What’s It Like to Work for Elon Musk?
Elon Musk (Credit: SpaceX)
Quora.com has some interesting input from Space.com and Tesla employees on what it’s like to work for Elon Musk. From the responses, it sounds awesome, challenging, demanding, inspiring and all measures of other superlatives. And it’s clearly not for everyone.
There’s one anonymous entry from one SpaceX employee who while professing to love the company and his job, nonetheless delves into some of the darker aspects of working for Musk:
Everything that’s been said is certainly true. SpaceX really is awesome. What’s been said is just one part of what it’s like to work with Elon Musk so I’ll discuss the side that you won’t often hear.
If you want a family or hobbies or to see any other aspect of life other than the boundaries of your cubicle, SpaceX is not for you and Elon doesn’t seem to give a damn.
This side of what it’s like to work with Elon shows that no one likes working with Elon. You can always tell when someone’s left an Elon meeting: they’re defeated. These are some of the hardest working and brightest people in the world, mind you. And they are universally defeated. At least in engineering, who knows what HR and finance does.
The reason for this is that Elon’s version of reality is highly skewed. It’s much like Steve Jobs’s “reality distortion field” except Elon isn’t great at public speaking. If you believe that a task should take a year then Elon wants it done in a week. He won’t hesitate to throw out six months of work because it’s not pretty enough or it’s not “badass” enough. But in so doing he doesn’t change the schedule….One of the most famous quotes that runs around the office is one from a company wide talk Elon gave a couple of years ago where he said “Not enough of you are working on Saturdays.” Of course reality kicks in and either junk product gets flown or something terrible happens. Ultimately the schedule slips–surprise surprise, fatigue is real….
Nothing you ever do will be good enough so you have to find your own value, not depending on praise to get you through your obviously insufficient 80 hour work weeks.
The picture the employee paints matches what I have heard over the years about Musk and SpaceX through various channels. If anything, they’re fairly mild; I’ve heard much worse things from others. The comments also match perfectly with what I know about Silicon Valley. He’s imported that model into the space industry, complete with absurd working hours and the promises of vast wealthy from stock options once the company makes its initial public offering (IPO).
Read the full comments by this engineer, and those that other folks have contributed. Those who don’t work at SpaceX or Tesla will find plenty of material to support — and challenge — their preconceptions about Musk and his companies.
SpaceX is here to stay. In the years ahead, Musk and his company will play an increasing role in our nation’s space effort by launching military satellites and astronauts into orbit. It’s worth taking a closer look at them. It’s worth asking whether SpaceX can consistently and safely accomplish these goals while continuing to work its people to exhaustion with 80-hour weeks.
42 responses to “What’s It Like to Work for Elon Musk?”
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SpaceX exists because of this business model. How else do you think they’re providing launch vehicles at such a discount? Try adding up the overtime hours of every engineer and you will see vastly different numbers.
Elon is a sociopathic megalomaniac. He has a vision and he’s going to accomplish it even if it requires rocket fuel made of baby seals. He doesn’t care at all about the people that work for him. I know this from personal experience.
Too many people miss the whole point of space exploration. I understand that Elon is trying to accomplish something but he will find himself on his deathbed with a very empty life if he forgets that this is really all about the people, not your name in a book.
You sound like someone had promised you something different from what you actually got. So, had they? And you caring for Musk’s soul after labeling him a “sociopathic megalomaniac” (sic!) is kinda awkward… You might wanna choose a pose and stick to it, else some anonymous guy on the Internet might lable you a schizophrenic or, God forbid, a hypocrite…
Anyways , you probably should try India as your work environment. It’s all about being a family there. An Indian family, though 😉
You think I care for Elon’s soul? Not at all. I must not have conveyed my thoughts effectively, given your post and the number of Likes on it. I don’t like Elon Musk as a human being but I can’t help but respect and appreciate the amount he has done for the space industry.
There was an X-Men movie where Magneto told someone that his mortal enemy, Professor X, had done more for mutant rights than anyone else. That’s how I feel about Elon. I despise his path but appreciate his vision/goal.
