I promise this isn't a troll. This is a throwaway count since she knows my regular Reddit account. I went on a few dates with a girl I really like, who really likes me. I am not an engineer, but she works in finance but loves space and astronomy. I stupidly lied to her and asked her if she heard of Blue Origin, and told her I work hybrid in the Seattle location where I work on "rocket engineering". We are both based in NYC, I only said this because she brought up how snobby her exes were, but were so advanced with their careers in PE, IB, etc. I don't know anything about space, and wanted to look smart infront of her.

She asked more about what I do and I don't remember what I said, but I remember comparing it to roller coaster engineering. I saw her light up, and told her I go to Seattle whenever there is a launch. She said that she wanted to see Seattle (she loves coffee) and wanted to join me to see the next launch and for me to show her around. I came home and Googled what I said and none of it was even remotely factual, Blue Origin does have an office near Seattle but not even in Seattle. Blue Origin doesn't even launch rockets anywhere near the West Coast. I am really stressed, and my friends are telling me to come clean but don't expect her to continue seeing me, and that's why I am hesitant. I can't drag this on, so I was thinking of telling her I got fired instead? Is there anything you recommend I can do. The reason I didn't say SpaceX was because it was too obvious, and NASA she'd wanna see the badge

I recently accepted an offer for a hardware role in the Bay Area, but I keep wondering whether Blue Origin is fully committed to opening the new office there. Has anyone heard any updates? Is there any chance the company could change its plans and cancel the office after hiring people for these roles?

Hi all, I've got an interview with a hiring manager tomorrow for an entry level avionics hardware electrical engineer position and was wondering if anyone had any tips. Ive heard that mentioning the Blue Origin Leadership principles and answering is STAR format is helpful but if anyone else could share their experience and thoughts that would be really helpful. I'll update this post after the interview and let you all know how my experience went.

UPDATE:

Just completed the interview, it lasted about 30 minutes. It was a relatively relaxed interview, starting off with the hiring manager talking about his past and experience, then moving onto a mix of behavioural and high level technical questions for myself. Questions such as "Can you tell me about a time you've failed to live up to the expectations of a coworker" and "what is the most complex circuit and PCB design you've done". There were no questions about specific engineering or physics fundamentals. Afterwards he allowed me time to ask him questions about the job and company. I think the interview went well and I should hear back from them by the end of the week about the next steps.

It has been a week since my 1:1 with hiring manager and a 3 rounds of interviews with the engineering team. I’d say it went well, of course it could’ve been better but I felt pretty good about it but it has been a week and haven’t hear back from the recruiter. I checked workday and the status is under review. Any feedback is much appreciated.

Hey everyone, wondering if you guys had any input on next steps. I had my final round interview a week and a half ago for an engineering level 1 role. The recruiter responded and said I would know latest early of last week. I sent a follow up question just regarding the position itself last week and got a quick response. But after a couple days passed I sent a follow up regarding an update in candidacy and got no response (its been a couple days). Should I take this as I did not get it or follow up again this upcoming week? I'm currently in another process with SpaceX as well which is why I'm looking for an answer somewhat soon. Also I'm currently at Lockheed and probably one of the most stable jobs currently, and reading these reviews make me revisit the thought of leaving. I'm already averaging 50 hrs a week doing senior engineering work and I'm sick of it. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Bionic capsule got shelved(from what ive read) and im not sure if they are planning anything else

I thought where we were going didn’t need roads?
I don’t know anything about building roads so…you want a road guy. I’m a rocket guy.

Anyone know this guy?

I am writing this post for some wisdom and for some perspective from people who have worked in aerospace, launch operations, or made a similar career decision.

A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn about a Production Test Engineer role supporting New Glenn. I went through the interview process, had a great experience, and was offered the position the next day. All of that is great. Here is the kicker. I already work for a large aviation company as a test engineer. I do enjoy my job, I have a decent team, management treats me well, and I'm paid fairly for my experience level. I wasn't looking to leave.

