What is it like at SpaceX as a SWE?
Currently at PayPal for about a year. SpaceX has contacted me about a SWE role. I literally know nothing about rockets, aerospace, or SpaceX other than the re-usable rockets and Elon wants to go to mars. 1) How hard is the interview process? I have interviewed at Google and FB for reference (obv got rejected from both). 2) What is the work culture like? I assume this is 5 days a week in office and will be a demanding job given the nature of the work and the deadlines they want to meet. Thx. TC: I live in California, so it's negative after taxes. :( #spacex #jobhunt #elonsaveme #elonmusk
You have to give Elon daily back rubs
Be prepared to replace all your family portraits with Elon's headshot.
I interviewed in 2017, didn’t pass. But to date it’s been one of the worst interviews I’ve had. Arrived at 12pm and left at 6pm, no lunch. I was exhausted. The people there were stuck up nerds that thought they were better than everyone.
If there design and code is going outside of earth, building the only reusable booster in the world, and solving hardest engineering problems they are better than almost everyone
This was for an internal tool built with Python and Jquery .
Interview is above average difficulty but not insane. The focus is on relevant problems, general engineering principles, and system design. You probably won't see any leetcode. The work culture is pretty good, depending on your team/manager/program. It's very focused on ownership and accountability but you'll have talented coworkers who share knowledge willingly. Middle management is a mixed bag, but a good manager won't care about how many hours or if you wfh once a week as long as you deliver results. 45 hours is pretty typical, some people work more but if you set boundaries people will respect them. The main exception to this is critical path work which is blocking major program/company goals. For example, Starship is pretty rough right now, but Starlink is relatively chill.
I just finished a spaceX onsite recently. The interviews until the onsite I felt were really easy if you know your CS and OS fundamentals, although the online assessment could be difficult for some. I did notice that alot of the senior tech leads etc had only like 4 yoe. For some teams keep in mind you don’t really get a cushy tech office you might be working in a warehouse walking around giant metal parts lol but maybe thats cool to you.
You have to have Elon’s baby.
Even if you're a guy?
yes it’s possible now according to liberals