“Too many people miss the whole point of space exploration” yes and you miss the point of capitalism. “Try adding up the overtime hours of every engineer” yes and when you do you realize that these employee’s often earn more money in one night’s overtime than a waitress does in a entire working week. I’m laboring atm and work 60-70 hour’s a week in rain hail or sunshine helping to build a school and for that i get paid spare change compared to what these engineer’s are getting. and don’t tell me my job is less difficult than these people’s jobs because it’s not most of the time it’s not even close to how hard I work. What many people would give to be able to get a bit of overtime or even a job. Capitalism is not fair get over it!
Actually, you miss Elon’s point.
He does not care one WIT about Capitalism.
He is not in this to make a $.
He uses the $ to make a difference.
And just as we all know who Einstein, Lincoln, Gallo, Carnegie, etc. etc are. Hell, I think that it is fair to say that the world knows who Columbus is. And Columbus was a man in a VERY similar position to Musk.
And if you think that he really cares about Capitalism, you should take note of Tesla’s patents. Of course, he kept certain sauce out of the patents. The same is true at SpaceX. He keeps things quiet there, because of China’s massive cheating.
“Actually, you miss Elon’s point” of course I did I wasn’t addressing it at all.
Columbus was a cruel mass-murderer who systematically decimated entire populations of indigenous men, women, and children for profit and fun. He was also a liar who put personal profit above all principles of decency. But our culture can forgive and forget all this and not look at the whole person, just focus on ends not means, as your comparison aptly proves.
lol.
So you think that Musk is comparable to the worst parts of columbus?
IOW, you think that SpaceX is a slave company?
Interesting. You start bitching about how you chose a job that makes less than an engineer while falsely believing that your job is more difficult and then you say “Capitalism is not fair get over it”. Just think about that for a minute.
I’m not sure I understand your point now. But I really don’t sympathize with anyone that complains about their job and compares it to others. You make your own life.
I’m not saying you work any less than an engineer at all. I know that many people, no matter what job they have, will work their asses off. Some people just have that work ethic. It’s the same for engineers. I know many that have a cushion job doing nothing. But I know much more that are busting their asses to try and make a difference. I used to be a waiter. I even worked at McDonald’s, Radio Shack, and Best Buy. My engineering job is by far the most challenging of the bunch. There’s a valid reason why it pays more.
“you chose a job” ignorant! alot of people can’t chose.
“But I really don’t sympathize with anyone that complains about their job and compares it to others” when did i complain about my job i only said i believed i worked just as hard as these and get paid much less. I am grateful to have a job and like many people would give an arm and a leg to have a great well paying job like the people at Spacex have.
If you work for SpaceX, you can easily find another job. Working for SpaceX is a decision you make.
If you are in construction, your job is fundamentally different. You perform hard physical labor, but when you go home your job doesn’t come home with you. These people go home, grab some dinner and continue working on their laptop until they go to bed. Saying something is easier or harder is oversimplifying, but the hard part about jobs like these is that they literally take over your life. Physically that is not demanding, but mentally it is really tough. I don’t think you really appreciate how much these people sacrifice to at the forefront of innovation.
Yes, you’re right: a lot of people can’t ‘choose'(sp, 😉 ) their job, however, you can greatly influence it.
Do you think the people at SpaceX got their jobs by being born into it? NO! Those guys are the hardest working people you’ll ever find in life. Their backgrounds are all different too but they followed the type of job that they wanted.
If you want to work at SpaceX, go do it. Know that it takes significant sacrifice to get the education, training, and qualifications. They’re not lucky for working there, they earned it.
Tombomb123 – The engineers working the long hours normally are salaried and not making ANY overtime pay. Having worked in the computer industry most of my life, I am frequently dismayed that many of the trade workers I know make the same or more than I do, didn’t have any college debt, and have a better quality of life.
The production line staff should be getting overtime, and might make out better than the engineers financially anyway.