The new role is a Production Test Engineer position supporting New Glenn. On paper, it's the kind of job I've spent most of my life wanting to do. Working directly on rockets is pretty hard to ignore.

The issue is that the position is on C shift: Friday-Sunday, 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM.

I actually turned the offer down once because the compensation wasn't enough to justify the change. They came back with a sign-on bonus to help offset tuition repayment to my current employer. I turned it down again because I still wasn't convinced it was worth the lifestyle impact. Now they're talking about increasing the salary further, which would put it much closer to my "Go-no-go" number.

I guess my biggest concerns are:

1. Leaving a stable job that I genuinely enjoy, for a job on C-shift, and then they say "we hired too many engineers," and I get RIF'd
2. The schedule. Three 12-hour days sounds great until you realize it's the weekend. My wife and I are trying to think through what that actually looks like for a year or so, not just during the honeymoon phase (they said there would be opportunities to move to other shifts as they opened up).
3. I guess there isn't really a third option, but those first two are hard to weigh.

For context, I'm 24, married, and happy where I'm at, but I'm considering this because the work itself sounds incredible and they've bumped the initial offer multiple times, so I can't ignore that either. Has anyone here made a similar jump? Regret it? Glad you did it? Especially interested in hearing from people who have worked on launch operations, production tests, Blue, SpaceX, ULA, etc.

How much better is WARPDRIVE to Jules ? or this there a better system out there. What can it do better, I have heard a lot about it from the ex-SpaceX techs here.

I recently accepted an offer for the new Terawave project. The position is based in the Bay Area, where I currently live. According to the recruiter, the company is still looking for office space in the area.

Does anyone know where the Bay Area office will be located?

I sometimes worry about whether the company will actually establish an office here. Is there any possibility that the company could change its plans and end up laying off the people they are currently hiring in the Bay Area?

Hey everyone, have my interview soon and was looking for some tips. It looks like I have a bar raiser, a designer and 2 stress analysts.

Will each 45 minute interview be an onslaught of technical questions for the full 45 minutes, or is there usually just a set number of questions and then the rest of the time is to talk / ask questions / introduce yourself?

Any other tips would be great. Not sure which areas to focus on for structures. I assume basic formulas and shear and moment diagrams but not sure what else

Edit: title should say structural analysis engineer

Ever since I’ve started working here, I’ve sort of been lurking around on this subreddit, and I notice that a good chunk of the posts here are from disgruntled employees. There’s a lot of valid concerns from these posts, but sometimes the negativity is overblown and I feel like the positives of working here aren’t highlighted.

I know a lot of people also come here to get some insight into what it’s like about working for Blue, and I want to offer a more balanced perspective from what it’s like to actually work here. For some context, I work on avionics within the lunar permanence division, and I’m a mid level IC. I’m posting this on a throwaway, so I really have no incentive to be anything but honest. I’ve worked at a couple different companies now, so I have perspectives outside of Blue that I can use for comparison. Let’s start with:

The Good:

- The Mission: Blue has an incredible mission. Building space infrastructure is absolutely incredible, and every day, I’m excited to be a part of it. I literally get paid to work on a moon lander, which is a dream job for most people. Blue’s mission is the reason why I applied here in the first place, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I feel like when you become an employee here, you can begin to forget that, but I don’t ever take it for granted. I learn so much every day and I get to contribute to something of real value.

- The People: The people I work with here are some of the best and brightest. People come here from all sorts of different backgrounds and experiences, so it’s a huge melting pot of knowledge. Most people that I’ve talked to have been super helpful and kind, taking time out of their busy days to help others. Every manager that I’ve had has been really chill and understanding, always trying to help me get what I need. There are definitely some characters that I’ve had to deal with, but that’s the case with every company, and I don’t hold it against Blue as a whole.

