designed to enable people to get things done easily and quickly, and to innovate ridiculously fast. For the most part, those goals are achieved. You get to personally and visibly influence a huge industry, and sometimes more than that. I'm relatively young and so are most of my coworkers, and there's a lot to have in common if you ever find to talk about anything other than work. Underperformers are few and far between so it's not difficult to gain the confidence to rely on others around you and your teammates to get your combined workload done. At the end of the day, almost everyone has something to do with building spaceships; there's not a lot of people on this planet that can truthfully say that.

Cons

Effort required to get things done means the hours vary and can be absolutely brutal, and the reward received for this often marginal. In many ways, there's a lot of effort being made to make getting off the planet easier, at the expense of making it difficult to actually live comfortably outside of work. Everyone being able to make things happen quickly also means things can go sour quickly, often through no fault of your own, but you still are expected to shoulder some or all of the mess. Younger than average workforce means less experience in-house, so your ability to rely on your coworkers to expand your knowledge and to minimize the need for trial and error varies and can be limited. By far the biggest drawback is the main location being in LA area; for some this may be the greatest benefit, but if you're not already here, there are a whole host of better options literally anywhere else in the country.

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5.0
May 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay Good experience Hands on work

Cons

Long hours Intense management No sleep

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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