Hi, I am thinking of joining as a somewhat specialized SWE (do not want to reveal too much as the team is small). Currently, E6, 6 YOE, TC ~600k/year. Interested in joining for the mission and am happy to accept a reasonable pay cut. I had some questions that would be great if other Facebook -> SpaceX employees or SpaceX employees in general could answer: 1) How much room do/did you have in negotiating TC/leveling? To my recruiter's credit, he always emphasized that they cannot match FB, so the lower pay is not a surprise. But, looking at levels fyi, I was expecting a solid L4 offer, but instead got an upper L3 with recruiter saying that a) exceeding 250-300k TC would be very difficult and b) it is typical for people to be brought in on a lower level than they currently are because of SpaceX's peculiarities. I am pushing for a re-level and asking for a TC recompute contingent on this, so just curious if anyone has experience with this. Is it easier to push the TC through the equity lever? 2) What are the specific medical plans and copays offered? I am aware of the on-site doc but curious about the plan specifics too. 3) Does the company provide any sort of housing/housing search help for people placed in the Starbase location? I heard something about container-type housing but it was very nebulous. 4) Mostly for ex-FB/big tech people: how do you find the infra, code review, etc. to be? 5) Also for ex-FB/big tech people: what are the biggest differences/things you miss/etc.? WLB is a known one. TIA! #spacex #tech
How are you an E6 with 6 YOE? Phd?
Nope, specialized SWE (can't go into detail too much to protect anonymity, sorry)
Ok. Masters then? How long you’ve been at FB for?
Expect to get ~70% pay cut.
Was hoping for 30-40% :(
Nope, know a couple of folks who switched from spacex and they x3-x4 their compensation. That doesn’t even include generous refreshers. Joining mission you passionate about is quite expensive so I would just consider it as giving a big chunk of your income to charity.
Congratulations OP! Good decision to take such an exciting mission’s offer even though it meant compromising on TC (not to say current work was not necessarily exciting)! The stock grant will go over the moon 🚀 (pun intended), so patience and hard work will pay. I used to work for Tesla many years ago with famously low pay, and now all my stocks have changed my life around. Only sold the bare minimum when I really had to - which I wish I didn’t lol! Curious you mention about WLB at the end - yes WLB at SpaceX (and Tesla) can be notoriously poor. Totally worth it imho. How was your experience at Facebook in regards to WLB (and you’re aware SpaceX will make it worse 😆)? Blind paints it in bad light. I’m joining FB/Meta soon, so curious. I wish I could join SpaceX, but I’m not a GC or citizen :(
May I DM you, please. I have an offer from Tesla but have a few questions around WLB. Blind is notoriously quiet when it comes to Tesla info.
Sure. I’ve been out for a few years so my info is going to be out of date, but still better than nothing I suppose 😄
Check this out: https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/05/13/building-the-software-that-helps-build-spacex/ I can answer #4 and 5, rest maybe changed since I was there/don’t remember. 4) Depends on team/org but code quality wasn’t great due to moving fast nature. Projects tended to be scrapped sometimes due to lack of feasibility in getting it done. 5)Miss WLB. Miss free food. Traffic sucks around Hawthorne HQ, and not the best public transportation to get there. Lots of pressure to perform. Besides that, the tech stack I worked in was pretty trash. (monolithic C#/Angular). You can ask your manager what stack you’ll be working in. Besides those, that’s it. You have to really love what you’re doing to last there though. Make sure the role aligns with what you want to work on.
Thank you, this is great, and very much along the lines of what I was looking for
It’s ridiculous to go from E6 $600K liquid TC to L4 250K-300K with paper money. Elon Musk bubble is going to burst at some point and you’ll be able to buy his companies with all your FB cash, if you really want to participate in his visions. Also it’s hard to participate in his vision as a lowly L4 anyways.
There is graveyard of peoples who shorted Elon. On a serious note OP is joining for mission and not for money.
Thanks, but yeah, it is what Intel said. I am not primarily optimizing for TC here, though it is certainly nice. At some point it becomes about the scope of work and the broader mission you are working toward. Having been at FB for many years I am reasonably comfortable and am interested in taking on more responsibility (would have wider remit at SX than at FB in my niche) for a more important mission for a TC trade-off. Of course, the degree of the trade-off does matter. :)
To answer your medical question, it's Blue cross blue shield w/ no copay if you use the onsite medical facility, also it's free coverage for employees
SpaceX, thank you. So it is just one plan without options, is that correct? What are copays for specialists (which I assume are not on campus)?
There are several options to choose from, EPO, PPO, Kaiser, and high deductable I think. Specialists copays are 25 bucks I want to say? (I should know, had some medical issues this year and have been to a ton lol). Only one of the plans are free for the employee, you have to pay for the others but I don't really know anybody that chose those options anyways.
They have a relo company that offers a month of temp housing
I don't think that's still a thing
You won’t get an offer anywhere close to that liquid or not. SpaceX takes it as a point of pride that they pay way less.
yeah, totally get that. I just thought I could at least get an L4 offer with a reasonable L4 TC.