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So exciting watching SpaceX work. I wish other companies would take a cue from them and be as transparent about their goals and progress. Makes SpaceX 100x more

So exciting watching SpaceX work. I wish other companies would take a cue from them and be as transparent about their goals and progress. Makes SpaceX 100x more fascinating than ULA and other competitors. Who needs a marketing team when you can casually throw out your plans to go to another planet within a few years and have people know you mean it? Moreover, who would go to work for a competitor when one company is heading to Mars and the competition is . . . not doing anything, really. How can ULA hire anyone beyond third-pick candidates?

Torkel 11y ago
I agree - SpaceX is incredible! They capture the imagination and hopes of our time. They stand for making our dreams come true. I used to watch the live-blogs and then livestreams of Steve Jobs when he delivered his keynotes. It felt like seeing and hearing the future. Every new announcement was thrilling and exciting. These days it's SpaceX's launches that gives me a similar feeling. A feeling of seeing and being part of something truly important. If another company communicated in the exact same way it wouldn't be the same, because the story and the sense of importance just isn't there. I could imagine something similar being done in AI, robotics, prolongation of life, clean energy. But to be as great as SpaceX is, I think the mission needs to be something that resonates with us as being profoundly important. Maybe someone wants to call me out and say that Apples products under Steve Jobs were not that important. But I'd say they were. iPhone, iPad - they changed our world. It's just now we've gotten used to it. I hope we'll one day get as used to people living on Mars! :)
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  In what sense is SpaceX profoundly important to you? It's profoundly exciting for sure... Mars will be the best reality tv show ever. It's hard for me to see it as important though, except as marketing for science education. Is that what you're thinking of? I guess I'm asking because sometimes people seem to act like SpaceX is of humanitarian importance and I just can't see that. Not compared to like 10 other immediate existential threats to humanity anyway.
  - DaveMebs 11y ago
    If you can establish self-sustaining societies on multiple planets you eliminate humanity's greatest threat - the fact that Earth is a single point of failure.
    - kayoone 11y ago
      We humans are bound to earth by our very own evolution, finely tuned for this environment. We are children of the earth and children we will remain.
    - meric 11y ago
      The current big threats to humanity are climate change and nuclear war. They are threats we create for ourselves, by relentlessly expanding the economy and inventions of new technologies. Ironically our solution to it is to further expand our technology and economy into other planets.
      - vatotemking 11y ago
        Elon is addressing climate change via SolarCity and Tesla.
      - patrickmclaren 11y ago
        Indeed, new human colonies on other planets will not be immune to our existing problems.
    - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
      > the fact that Earth is a single point of failure. Ah but once Earth is no longer the single point of failure then the Sun becomes the single point of failure :) I'm very excited about all things space and I hope SpaceX pulls it off
    - boznz 11y ago
      Never really bought that argument. So Hypothetically even if earth did get hit by another dinosaur killer or worse, wouldn't it still be easier to live here than on mars? at least the temperatures would be survivable and there is air and water here, much more so than Mars Saying that the thread is about SpaceX and Mars and all I can say is "GO SPACEX!"
ranman 11y ago
ULA does pay better... but after a certain threshold the pay doesn't matter compared to what you're working on / accomplishing. I think Google captured this really well: https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/ https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful...
- TrevorJ 11y ago
  ULA is also laying off a large portion of their workforce.
  - gozur88 11y ago
    That always makes for a depressing work day, even if you're not affected and everything else is going fine.
- mdorazio 11y ago
  SpaceX also has a reputation for severely overworking its employees in addition to the below-market pay. If working in aerospace that actually gets humans off the earth is your goal, then SpaceX is hands down the best private employer. However, if you just want to use your education and skills to work on aerospace while working reasonable hours for good pay, one of the ULA companies would be a much better bet.
  - brianwawok 11y ago
    So you are saying SpaceX is the EA of rockets?
    - wbc 11y ago
      SpaceX actually makes good products tho :)
      - brianwawok 11y ago
        Most EA products were really good. Sim city back in the day rocked! Madden was amazing! I guess the danger is if we see Falcon 2020 that is the same as Falcon 2019 with new voiceovers...
blhack 11y ago
>How can ULA hire anyone beyond third-pick candidates? I have some good friends that work for $unamed_spacex_competitor and their claim is essentially that spacex is considered a "bad" job in the industry. They talk about it like it's a sweatshop. Honestly, I think it's just jealousy. If you meet somebody and tell them you work for spacex, they think you're a rockstar. If you meet somebody and tell them you work for Boeing, they say "oh, I didn't know Boeing made rockets, you should go work for spacex!". It does sound like SpaceX is long hours and hard work...but a lot of people really enjoy that sort of thing.
- btilly 11y ago
  My impression, confirmed by people who work at SpaceX, is that SpaceX is for people whose desired work/life balance is strongly tilted towards work. The work is long, hard and rewarding. But it's clearly not for everyone. And they're pretty up front about that.
  - trevor-e 11y ago
    Very true. I love watching the live stream videos which show teams celebrating after successful launches/landings, because it's easy to see just how rewarding the job is for them.
  - mattbeckman 11y ago
    I went through the interview process, and it went really well. I got the tour, met some interesting people, had a solid interview, but I didn't get an offer. I like to think I didn't get an offer because I asked about work-life balance with wife & kids one too many times. :) It might have been a good thing to not get that job.
    - celticninja 11y ago
      Sounds like you were not going to be a good fit for them. I expect this will be why they are keen on recent grads with little in the way of a personal life and still plenty of energy for all nighters.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
> I wish other companies would take a cue from them and be as transparent about their goals and progress. (...) Who needs a marketing team when you can casually throw out your plans to go to another planet within a few years and have people know you mean it? I wish. Most other companies can't do that simply because they have no grand goal worth talking about. It's understandable. I don't want my local bakery to talk about feeding the world, because I know their sole purpose is to provide for people working there in exchange for bread customers need. Most companies are like that, and it's OK. Personally, I value honesty. I despise of companies that try to pretend they're doing something grand, or working towards some idea, when in fact they're just in it for the cash. Not trying to fix the world is totally fine. Pretending to do it for a marketing boost is not.
- aerovistae 11y ago
  Agreed. I guess what I'm really saying is I wish there were more companies taking on huge problems in exciting and innovative ways the way SpaceX does, which is a prerequisite to them being transparent about it.
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  Providing bread to a community is a worthy goal. The problem is people trying to make their mission look broader than it is. Letting a spider out of the house is a profoundly important goal. People just need to embrace their immediate work it is of the utmost importance.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Sure, but most bakeries don't even have that goal. I purposefully said about providing for workers - especially owners - by means of getting money in exchange of bread. When we're talking about networks of baker shops, the owners usually couldn't care less about what they're selling, as long as people are willing to buy that. And as I said, it's fine. But the most important way in which SpaceX is different than most is that for Elon and his company, Mars and space are terminal goals, while profit is only means to get there. It's exactly the opposite to how most companies operate.

