There were three reasons why I left SpaceX:
- My career track - I was in a project engineering role, but I wanted to do astrodynamics and controls analysis. The managers told me I could have eventually moved into that role, but I didn’t like the idea of slowly gaining those skills and waiting around for an opening.
- The size - SpaceX had around 4000 employees when I was there. I felt like a cog in a large machine, and not even a very important cog. I wanted to be a more integral member of a smaller team.
- The work-life balance - As an employee, SpaceX becomes your whole focus. There were weeks where I would wake up, go to work, eat every meal there, go home, pass out, repeat. I learned a lot, but I also had other interests that greatly suffered. But if you want to focus solely on being the best engineer you can, it’s a great environment.
For
background, near the end of my master’s program, I was an intern at
SpaceX for 5 months in 2015. Although “only” an intern, I had just
successfully managed a large-scale test of the Dragon capsule. I was
asked to continue, but declined because of the previously mentioned
reasons.
I didn’t know where I was going to
work full-time. That was pretty scary. But I’m glad I declined. After
graduation, I was recruited to my current position at a startup
with an exciting and interesting mission where I am in my preferred
technical area, work in a small team with tons of direct impact, and am
able to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
SpaceX
is a great place to work for some. You can learn fast, there are tons
of bright people, and the mission is exciting. It just wasn’t what I was
looking for in my career and my life.
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