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SpaceX compensation is notoriously poor, as are the working conditions -- crunch is bad enough for games, but imagine if you are working on flight critical soft

SpaceX compensation is notoriously poor, as are the working conditions -- crunch is bad enough for games, but imagine if you are working on flight critical software or hardware. I've looked at their careers page many times, but the backchannel gos always made me reconsider, and since then Elon has gone really wacko.

perl4ever 6y ago
If SpaceX paid more than Google, then it would be evidence more people find working for an advertising conglomerate fulfilling than sending rockets! to! Mars! If you want to make easy money, you need to find something that is (or appears to be) one or more of evil, dull, embarrassing, pointless, or incomprehensible.
- angry_octet 6y ago
  It's a different set of skills though. Aerospace engineers and related software, electronics people don't see many openings of relevance in FAANG. The competitors are more like Airbus. And while SpaceX work is appealing (not Mars though, that's dumb) there are things in your life other than work. Also, e.g. Google TAG does amazing security work, I'd be happy to work there -- if I had a clockwork mind like taviso! But we can ethically rank working at the various tech Zaibatsu another time.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    >It's a different set of skills though Maybe? Obviously there are people at SpaceX who don't work directly on rockets, and there are people at Google who aren't SWEs. People might find some prestige or glamour even in jobs that aren't the ones you think of. Right now it appears SpaceX is hiring customer service people for Starlink, and an HR rep to work at Cape Canaveral. And a network operations analyst in Washington, and so on. They also have "rocket engineer" positions, but there are plenty of other things. The only time I was contacted by a Google recruiter, it was for a job in their legal department, so the experience was completely unlike what you hear about them.
    - angry_octet 6y ago
      Obviously there are many general operations roles, and I'm sure they could be interesting. But... SpaceX has a focus on rockets, so anything critical to that is first line. But being a systems admin isn't that, even if it is important. They don't have SREs, or people who work on languages or ML. Traditional rocket dynamics predominates. (Worryingly, they don't seem to have any formal methods / MC / validation jobs either, which is a bit of a red flag, cf Ariane failures. Human factors also seems a bit lite.) In contrast Google is focused on the things CS/EE love, and mech eng/physics takes a back seat. Just far more roles available.

perl4ever 6y ago

If SpaceX paid more than Google, then it would be evidence more people find working for an advertising conglomerate fulfilling than sending rockets! to! Mars! If you want to make easy money, you need to find something that is (or appears to be) one or more of evil, dull, embarrassing, pointless, or incomprehensible.

angry_octet 6y ago
It's a different set of skills though. Aerospace engineers and related software, electronics people don't see many openings of relevance in FAANG. The competitors are more like Airbus. And while SpaceX work is appealing (not Mars though, that's dumb) there are things in your life other than work. Also, e.g. Google TAG does amazing security work, I'd be happy to work there -- if I had a clockwork mind like taviso! But we can ethically rank working at the various tech Zaibatsu another time.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  >It's a different set of skills though Maybe? Obviously there are people at SpaceX who don't work directly on rockets, and there are people at Google who aren't SWEs. People might find some prestige or glamour even in jobs that aren't the ones you think of. Right now it appears SpaceX is hiring customer service people for Starlink, and an HR rep to work at Cape Canaveral. And a network operations analyst in Washington, and so on. They also have "rocket engineer" positions, but there are plenty of other things. The only time I was contacted by a Google recruiter, it was for a job in their legal department, so the experience was completely unlike what you hear about them.
  - angry_octet 6y ago
    Obviously there are many general operations roles, and I'm sure they could be interesting. But... SpaceX has a focus on rockets, so anything critical to that is first line. But being a systems admin isn't that, even if it is important. They don't have SREs, or people who work on languages or ML. Traditional rocket dynamics predominates. (Worryingly, they don't seem to have any formal methods / MC / validation jobs either, which is a bit of a red flag, cf Ariane failures. Human factors also seems a bit lite.) In contrast Google is focused on the things CS/EE love, and mech eng/physics takes a back seat. Just far more roles available.