Fundamentally a good company, although with room for improvement.
Pros
Very fun and rewarding work. We're making rockets, designing them from scratch and seeing our work become real. I genuinely look forward to going to work every day, knowing its going to be fun. Higher-than-average starting salaries for most positions, although software folks can probably still make more at Amazon and the like. Very few jerks. Blue does a really good job of weeding out the folks who are difficult to work with. Very good job security. You're insulated from industry cycles that cause layoffs at Boeing, and from the company going under thanks to Jeff's unwavering financial commitment. The firing rate seems very low, there is no "rank and yank" or the like. Outstanding performance on gender and racial equality. Over the last year, we actually promoted female and BIPOC persons at a significantly greater rate than the average. 1.25x greater, if I recall the data correctly. Good work-life balance for New Space standards. I work ~50 hours a week because I really enjoy what I do, which seems about average for Blue. There is essentially no incentive pay, which is both good and bad. The good side is that there is a relatively low degree of anyone making themselves look good at the expense of others. The bad side is that we retain driftwood too long, and the ultra-hard-workers find their efforts under-rewarded.
Cons
Low salary growth does not keep pace with area cost of living. Unfortunately, people managers have very little say over compensation adjustment, which frustrates our ability to retain top talent when they find their pay falling behind after a few years. Loyalty not rewarded in a financially meaningful way. Company equity only vests if a very unlikely set of events were to occur within a specific timeframe of one's employment, rendering it essentially valueless. Starting with the hiring of Bob Smith, senior leadership has generally been sourced from the traditional aerospace and government sector. The poor technical judgement and slow pace we associate with those sectors unfortunately, although unsurprisingly, has taken root. However, middle management does a good job of shielding technical staff from above.