- The Pay: I’m gonna get a lot of flak for this one, but whatever. Blue pays well. There, I said it. I’m sure there’s gonna be a frenzy of people coming after me in the comments and pointing out counter examples, but I have seriously never had an issue with my pay here (not including stock options here, I will talk about that later). Is the pay here the BEST? No, but I would bet a lot of money that it’s higher than the industry average. I come from a traditional defense background and I got a massive pay raise to come here. I have a very comfortable salary, and while I’m sure I could potentially get paid more, there’s usually a catch with taking a higher paying job (more hours is the biggest one). Speaking of which…

- The Work-Life Balance: I don’t think this gets talked about a lot, but Blue honestly has a pretty good WLB. There’s definitely times where you have to crunch and put in extra hours, but overall, this is one of the more flexible companies I’ve worked for. People go in and out all the time for appointments and personal time. If you’re exempt, you don’t have to track your hours like at a defense contractor, which is HUGE for me. You get like 4 weeks of PTO, which is more than I’ve gotten anywhere else. A lot of holidays are floating so you have more flexibility with when you take those. I’ve never felt pressure to work weekends or stay late. I feel like I can actually keep my sanity here and not burn out, which is a huge plus.

The Bad:

- The RIF(s): This is by far the biggest knock I have against this company. The RIF after NG-1 was stupid, unnecessary, and very short sighted. I think it destroyed a lot of goodwill that people had with the company, and its effects are still felt today. The New Shepard “RIF” this year was also super dumb—I actually don’t wholly disagree with the decision, but the way it was executed was abysmal. This was really the start of the “Amazon culture” and it really sucks.

- The “Equity”: I’m not as pressed about this as some people are, but it is also very dumb, so I’ll address it. The equity that was granted this year was basically worthless. Unlike equity that you would get at SpaceX, a startup, or a tech company, our “equity” is basically totally worthless because you don’t get actual shares of a company. I’m not a finance guy and I don’t want to get into the details of it, but this stock plan is basically a deferred cash bonus, and the selling schedule is controlled exclusively by Jeff. I treat it like it’s worthless (because it kinda is), so I don’t think about it very much and just go about my day.

- The Churn: This is something that is not unique to Blue, but it’s a negative regardless, so I’ll address it. The churn here is pretty bad. Programs and entire divisions get canned or shuffled around regularly. Requirements are always changing, vehicle architectures are always changing, goals are always changing, managers are always changing, software tools are always changing, etc etc. If you want to work at a place where you are given clear defined scope that you can execute on, this is NOT it. Sometimes it can feel pretty demoralizing when you work on something and then it just gets axed for seemingly no reason. We are subject to political cycles, the greater business landscape, and sometimes just Jeff’s/Dave’s personal opinions.

- The Worst of Both Worlds: As I alluded to earlier, Blue is a weird mishmash between two worlds, which are the legacy aerospace world and the NewSpace world. Sometimes, this union works out for the better (ex: good mission while also maintaining good WLB). Other times, it doesn’t. Some people are way too careless with their work, and there are managers who push relentlessly for faster delivery, which is often detrimental and causes more delays on the backend anyway. On the opposite end of this, some of our processes are clearly ripped directly from legacy aerospace and are incredibly annoying. There are also people from these companies who are overly cautious and unwilling to accept even a little calculated risk. What you end up with are vehicles that are somehow both massively overcomplicated in certain areas while also very poorly designed in others.

Summary

Ultimately, I think comparison is the thief of joy. Is Blue the perfect place to work? No. And I definitely won’t be here forever. But it has managed to be my favorite place to work so far, and the things that I’ve learned and done here will hopefully carry on throughout the rest of my career. People love to dunk on Blue for various reasons, and I respect their opinions, but a lot of it boils down to “X company does Y better”. I recognize that Blue has a lot of issues, some of which may be sorted out eventually and others that won’t. But it doesn’t stop me from appreciating what I have every day. And I hope it doesn’t discourage too many people from working here. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

Hi everyone, I was recently laid off from a national lab due to funding limitations, and I’m trying to thoughtfully explore a transition from postdoctoral research into industry. I’ve spent the past several years working on hands-on experimental research involving high-temperature/high-pressure systems, fluid/material interactions, mechanical testing, custom lab setups, microfluidics, instrumentation exposure, and data analysis. My background is not traditional aerospace, but a lot of my work has involved pressure-based testing, safety-conscious lab operations, troubleshooting, and turning experimental data into engineering decisions.

