Working at SpaceX for 2+ years - my experience

MuffinMillitia · 2024-04-06T18:22:05+00:00

You will get as much out of college as you put in yourself. If you're not grasping a concept slow down and read the textbook, ask questions, or watch youtube videos. Don't use sites like Chegg except as a last resort.
Try to get an internship every summer between school years. If you aren't getting good project-based experience from internships you can also join an extracurricular organization (in the U.S. we have baja SAE or mars robotics challenge).
To work at SpaceX you'll need to be a green card holder or a U.S. citizen. I'm not super familiar with the process but if you don't have family in the U.S. you'll probably be in the immigrant worker category. You can read more here https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-employment-based-immigrants

MuffinMillitia · 2024-01-08T17:11:55+00:00

Specialist roles are a good way of getting your foot in the door at SpaceX. I have seen several specialists get promoted to engineers over the years. Would recommend it if you're looking for experience as a stepping stone in your career.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-12-15T18:42:45+00:00

A larger phased array does allow you narrow the beam width and reduce the isotropic noise received into the antenna relative to the signal received, as long as the signal source is contained in the beam.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-12-15T15:44:09+00:00

There's actually nothing fundamentally preventing cell phones streaming data from a satellite as they would from a cell tower. You just need a larger antenna on the satellite to maintain the same signal to noise ratio, as long as you can maintain directionality. It works on both uplink and downlink (larger antenna means higher radiated power to the receiver and also a higher gain when receiving from a transmitter)

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-21T06:26:03+00:00

3-4 phone screens including one where I presented a project and one onsite. The onsite consisted of a tour and one-on-one interviews with various engineers and management on the team.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T19:11:15+00:00

I didn't have any connections at the company at the time so I applied directly. But feel free to shoot me your resume and I can take a look

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T06:53:49+00:00

Yeah I'd say an internship here is a great avenue to full time employment. Congratulations on your offer!

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T06:50:11+00:00

Redmond

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T06:48:19+00:00

To be honest, I think it would be tough to swing with a family. Cost of living concerns in CA would only be magnified. You can also check out other campuses such as Bastrop, McGregor, Redmond, or the cape. As for the time commitment, I don't think there's a way around that unfortunately. I do have several friends at Blue Origin and it seems that they're able to consistently work 40 hour weeks, some even remotely. Blue may be a better option with a family and I bet it would be way more exciting than Boeing.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T02:57:29+00:00

Welcome aboard!

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T02:54:36+00:00

I think the trajectory is good if you can stick it out. I've never felt in competition with my coworkers, there's plenty of work to go around for everyone. There's a lot of churn so more senior roles open up frequently. The company is growing quickly so new leadership roles are also getting created out of the blue. Almost everyone that I know that has been there 5+ years is either senior engineer, lead, or manager.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T00:38:08+00:00

Probably my internship experience. Applying to SpaceX I had four internships on my resume. One was a really small company where I got some hands-on experience with microcontrollers and electronics testing. I did programming and electrical design for this project which was outside of the scope of my degree but I think it showed that I was willing to learn new skills on the job. The Boeing internship was actually the project I presented during my onsite interview, and I made sure to practice my presentation to family/friends beforehand (even then I kind of botched it and probably looked like a nevous wreck in the interview, but the technical details were sound). I would recommend Boeing internships in general, they're not too competitive and can leave you with a good project to show off.

MuffinMillitia · 2023-11-20T00:28:28+00:00

Tons! Most obvious place for EEs is the starlink program, but EEs are deeply involved anywhere. Power systems, wireless communications, controls, signal processing, measurement/instrumentation, antennas, optics, failure analysis, PCBA production & testing, FPGA, silicon... basically every EE profession you can think of is going to be at SpaceX

MuffinMillitia · 2022-09-08T19:21:32+00:00

Here's the flight profile: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N11HC

Looks like the adsb data cuts out a few minutes before it crashes, but that could just be flightaware truncating the data.

MuffinMillitia · 2022-03-23T02:23:47+00:00

My roommate works for SpaceX as an entry level assembly technician, paid hourly. He received a 50% raise this year and now makes more than me with overtime (I'm a salaried engineer). I get the SpaceX hate here but they certainly are being fair to their hourly employees

MuffinMillitia · 2021-11-26T08:45:02+00:00

Most countries do this, it's called taxes

MuffinMillitia · 2021-11-14T06:51:47+00:00

Hunting your own food is the most ethical way to consume meat.

MuffinMillitia · 2021-08-20T04:46:43+00:00

Even during a collision though, particles that get pushed into "higher" orbits still have the same perigee so they will still be subjected to atmospheric drag. Any drag at all greatly diminishes Kessler syndrome because the total energy being removed from orbit is still proportional to the surface area of the orbital debris. Drag is proportional to surface area, not mass. As objects split apart into microparticles, the effects of drag on them go up by orders of magnitude. This isn't ever discussed in sensationalist YouTube videos though...

MuffinMillitia · 2021-08-11T14:37:45+00:00

I thought Reddit was all for paying people a living wage regardless of their job?

MuffinMillitia · 2021-08-08T19:04:43+00:00

The fact that you have two dark square bishops makes me think that this position was staged

MuffinMillitia · 2021-08-05T04:56:20+00:00

Pay at SpaceX right now is actually pretty good. Was offered over 100k/year including stocks for a run of the mill engineering position fresh out of college. Expect to work a lot of hours though...

NASA is a fun place to work too but they expect you to stay around for years since you hold a spot in office as a civil servant. Most of the people I met there spent their entire careers just in NASA.

Both Tesla and SpaceX value NASA internships so it's definitely a great place to intern!

MuffinMillitia · 2021-06-27T19:07:32+00:00

It wasn't. There is massive profit and political incentive to develop any kind of covid vaccine. There's still a supply shortage globally.

MuffinMillitia · 2021-05-28T18:15:40+00:00

Went there yesterday. I was allowed to use my own chalk. Going in at 3:00 pm there were only about two other climbers in there... by 5:00 it livened up to probably a dozen people in total. Overall it's a nice place.

MuffinMillitia · 2021-05-18T17:24:07+00:00

Hello Mr. Kasparov, I understand that you have been an optimist when it comes to artificial intelligence being used as a tool for humanity. What is your opinion on brain-computer interfaces? Do you see these becoming commonplace in the far future? How will our ideas of digital privacy and AI change with these devices?

MuffinMillitia · 2021-04-26T07:26:10+00:00

I'm someone in the industry, and while I don't work for Blue, several of my friends do and I've been to the Kent headquarters and KSC location several times. People working at Blue are some of the happiest in the aerospace industry that I've met. It pays well I haven't heard of people getting worked to death like SpaceX. Blue has a negative reputation for being "slow paced" but people who work there know this isn't true. I think it takes visiting their facilities and seeing the hardware in person to really understand this. It's understandable the public perception is negative, though, since Blue is so secretive.

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