Pros
Orientation and new hire: I took this job as my first after getting my masters from a large public institution. While I had a strong technical background, I knew very little about the manufacturing world. My manager and group made sure from day 1 that I was connected with the right resources, and they facilitated learning in this fast-paced environment. Company expectations: SpaceX puts you in charge of your own projects and holds you personally accountable for completing them. This can be a daunting task, but is extremely rewarding and fulfilling when you are successful. It is fully expected that if you do not know something, you need to go find the resources and learn how to do it. Atmosphere: This is where SpaceX is either make or break for you. It is a very fast-paced, competitive, and at times stressful atmosphere. If you enjoying pushing yourself to your engineering limits, learning something new every day, and working your *butt* off to accomplish something amazing, then you are in luck; because you will be surrounded by young engineers from around the country who want to do the exact same thing. Seriously, I am constantly amazed by how young the workforce is, but just how much they know about their chosen subject matter. The energy in the building is always very high and everyone here believes in the vision of the company. Benefits: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are subsidized and the food is pretty good quality, with several options that rotate by week. There are also subsidized food trucks that rotate daily. If you take advantage of these, your cost of living in LA goes wayy down. Also, free barista coffee, fruit, frozen yogurt. It's the little things that make you appreciate working here.
Cons
Workload: Before coming I heard that they make you work long hours and you will never have a life. This is really only partly true. Most people do work long hours here, but its not because they are afraid of being fired. It's because they are truly passionate about what they do. The upside of working long hours is that management is very understanding if you need to take half a day for a doctors appointment. They know that you put in enough time and don't sweat the half-day leave. Your level of involvement is somewhat self-chosen, but the people who are interested in working here choose to stay late. There will be times when your project requires extra out of you, but that is the same for any salaried position... Environment: This is kind of tied into workload, but if you do not deal well with stressful situations, or you always need feedback and management, then this is not the company for you. You will be expected to be very independent and able to handle engineering and business decisions in the correct manner. If you are just "working for the weekend" then this is not the company for you; you will be miserable. Compensation and Benefits: The salary is somewhat below industry average. This is offset somewhat by relatively large stock options that are coupled with your base salary and vest over 5 years, but these aren't very liquid and when coupled with a high cost of living of LA, you don't have as much spending money as some. With proper management, this isn't an issue at all, I invest 15% in 401K and 10% in savings and still have plenty to live on as long as I plan well, but I'm not going to be buying an expensive car or anything soon. Speaking of 401K, they do NOT match. This is probably my biggest con, but I realize that its becoming more common for companies to forego this option. They make up for it somewhat with the company stock options, but they use stock options to cover both a portion of your salary AND 401K contributions so they double dip a bit.