Torkel 11y ago

I agree - SpaceX is incredible! They capture the imagination and hopes of our time. They stand for making our dreams come true. I used to watch the live-blogs and then livestreams of Steve Jobs when he delivered his keynotes. It felt like seeing and hearing the future. Every new announcement was thrilling and exciting. These days it's SpaceX's launches that gives me a similar feeling. A feeling of seeing and being part of something truly important. If another company communicated in the exact same way it wouldn't be the same, because the story and the sense of importance just isn't there. I could imagine something similar being done in AI, robotics, prolongation of life, clean energy. But to be as great as SpaceX is, I think the mission needs to be something that resonates with us as being profoundly important. Maybe someone wants to call me out and say that Apples products under Steve Jobs were not that important. But I'd say they were. iPhone, iPad - they changed our world. It's just now we've gotten used to it. I hope we'll one day get as used to people living on Mars! :)

erikpukinskis 11y ago
In what sense is SpaceX profoundly important to you? It's profoundly exciting for sure... Mars will be the best reality tv show ever. It's hard for me to see it as important though, except as marketing for science education. Is that what you're thinking of? I guess I'm asking because sometimes people seem to act like SpaceX is of humanitarian importance and I just can't see that. Not compared to like 10 other immediate existential threats to humanity anyway.
- DaveMebs 11y ago
  If you can establish self-sustaining societies on multiple planets you eliminate humanity's greatest threat - the fact that Earth is a single point of failure.
  - kayoone 11y ago
    We humans are bound to earth by our very own evolution, finely tuned for this environment. We are children of the earth and children we will remain.
  - meric 11y ago
    The current big threats to humanity are climate change and nuclear war. They are threats we create for ourselves, by relentlessly expanding the economy and inventions of new technologies. Ironically our solution to it is to further expand our technology and economy into other planets.
    - vatotemking 11y ago
      Elon is addressing climate change via SolarCity and Tesla.
    - patrickmclaren 11y ago
      Indeed, new human colonies on other planets will not be immune to our existing problems.
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    > the fact that Earth is a single point of failure. Ah but once Earth is no longer the single point of failure then the Sun becomes the single point of failure :) I'm very excited about all things space and I hope SpaceX pulls it off
  - boznz 11y ago
    Never really bought that argument. So Hypothetically even if earth did get hit by another dinosaur killer or worse, wouldn't it still be easier to live here than on mars? at least the temperatures would be survivable and there is air and water here, much more so than Mars Saying that the thread is about SpaceX and Mars and all I can say is "GO SPACEX!"