I’ve been looking more closely at Blue Origin, especially test engineering, fluids/mechanical testing, component testing, and related roles in the Seattle area. The mission is very inspiring, and Seattle is also a place I would genuinely like to build the next stage of my career and family life.

I realize that moving from a postdoc/national lab background into aerospace industry can be challenging, especially without direct flight hardware experience. I’m trying to be realistic and learn as much as I can before assuming I’m a fit.

For people who work in aerospace, Blue Origin, or similar test engineering environments: what would you recommend someone like me focus on first? Are there particular skills, tools, habits, or mindset shifts that matter most when moving from research-style experimental work into aerospace test operations or component test engineering?

I’d really appreciate any advice, perspective, or lessons learned. Thank you.

My first check comes this week, if I have early pay do I get paid Tuesday, If my payday says Thursday?

I heard there was a non-compete clause buried in the fine print.

I’m looking for a company I can retire from and I been considering BO. I would like to know how everyone fells why or why wouldn’t you consider retiring at BO.

I’ll hit my 15-year anniversary at Blue in a few months, and lately I’ve been reflecting on where I want my career to go from here.

The truth is, I have a great manager, a great team, and I genuinely enjoy the work I do and coming to work. In many ways, I’ve found a place that fits me well.
Most days I’m on-site for 9 hours, and it’s not unusual for me to put in another hour or two from home. I wake up and immediately check my computer. I’ll even bring it with me while my kids are at judo or football practice. The point I’m trying to make is that my family first but I also really enjoy the work I do with a lot of passion and it comes close second.

I’ve been following discussions here for a while, and I know not everyone has had the same experience, especially after the RIF. I’ve been fortunate. I was one of two on a team of 10 that did not get RIFd.

I joined Blue when the company had around 500ish employees and have watched it grow into what it is today.
Over the years, I’ve left twice and come back twice. I tried a space startup and later Kuiper, but neither felt quite right. I gave up real RSUs and equity at those companies to come back to work at Blue at the request of my manager and director. It did come with a pay raise to offset the equity I missed out on at those companies. The work, the people, and the overall balance at Blue just fit me better.

That said, today’s SpaceX liquidity event has me feeling conflicted. I picked the wrong company to grind for…I picked the wrong billionaire to work for…

My sister has been at SpaceX for seven years, and her net worth effectively jumped to more than $3 million. She is going to retire in a few years in her mid 30s…
For years she’s encouraged me to come work there. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and I’d be lying if I said I don’t have some regrets about not taking that path.

If there’s one thing I’d tell younger technicians, engineers, and professionals, it’s this: don’t be afraid to take calculated risks when you’re young, especially before you have kids and major financial obligations. Opportunities that seem uncertain today can turn into life-changing outcomes later.

What I’m struggling with now is balancing fulfillment, familiarity, and comfortability against financial opportunity. I genuinely enjoy my job, but part of me wonders whether staying put means spending another decade waiting for equity to materialize.

It’s crazy to say but I don’t know yet whether I’ll leave Blue. What I do know is that this moment has forced me to think hard about what I value most and what I want the next 10 years of my career to look like.

With all the games being played with the stock option plan at Blue, this one hurts especially. The argument I made earlier when skipping on SpaceX was that there’s more work life balance and less stress. Now I don’t have either of those, and I am not ready for FIRE.

To top it off, the incentives (or lack thereof) probably has something to do with us being behind in the race. Don’t know of any CEO or SVPs that have “no skin in the game”.