Unfortunately there’s a myth that compensation a
has anything to do with effort. It has to do with the value you give the company. And no. Capitalism isn’t fair depending on how you define fair. You might only have the mental capacity to sweep floors and you might work very hard at it 60 hours a week but do you really think you should make more than an engineer that works 40 hour but designs rocket engines? Society should make sure that everyone that can work does and can make a decent living. After that it’s up to you.
“You might only have the mental capacity to sweep floors” i just left school a year ago and waiting to start an apprenticeship that i have been awarded.
“but do you really think you should make more than an engineer that works 40 hour but designs rocket engines”no! i don’t think i should that was my point. my other point was that people should me more grateful that they are able to get regular overtime let alone work!
Oddly, I suspect that Musk would agree with you that he is a bit of a sociopathic megalomaniac.
He is about changing the world to be better. And he is accomplishing just that. In this regard, it is not much different than what Jobs did. He changed the world to be better as well. At the least, he accelerated it.
Musk is currently scaring the daylights out of all of the other launch companies. Yet, musk is only doing the sat launches as a means to an end. Basically, he needs money to finance his R*D and to make it possible to not only go to space CHEAPLY, but to get to other destinations CHEAP AND SAFE.
This is exactly why I still have respect for Elon, He IS furthering the goal and making a difference.
Of course the people that are happy and busy working for SpaceX are probably too busy to post on blogs. At this point I don’t think anyone applying for these jobs should have any illusions as to the commitment required. If they don’t then they didn’t do there homework. I’m sure Elon isn’t easy to work for but the people that can’t hack usually look for someone else to blame and the boss is an easy target.
No one is forcing anyone to work at SpaceX against their will. I would suggest that everyone who has gotten a position at SpaceX is a highly sought after individual. So I find it strange of those who criticize. Those that don’t like the environment can seek employment elsewhere and allow the many that want to make a significant difference in our world take their place. When did working hard for a very productive purpose become a bad thing?
It happens when an ego is not up to the reality of the ambition. Sour Grapes, old story…
Well, yes and no. Musk is running this similar to how R*D labs work. And that is great for the R*D portion. In fact, I have worked at Bell Labs, Watson Labs, US West AT, NASA, and several TLAs. In addition, prior to moving into computer science, I was a geneticists/microbiologists that worked at CDC and later on various DARPA projects.
In all of these places, it was common to put in 80 hour work weeks. Most of us were single. BUT, we were all devoted to our work and pushing technology/man kind, or in one case, protecting man kind against an enemy.
Everybody that is involved in those areas, KNOW what they are doing.
And even the above description was simply an accurate description. Yeah. You give up a LOT of family life. Make no mistake about it.
BUT, I can only hope that Musk realizes R*D ppl are DRIVEN. Production line are not. I would be surprised if they do not work at least 45-50 hours/week. However, if they are working more than 60, then they will be making mistakes. And that is where he needs to check his ego and past. Basically, he needs to leave production to those that KNOW production and most of all, QA. For SpaceX to make a launch every 2 weeks, they will need some top notch QA in place combined with top notch ppl that are NOT burned out.
And production ppl RARELY are there to make the world bend to their desire.
TLAs…. Three Letter Acronyms?
Three letter agencies
Slow news day huh? I like this site for its quick coverage of space news, especially those related to suborbitals, but this tendency to put down Elon Musk and SpaceX is not healthy.
“Nothing you ever do will be good enough so you have to find your own value, not depending on praise to get you through your obviously insufficient 80 hour work weeks.”: This is right on the mark and applies to any company. People do not work to get praises, they go to work to realize their own goals. This is how you keep the company together: by sharing the same goal and work side by side to realize it.
“He’s imported that model into the space industry”: You said it as if this is a bad thing, reality check, Silicon Valley is one of the few bright points of US economy, ever wonder Europe doesn’t have Intel, Microsoft, Google, Apple? Interestingly enough, SpaceX is the one of the few bright points of US space industry, so what does this tell you? “Nothing worth doing is easy” comes to mind.
“It’s worth taking a closer look at them.”: NASA has been doing that for years, USAF is doing it right now, assuming they do their job correctly I don’t think there’s any need for alarm.