ranman 11y ago

ULA does pay better... but after a certain threshold the pay doesn't matter compared to what you're working on / accomplishing. I think Google captured this really well: https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/ https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful...

TrevorJ 11y ago
ULA is also laying off a large portion of their workforce.
- gozur88 11y ago
  That always makes for a depressing work day, even if you're not affected and everything else is going fine.
mdorazio 11y ago
SpaceX also has a reputation for severely overworking its employees in addition to the below-market pay. If working in aerospace that actually gets humans off the earth is your goal, then SpaceX is hands down the best private employer. However, if you just want to use your education and skills to work on aerospace while working reasonable hours for good pay, one of the ULA companies would be a much better bet.
- brianwawok 11y ago
  So you are saying SpaceX is the EA of rockets?
  - wbc 11y ago
    SpaceX actually makes good products tho :)
    - brianwawok 11y ago
      Most EA products were really good. Sim city back in the day rocked! Madden was amazing! I guess the danger is if we see Falcon 2020 that is the same as Falcon 2019 with new voiceovers...

blhack 11y ago

>How can ULA hire anyone beyond third-pick candidates? I have some good friends that work for $unamed_spacex_competitor and their claim is essentially that spacex is considered a "bad" job in the industry. They talk about it like it's a sweatshop. Honestly, I think it's just jealousy. If you meet somebody and tell them you work for spacex, they think you're a rockstar. If you meet somebody and tell them you work for Boeing, they say "oh, I didn't know Boeing made rockets, you should go work for spacex!". It does sound like SpaceX is long hours and hard work...but a lot of people really enjoy that sort of thing.

btilly 11y ago
My impression, confirmed by people who work at SpaceX, is that SpaceX is for people whose desired work/life balance is strongly tilted towards work. The work is long, hard and rewarding. But it's clearly not for everyone. And they're pretty up front about that.
- trevor-e 11y ago
  Very true. I love watching the live stream videos which show teams celebrating after successful launches/landings, because it's easy to see just how rewarding the job is for them.
- mattbeckman 11y ago
  I went through the interview process, and it went really well. I got the tour, met some interesting people, had a solid interview, but I didn't get an offer. I like to think I didn't get an offer because I asked about work-life balance with wife & kids one too many times. :) It might have been a good thing to not get that job.
  - celticninja 11y ago
    Sounds like you were not going to be a good fit for them. I expect this will be why they are keen on recent grads with little in the way of a personal life and still plenty of energy for all nighters.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

> I wish other companies would take a cue from them and be as transparent about their goals and progress. (...) Who needs a marketing team when you can casually throw out your plans to go to another planet within a few years and have people know you mean it? I wish. Most other companies can't do that simply because they have no grand goal worth talking about. It's understandable. I don't want my local bakery to talk about feeding the world, because I know their sole purpose is to provide for people working there in exchange for bread customers need. Most companies are like that, and it's OK. Personally, I value honesty. I despise of companies that try to pretend they're doing something grand, or working towards some idea, when in fact they're just in it for the cash. Not trying to fix the world is totally fine. Pretending to do it for a marketing boost is not.

aerovistae 11y ago
Agreed. I guess what I'm really saying is I wish there were more companies taking on huge problems in exciting and innovative ways the way SpaceX does, which is a prerequisite to them being transparent about it.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
Providing bread to a community is a worthy goal. The problem is people trying to make their mission look broader than it is. Letting a spider out of the house is a profoundly important goal. People just need to embrace their immediate work it is of the utmost importance.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Sure, but most bakeries don't even have that goal. I purposefully said about providing for workers - especially owners - by means of getting money in exchange of bread. When we're talking about networks of baker shops, the owners usually couldn't care less about what they're selling, as long as people are willing to buy that. And as I said, it's fine. But the most important way in which SpaceX is different than most is that for Elon and his company, Mars and space are terminal goals, while profit is only means to get there. It's exactly the opposite to how most companies operate.