My group; Development Testing (DevTest) located in Hawthorne, CA. is a unique group that focuses on rapid hardware development and testing for all SpaceX products (Falcon, Dragon, Starlink and especially Starship) with the aim of reducing development time and increasing reliability.
If you enjoy pushing your own boundaries in a fast paced environment, want to have substantial impact on the future of humanity taking to the moon/mars and appreciate the Core Values/Ethos of FIRST please to check out these jobs!
Development Test Engineer
Development Test Specialist
Development Test Technician
These are all pretty old video’s but I hope you get the idea. Most of these are Falcon/Dragon and you can probably guess that Starship has very different challenges.
Hypothetically
Tell me why a College Jr /Senior on an appropriate degree path should apply. Let’s say I have a com sci or electrical engineering minor to back up substantial ME degree progress and a good extracurricular portfolio.
I have seen the flashy videos, cool. but as early career tell me what is in it for me beyond the brand recognition.
I don’t subscribe to hustle culture and money only gets you so far in life. Why is this a good engineering position to cut me teeth on vs another engineering firm?
I wasn’t going to say anything because it seemed a bit negative but I get the feeling others are raising some eye brows at this.
I hope this statement is to just make it sound cool but really this is a red flag. It is very corporate speak for long hours and unfriendly management.
We’ve had alumni intern at SpaceX and really enjoy the experience. Folks interested in getting their foot in the door this industry sector could really benefit from this experience.
I have not worked at SpaceX, but I worked at another rocket company and many of my friends are current or former SpaceX’ers.
SpaceX employees are given a large amount of responsibility very early in their career, and they can make a very substantial contribution to the future of spaceflight despite having very little experience. On a personal level, being thrown into sink-or-swim situations is a recipe for very quick growth as an engineer (but also a significant risk of becoming incredibly stressed and/or getting fired).
There is a tradeoff here - joining SpaceX likely means making less money and working far longer and harder than (as an example) most software companies.
I think this tradeoff is actually quite similar to being a dedicated member of an FRC team.
There can be phenomenal departments in companies that may have poor reputations or stigma surrounding them. Job descriptions run through HR. Public perception will almost never recognize individual departments.
If interning or very early career is about the experience (social and professional experience mind you) I want someone closer to those positions to speak towards why they think this is a good early career starting point.
Seems like you just don’t agree with the reasons given by the OP, as the video content, job postings and the post itself paint a pretty good picture. Does a better job than most job promotions I’ve tried to cobble together in the past.
Rather than grinding axes or picking bones, I’m just out here supporting students finding satisfying careers. Best of luck.
Question, how many of them returned for either another internship or full-time employment?
Boilerplate HR statement from any company hiring entry-level employees. Works for any industry, too. Best part? It’s true.
Let me rephrase the question he’s asking: “I want to get into the space sector. Why should I intern at SpaceX instead of Blue Origin*? What might the difference be in my future career?” Which is actually a pretty valid question to ask a company rep or two or three.
*Or Rocket Labs. Or ULA. Or NASA. Or Millennium Space Systems/Boeing. Or [insert company here].
Mike I have no intention of quarreling with you and we are on the same side here; both wanting a good experience for early career student/grad.
I was just hoping to unwrap some of the galm in the initial post and focus in on what makes a good fit beyond “pushing boundaries” which I personally find hilariously vague.
The OP references “rapid hardware development”, “reducing development time” and “fast paced environment” in a relatively short post. If the hypothetical student I proposed is turned away by the OP because it doesn’t sound like a good fit despite decent early career qualifications then I can appreciate the honesty and it may be telling for others that are more hesitant that despite the workload the group is honest about it all.
My 2¢ isn’t with a lot, maybe half that, But still, penny for my thoughts I guess…
FWIW, every SpaceX employee and recruiter I’ve interacted with has been incredibly upfront about the time they put in and the time they expect their coworkers to put in as well.
I don’t know of any individuals who went through the full SpaceX recruitment process and was blindsided by the culture they were joining.
Is there a software role in this team? I’ve been seriously wanting to get into this field and the only opportunity locally to me was working in LabVIEW and I’ve been wondering if that is common in other places.
Was just about to post this. Everyone I know there, were told/knew about the work load before starting as well.
@Skyehawk your reply to the OP comes off as you projecting your work views onto students in an effort to get their views to align with your own. There are people in this world and program who align with the culture/work load at spaceX and there are people who do no, both are okay.
As far as job recruitment posts go, I would say the OP posted more info than 90% of the ones I have read here; plenty enough in my opinion for a student heading into college or post college to make a decision that aligns with their future goals.
Yes I do have a negative view, although a lot of that is distaste for the man in charge. Having seen some companies vastly take advantage of recant grads in engineering, I don’t see any issues with throwing an opposition opinion into the mix to pull the brakes on the hype train a little. There is no reason these can’t be good positions.
I would still expect a rep looking to recruit for any engineering position to address a skeptical viewpoint with deeper arguments than “we do cool stuff”. Lots of people do cool stuff. Why is this flavor of cool stuff, in your department, a good first career move?
Edit:
To be clear I am not faulting the OP for posting in CD. Rapid prototyping experience is not a super common skill in a lot of engineering circles. If you know about FRC college grads and mentors it makes a lot of sense to post here.
I did a SpaceX internship once upon a time, as did a few of the other BREAD mentors, some of them multiple times! Happy to talk about what it was like to any students/mentors that are local, if you catch us at an event
Pretty cool to see a company that has literally changed the space industry advertising directly to the FRC community on our little web forum, tbh.
It is projecting slightly but he also is asking a critical question that keeps getting side stepped with “Stop projecting” arguments. I’d like to actually hear an answer to his question. Why is working at SpaceX, in this testing department, advantageous and how does it align with what was learned in FRCFIRST Robotics Competition better than just finding something else similar to robotics in industry.
Please leave the other issues aside for a minute and maybe we could all learn about it. People vouching for the pacing is good, I’d like to hear from the person recruiting as they are the SpaceX representative in this thread. As a coach I’d like to know more, I get team sponsors who do the same thing and I’d like to have a good comparison. Local shops are going to be very different from what’s being discussed here.
Students are attracted by big company names but don’t ask the hard questions they should ask. As their coach I don’t want to advise them to go down a path that they will not have success at. I’m more hesitant to recommend they apply for jobs like this with “hype” and more likely to push them to a company I have contacts in or we have learned about their processes and done tours. What OP has given us is a great glimpse, we just want more information and I think that’s fair to ask and learn about.
We all work with bosses we dislike. Or we just tolerate them because we get paid. Experience is the only thing any employer can’t take away. Both good or bad. There is always a risk.
Just because someone had a bad experience with a boss, doesn’t mean that someone else will.
Heck…some people think I shouldn’t play with crayons much less lasers.
So besides the example you quoted, are there any other questions you (or others) would recommend asking? Genuinely curious as someone who will be looking for similar positions in the next couple years.