The criticism came from Elon’s own employee, and this person’s definitely not alone. So, maybe you should criticize them. I’m sure you have already on Quora.
The Silicon Valley model has many advantages, and some serious disadvantages. And it’s the first time that model has been applied to the space industry, in particular military launches and human flights. That’s worth some discussion.
Example 1: Falcon 9 has been a lot like a software program. Constant upgrades and improvements. That’s great, right?
Yeah, usually. If it works. But, what if you decide to say, bring in house the production of a major component. And your guys suck at creating that component, at least a first., And it leaks all over the place. And that multiple causes delays that has ripple effects on the entire schedule. And you can’t launch things on time and your customers satellites are sitting on the ground and you can’t prove you can get to any sort of a regular launch cadence that is a requirement of big spenders like…oh, say, the U.S. Air Force?
That’s not so good, right?
Example 2: The ancient astronauts from Earth’s distant past (1960’s) used to joke that all the components in their vehicles were supplied by the lowest bidder. A little bit of humor to take the edge off the dangerous things they were doing.
How comfortable will the astronauts of the future be knowing that major components on their rocket and spacecraft were assembled by someone working 60 to 80 hours weeks for the past year to meet some impossible schedule?
Now that’s not so funny, is it? All edge, no humor.
Example 3: The company goes IPO, a lot of the early employees cash out and take off because they’re burned out. And suddenly the company loses an entire level of experienced people.
As I said, a lot of advantages and some disadvantages.
All valid concerns, here’s my view:
Example 1 Constant upgrades and improvements: This is not unique to SpaceX, ULA upgrade and improve Atlas and Delta constantly as well, the only difference is their upgrades are all signed off by USAF. I agree SpaceX needs to do better QA on their upgrades, and work out a similar arrangement with USAF once they’re certified, but I don’t think this is a big show stopper.
Example 2 Overworked workers: How comfortable are the astronauts knowing their ship is assembled by low pay Russian workers who can install a sensor backwards? Seriously, here’s why this whole thing is not about the people, at least on the production side. It’s about the design and process, you design the thing so that astronauts can survive even with a failed component, and you structure the production process so that failed component is caught before the main engine is lit.
Example 3 Talent leaving after IPO: This is where the goal comes in, if employees are only for the money then sure, this will be a concern. But if the employees are in because they want to go to Mars, then where else do they go to realize their dreams? 80 hours a week is not so terrible if you’re working on something you love, after all you’re still writing articles during the weekend, no?
Fair enough.
The weekend articles have been in between a lot of soccer watching. So, this is a light weekend for me.
On Example 2. I would point out that many — but not all — of the quality control issues have been with Khrunichev. The RD-180 engines that power the Atlas V have been largely trouble free thus far. And Soyuz remains reliable.
I agree that U.S. should reduce its reliance on the Russians. But, SpaceX isn’t the only option for that.
what the AC said, was NOT a putdown of musk.
He simply describes the working conditions there. It is similar to other labs that I have worked at.
Slow news day or not, this is an excellent post. Look at how much discussion it has brought on! It’s this type of information that many people want to know, especially in the aerospace industry.
I didn’t take any of the post comments to be negative or a criticism of Elon or SpaceX. It felt like an honest assessment of the work conditions that are required to achieve the success that SpaceX has achieved. One could almost view it as a badge of honor: to work at SpaceX, you can’t be lazy, you have to be willing to make it your life, and you have to be an excellent engineer.
Even if you despise Elon Musk, you cannot deny that the engineers there are top notch in their field.
SpaceX is in the ‘excellence’ game. They don’t want the top 10%, they want the top 1 or 2% and even some of them are not going to be prepared to do what’s required of them. As someone else posted, anyone considering work with SpaceX needs to do their homework else you’ll be sadly disappointed.
If you’re looking for a 9-5 job, then don’t look to work with SpaceX. There’s been plenty of warnings.
But the upside, is that you get to join a group dedicated to making a change to the world. You may not make it but you’ll at least have a chance.
