It's one thing if these folks were hired, and it's proven that they shared proprietary data with SpaceX against some kind of agreement/non-compete or patent violation.
But if they went just to share pure knowledge of the technology, were paid more, and/or left because of a working environment... that's not poaching. That's called a better offer.
While I can't comment directly on what hiring at SpaceX looks like internally, I can say that many experienced members of the aerospace community are not interested in working at them for a variety of reasons.
High up on this list is poor work/life balance, that the company is associated with (worse even than the typical awful work/life balance in aerospace at-large). Not wanting to deal with the absurdly unrealistic deadline or engineering expectations that the company is known for is a close second.
In the interest of full disclosure I did interview with SpaceX and was rejected due to a lack of experience. I don't think this colors my opinion too much, as most of the above complaints come from talented engineers who have been working in the industry much longer than I.
I appreciate the reply and that what you mention is undoubtedly a major turnoff for many people depending on attitude to work/life balance and family, etc.
I guess I'd wonder whether SpaceX would ever intentionally target those people for "poaching" though given they're not a cultural fit to begin with? It would appear from the outside to be quite a self selecting situation?
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[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 20.2 ms ] threadIt's one thing if these folks were hired, and it's proven that they shared proprietary data with SpaceX against some kind of agreement/non-compete or patent violation.
But if they went just to share pure knowledge of the technology, were paid more, and/or left because of a working environment... that's not poaching. That's called a better offer.
High up on this list is poor work/life balance, that the company is associated with (worse even than the typical awful work/life balance in aerospace at-large). Not wanting to deal with the absurdly unrealistic deadline or engineering expectations that the company is known for is a close second.
In the interest of full disclosure I did interview with SpaceX and was rejected due to a lack of experience. I don't think this colors my opinion too much, as most of the above complaints come from talented engineers who have been working in the industry much longer than I.
I guess I'd wonder whether SpaceX would ever intentionally target those people for "poaching" though given they're not a cultural fit to begin with? It would appear from the outside to be quite a self selecting situation?