Pros
Overall, this is the most rewarding internship experience I have had and I continue to look forward to going to work every day. The key points are as follows: - Challenging and difficult work. With a comparatively small team size, employees at SpaceX are given large amounts of responsibility and have to meet short deadlines. While this can be stressful at times, it leads to an exciting and rewarding work experience. Even as an intern, I've been given challenging projects and am able to see the immediate benefit they have for the company. - Responsibility. Similar to the point above, however it is worth emphasizing that even as an intern, you are fully trusted to work independently and without hand-holding. You are forced by circumstance to learn from your mistakes and as a result become a better engineer. - Excellent coworkers. I have yet to meet someone here who settles with meeting the basic requirements. Everyone pushes each other to go further and produce the best possible product while at the same time maintaining an enjoyable work environment. Teams are kept fairly small and the overall structure of the company is very, very flat. - Culture and values. The culture set forth by senior management trickles down very well and is maintained across the company. It's one of hard work, resourcefulness, and responsibility. - It's an incredible feeling to stand with your coworkers and celebrate a successful mission. No other tech company offers this same experience and it ties into the strong sense of purpose at SpaceX. Not to mention how cool it is to take a coffee break to walk through a rocket assembly factory.
Cons
- Work life balance. This is subjective and I personally do not find it a strong con, but nonetheless, work life balance at the company is rather poor. A 40 hour work week is rare as an intern, however this is not something to complain about. Being at work is enjoyable and the time really does fly by during the day. - Compensation. At least for interns, and relating to software engineering specifically, the hourly pay rate is lower than average. This is the biggest downside I see when comparing software engineering positions at SpaceX vs. Google, Facebook, Uber, etc.