Futuristic company Tesla, which makes electric vehicles and energy storage systems, is a dream employer for jobseekers interested in a high-tech career in a company with great locations. Its HR vision of small, focused teams with an emphasis on excellence is renowned. But something its CEO just tweeted is causing a stir online.
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The company says it hires the world’s best and brightest people to help make a future of sustainable transportation and energy consumption a reality. The workforce is “agile, efficient and focused on excellence. The pace is fast, the work is stimulating, structure is limited, and innovation is expected,” according to the Tesla careers webpage.
But its CEO, tech icon Elon Musk, set the Internet abuzz when he personally posted about job openings for his Autopilot project to his 3.1 million followers on his Twitter account:
“We are looking for hardcore software engineers. No prior experience with cars required. Please include code sample or link to your work.”
He elaborated in another tweet:
“Should mention that I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me. This is a super high priority.”
Not surprisingly, résumés inundated the company’s HR inbox within hours.
In an interview in The Huffington Post®, Musk biographer Ashlee Vance describes how a typical workday for Musk has him addressing a major problem in one of his companies and what to do to fix it. “Sometimes this means Elon will personally try and solve the problem,” he explains. Could this include hiring the “best and brightest” for his new pet projects?
The speculation on the motivation for the tweeted job offer continues, centering on if Musk feels other car companies are spiriting away the “best and brightest” candidates from Tesla, especially for projects like the Autopilot driverless car technology.
Of course, HRSBT’s question is, Did he do this with the blessing of the Tesla HR department?