It sounds like you're passionate about your work and that's an important quality. As gorgoiler points out, "Making a difference in the world is what counts."
If you'd like to help, consider applying! :)
As a very experienced engineer, I can’t accept being judged on (historical) trivia.
I'm also not a US citizen, so that's another cheap test I can't pass.
Unlike other "cheap tests", that one is imposed by US government regulations, not SpaceX's own decisions.
I imagine SpaceX would be quite happy if ITAR was loosened, but I doubt that will happen.
I honestly can't see why ITAR applies to citizens of friendly countries such as Canada or the UK. The point of ITAR is to stop unfriendly countries like China, Russia, Iran or North Korea getting access to technologies with sensitive military applications. The US trusts its closest allies in so many other ways (e.g. UKUSA "Five Eyes" intelligence sharing agreement, the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement under which the UK and US share nuclear weapon design information), why not in this?
If the US can trust the UK with information on nuclear weapon designs and delivery systems, surely it can handle a few UK citizens working for SpaceX?
In the unlikely event that the UK and US had some falling out, the US government could always order SpaceX to lay off UK citizen employees.
Bad example. The soviets got the bomb because of British spies in the Manhattan project. After that, there was very little collaboration to this day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_US–UK_Mutual_Defence_Ag...
> The Americans disclosed the details of nine of their nuclear weapon designs: the Mark 7, Mark 15/39, Mark 19, Mark 25, Mark 27, Mark 28, Mark 31, Mark 33 and Mark 34. In return, the British provided the details of seven of theirs, including Green Grass; Pennant, the boosted device which had been detonated in the Grapple Z test on 22 August; Flagpole, the two-stage device scheduled for 2 September; Burgee, scheduled for 23 September; and the three-stage Halliard 3. The Americans were impressed with the British designs, particularly with Halliard 1, the heavier version of Halliard 3. Cook therefore changed the Grapple Z programme to fire Halliard 1 instead of Halliard 3.[85] Macmillan noted in his diary, with satisfaction that:
>> in some respects we are as far, and even further, advanced in the art than our American friends. They thought interchange of information would be all give. They are keen that we should complete our series, especially the last megaton, the character of which is novel and of deep interest to them.
> An early benefit of the agreement was to allow the UK to "Anglicise" the W28 nuclear warhead as the Red Snow warhead for the Blue Steel missile.[87] The British designers were impressed by the W28, which was not only lighter than the British Green Grass warhead used in Yellow Sun, but remarkably more economical in its use of expensive fissile material.
Wikipedia doesn’t appear to support your version of events. (Of course, Wikipedia is sometimes wrong; but if you think it is wrong, which of the above claims it makes is wrong specifically?)
Besides that, the risk of a US-UK breakup has always appeared to be low, and Brexit arguably makes it even less likely.
Filtering on inane academic requirements up front is the exact opposite, and you end up rejecting half the real talent pool.
[0] https://youtu.be/ywPqLCc9zBU?t=2733
[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1208841343440568320?s=20
I prefer investing in Tesla/SpaceX instead of working there, and leave working extra hard to young people who have more energy than me.
The initial comment by bfieidhbrjr already answered that very nicely: out of the desire to actually do something that is important re work. Important being subjective to the person in question obviously.
I personally love working hard, which is why I only work with startups, which tend to have a higher personal ROI and more meritocracy oriented.
The US citizen (and/or permanent resident) thing is probably not negotiable, though, because SpaceX does a lot of Nat Sec stuff.
I don't work overtime and I'm not a fan of Thai food
If you can't figure out how to move to a different state to pursue a dream, it's not much of a dream.
For example, here is a web development position in Hawthorne: https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/4682610002?gh_jid=4...
And a network position in Redmond: https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/4770694002?gh_jid=4...
Here is the job board for all software positions: https://www.spacex.com/careers/index.html?department=Softwar...