left SpaceX about 8 months ago. took a boring infrastructure role at a company that makes enterprise software nobody talks about, and i sleep 8 hours now. here's what i actually thought about the culture.
the hours not 40. closer to 55-60 most weeks when i was on an active program milestone. on crunch periods (launch windows, hardware integration deadlines) it could spike to 70+. nobody tells you this directly. it's more of an ambient expectation that seeps in through the behavior of the people around you.
the comp math spoke to this elsewhere but: the base + RSU package is below comparable big-tech TC. the people who stay and are happy have priced this in. they've genuinely decided the mission and the work itself are worth the delta. the people who are unhappy are doing silent comp math every quarter.
what was actually good the caliber of people is real. engineers there are serious. the problems are not trivially solvable. you're not building a 4th analytics dashboard. i shipped work that physically went to orbit. that feeling doesn't go away.
also: the flat-ish structure means you can actually talk to people who've been there 10 years without navigating three layers of org chart. decisions move fast by aerospace standards.
what was actually hard no remote work. hawthorne office is physically isolated. the commute from any affordable LA neighborhood is brutal. the cafeteria is good though, which i think is intentional.
PTO is officially generous but the culture around taking it is not. i took 8 days in 14 months.
bottom line if you are 25, childless, renting nearby, and genuinely energized by the mission, it's an incredible place to be for 3-4 years. if you have competing priorities outside work or are expecting FAANG WLB, recalibrate hard before accepting.