Rewarding but Difficult - Instrumentation Technician SpaceX Employee Review

4.0
Oct 18, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Never a dull moment, every project can be directly related to our product, which is launching rockets. It is easy to affect change; even on a technician level ideas and recommendations are taken up the chain and a lot of times end up being utilized. Coworkers are mainly highly motivated, intelligent individuals.

Cons

Pay is competetive but definitely on the lower end of industry standards. Long hours A large amount of managers got promoted because they were good at what they did before, not because they are good managers, which ends up created a less effective management team. The entire team has a lower level of experience than most engineering based companies, which allows for a lot of simple errors and trying to reinvent the wheel in areas which already have tried and true methods. At this point career advancement is very slow since there can only be so many "Leads" and they don't have lower sub- ratings. On the same note, it is a start-up mindset company which allows excellent personnel with lower levels of experience advance faster than other companies which is the primary reason the company has been successful thus far.

Explore other reviews about SpaceX

5.0
Jul 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Learn alot, helpful people, cool mission

Cons

long hours, ambiguous, high turn over

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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