I feel 100% qualified to do the job I'm interviewing for this week, but I'm mostly just looking for any tips on how to study for a non-coding interview w/ them. Any horror stories? I've checked Glassdoor (and googling) and coming up with mostly small odds/ends here and there. Any tips appreciated!
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By sethgoodluck 2023-06-2615:321 reply One of my best friends worked there for several years. Ignore the condescending and unrooted drivel in most of the comments. He loved it. But make no bones about it, you work your butt off like there isn't a tomorrow because the ethos is that there may not be if you don't.
If you're down for hard grueling work but doing so with a bunch of brilliant people and care deeply about the mission it can be an incredible opportunity and open many doors. If you're wanting to be chill and have "balance" it isn't a place for that. They have some of the best tech on earth and are among the most innovative companies in history. They work for it though. My buddy rolled out after getting married and having a kid. He has no regrets.
By ActorNightly 2023-06-273:31 >If you're down for hard grueling work but doing so with a bunch of brilliant people and care deeply about the mission it can be an incredible opportunity and open many doors. If you're wanting to be chill and have "balance" it isn't a place for that. They have some of the best tech on earth and are among the most innovative companies in history. They work for it though.
Not quite.
https://twitter.com/atomicthumbs/status/1032939617404645376?...
There are definitely some smart people, and things move fast, but there are 2 sides to the company I had friends that worked for Space X and Tesla, and I have worked for a UAV companies, and its the same story over and over again. My CEO straight up told us "your reward for working hard is that you get to continue working".
Within the company, there exists a clique of upper level managers/engineers and some lower level engineers, where the talent lies. If you are part of this clique, you love it, as you get a good amount of input on how your work goes, what areas you wan to take on, and it feels like you are doing cool shit with friends where you can easily work 60 hour weeks because you are having fun. And if you do quit, you always have connections and stay in touch and are able to find work .
If you are not part of this clique, you work on stuff you are told, have to put in extra hours to get shit to work because of barriers in the way, you have no say in any direction, and you eventually get burnt out.
The thing is, to join that clique, you have to be hired based on reworking through someone in the clique who can vouch for you, or spend a shitload of time in a company suffering through the burn out to get into an established position when other clique members quit (and hope that they don't hire someone external to fill the role rather than giving it to you).
I interviewed with them a bit over a decade ago for an engineering position after I got my master’s degree. The interviewer straight up asked me if I was okay working something like 60 hour weeks. I said nope right then.
At least he came out with it. Although if he said 60 he probably meant even more. In the UK or Europe it would probably have been illegal to mention this. I wish someone would have just come out and said this at a startup I worked at.
By SilverBirch 2023-06-2614:171 reply Under EU law it is illegal to work more than 48 hours a week.... unless you opt-out. So everyone just opts-out.
By thorin 2023-06-2614:22 I was forced to opt out in my last few jobs. It's kind of weird.
By askafriend 2023-06-270:091 reply They're currently raising at a $150B valuation so you would have been retired and on a Yacht by now (and yes they do tender offers, so your equity wouldn't be illiquid).
By askafriend 2023-06-273:582 reply 60 hrs a week and you're already posturing about health?
I mean you can do whatever you want - but for most of history people have been working far more than that.
60hrs a week is not bad, especially if the work is interesting and you get to work with talented people. It's not like you would have had to work there for the rest of your life.
Just a couple years there would have meant never needing to work ever again. Sounds healthy to me!
1. If they say 60 up front, it’s likely much more than that.
2. I don’t do good work when I’m tired.
3. I have some health issues that make managing 40 hours difficult sometimes, so I’m not “posturing.”
Also, I’m pretty sure stock options didn’t vest until like four years or something. IIRC, Musk’s companies were well known for chewing up young engineers and spitting them out. Their modus operandi seemed to be taking advantage of young idealistic graduates who would work themselves to death for some “cause” (and not enough compensation).
By askafriend 2023-06-2714:03 All of that is fair. Sorry to hear about your health issues - that's totally understandable.
Just wanted to push back a little against your initial snark :)
By 2rsf 2023-06-2711:13 > for most of history people have been working far more than that.
Are you sure? can you support the "most" part?
By aborsy 2023-06-266:19 No experience, but the company’s hiring practices seem a scam to some extent. They pay little, usually fooling inexperienced people, like, as the commenter above said, that they are sending people to space, and stuff like that. Funny, you over work too.
