I’m a structural engineer, so I felt the extra classes kind of colored in the blank spaces in my civil engineering education.

As for other space companies not run by sociopaths… the joke about civils and mechenicals applies here. Mechanical engineers make bombs and civils make targets. I can’t speak to the ethics of the individual companies or their leaders. But I believe some of them are just focused on space exploration and not dominating in the name of whatever nation/egomaniac they are contracted to work for.

I’m obviously not super well versed in the space industry, but the friends I know have pivoted away from the big names (SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin etc) and toward smaller companies that specialize in an aspect of space flight. They tend to work on single one off projects that are subbed out by the big guys. From what I have heard, there is good money in these specialties and some great engineers work there. I know of Orbit Fab, Ursa Major, Vast, and Anduril.