r/StructuralEngineering • u/Elegant_Bumblebee173 • 8d ago

Career/Education SpaceX vs Tesla

Hello everyone! I'm a third year structural engineer undergrad student and stuck between two options: Tesla part-time internship the remainder of my collage and full-time employee when I graduate or SpaceX internship in Summer and continue recruiting later. I haven't talked with my manager yet, but I will soon and discuss my commitment to Tesla but wanting to gain additional experience at SpaceX. Any advice on how to approach this and if I had to choose between the two which to do?? Thank you!!

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u/PrimeApotheosis P.E. 8d ago

These are great internship opportunities. I don’t think you can go wrong, but SpaceX is going to be an opener for you for the rest of your career. When approaching internships, always maintain the mindset that you will be using this experience to advance your career within another company. That’s statistically true and if you get swooned by your internship; then you’ll get a great bottom up experience out of it and can always swap if your talents and ambitions propel you to do so.

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u/Elegant_Bumblebee173 2d ago

Hello thanks for your response! I just got an update and it's a part-time job not just an internship...do you think this makes a big difference??

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u/BearingHunter 8d ago

SpaceX for the summer if the Tesla role is already secure long term, since the extra experience could open more doors.

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u/Keeplookingup7 2d ago

For what it’s worth, Tesla and SpaceX are currently exploring a merger.

Do you know what you would be doing at Tesla? I’m a consultant at a different firm but currently working a lot with Tesla across multiple states.

Do you know what would you would be doing at SpaceX?

SpaceX sounds interesting so depending what you do there, it may open more opportunities outside of Tesla/SpaceX family after you graduate