Pros
The spaceship is a genuinely exciting engineering project with an incredible history. A few of the worker bees on the ground are especially wonderful to collaborate with (technicians, engineers below any managers). Working alongside the pilots is an incredible opportunity.
Cons
VG/TSC used to have magic in the air, until a change in management caused a mass exodus of the majority of their best engineering leaders. A few stuck it out, until the culture became so unbearably toxic. It seemed like nearly 50% of the company turned over in the last year. They became so desperate to fill the empty positions, they started hiring anyone with a pulse. Lots of folks from backgrounds as managers that barely know what a rocket motor even looks like. Eventually they even gave up on filling the positions to the point where it feels there is a hiring freeze for anyone other than a useless nepotism VP position. Upper management employs values such as “straight up” and “safety first” but enacts the exact opposite. The place is rampant with serious racial and sexual harassment claims that never result in any action unless someone is physically assaulted. They are definitely employing discriminatory pay and title practices. Eventually, victims quit. Hence why you won’t find more than a single woman or person of color in your field of view at any given moment. Yet, the people team will pat themselves on the back about their diversity survey. The company recently cheaped out on their benefits which was potentially the last thing they had going for them. Executive leadership now displays such an extreme disregard for treating their employees with respect that it’s almost like they want you to quit. The most important safety-critical tests are prevented from happening by management, so there’s no accountability for completing tasks. The challenges you face will all be based on navigating some of the worst personalities and red tape. Listen to the other reviews that say this place will break you. And at this point, you won’t learn anything other than how to jump off a sinking ship if you decide to work here- even if you’re fresh in your career. They can’t hire anyone, they can’t retain anyone, they can’t promote anyone, and they certainly can’t fire anyone.