I’d take it in a flash if I could, but wrong country, sadly not a star and in the wrong field so I’ll be satisfied by living the dream vicariously. Oh well!
Cheers.
Spot on.
One thing that I will say is that so many here seem to think that the AC was being negative. He was nothing of the sorts. He was simply being accurate.
Windbourne, I agree with your statements here. I did not take the original message to be negative but rather honest.
BeanCounter (love the name), I feel the same way, however, I dove a bit more into the emotional side of the fence and that’s always a prickly situation with the ever-so-logical engineers.
well struck.
This information is consistent with what I’ve heard. And yes, people that work for SpaceX choose to do so, and should know what they are getting themselves into.
They are very upfront about that from my personal experience – when I was finishing up my undergrad and was seeking employment there, the person that interviewed me made that clear. I chose not to go further after hearing they worked 70+ hours a week and routinely worked 3 weeks without a day off. I busted my ass in school and work up to that point in my life and was looking forward to only putting in 40-50 good hours a week, like normal people who want to have lives outside of work.
All that said, this is not your average Silicon Valley startup. Plenty of companies put out buggy software and then later patch it. So if someone working 80 hours a week messes up due to fatigue, its not a big deal, it can be fixed. Not so with space launch. Mistakes equal lost spacecraft.
What SpaceX is doing can be great for the future of space launch and mankind. But until they prove they can launch on time and reliably, it’s hard to argue the Airforce and NRO should award them contracts for the more precious payloads. Many spacecraft being launched have taken a decade or more to develop, cost many billions of dollars, and would take 5+ years to rebuild and launch an identical version.
Will ULA and Ariane – both whom have unprecedented success in space launch – have failures that cause loss of the spacecraft? Probably at some point. But by not working their employees ragged like SpaceX does, they will avoid potential failures and oversights that didn’t need to happen.
There is nothing wrong with being driven, obsessed even to achieve the goals you have set out for yourself. Down turn is that family life must be almost non-existant, but we need these kinds of people at some period in time to get things done if stale mate is at hand. That said I have the ominous feeling that Elon is bashing his head against the inability of even the best technicians to conceive chemical rockets or payloads that can’t be flawed so that launches can go ahead on time as planned,
Moving from prototypes with constantly upgraded components to assembly line production is a significant change. It involves freezing the design, and hiring a set of folks who are very good at doing the same things day in and day out for years. That’s probably a different group than the people they have there now, who are likely constantly fiddling with things and have aggressive, Type A personalities. And you don’t want to be working them 70 to 80 hours per week if you want real quality.
I’m wondering if SpaceX has managed to make that transition yet. They’re turning out rockets at a pace of once every month, but if they’re still messing around with the design (bringing helium tank production in house, for example) and don’t have the right folks in place, are they turning out vehicles that they can quickly launch? Or are you going to end up with repeated delays and scrubs for various reasons (helium leaks, pressure drops and whatever happened on Sunday).
I have a mantra that I repeat to myself when I’m not happy in my job…”Be grateful, unemployment sucks”.
Actually, the “white floor” production line comes from the high-end European luxury makers, who’ve used it long before Jobs copied it. I suspect that’s where Musk got the idea for Tesla production, not from NeXT.
I think I first saw it at Ferrari and Rolls Royce. (And the Ferrari factory was what I thought of when I first heard about Job’s production line. Lotus and McLaren would have picked up the practice from Ferrari and the supercar makers, not a computer company.)
I’d love working with a results-only oriented leader like Elon Musk!
Silicon Valley tech wiz’s do work 100 hrs a week. They sleep on the floor in an office and shower at the Y every few days. But if they build a company, they sell it for $50m and spend the rest of their lives writing books, climbing mountains, building Yachts.
The average SpaceX or Tesla employee gets no interest in the company. Musk doesn’t see SpaceX ever turning a profit. He’s launching satellites and serving the Space Station to finance a mission to Mars. Good luck taking that public. So these employees have no stake in the company. Good luck keeping employees in that environment.