In the pursuit of technological dominance, it’s not that easy to find the right employees, says billionaire CEO Elon Musk.
Musk is well – known for his leadership style (which he has playfully called nanomanagement), and the hiring process is no exception. He said that in the early days of building [company], he personally hired the first few thousand employees until he didn’t have enough time anymore.
Musk now depends on his staff to discover the “wow” factor and asks for bullet – pointed “evidence of exceptional ability,” as he told [company] co – founder John Collison and tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel during an [episode] of their podcasts.
“Generally, what I tell people – I guess I tell myself this with aspiration – is, don’t focus on the résumé,” he said. “Just trust your interaction. The résumé might seem very impressive… but if after 20 minutes of conversation you don’t think ‘Wow,’ you should go with the impression from the conversation, not the paper.”
That strategy paid off. Musk also mentioned that the average tenure of Tesla’s senior leadership is now 10 – 12 years. However, there was a time earlier, during a phase of more rapid growth, when executive positions changed more often.
He remembered a period when companies like [company] were bombarding Tesla’s leaders and engineers with recruitment calls. According to [source], in 2018, Apple hired 46 former [company] employees for their now – closed electric car project and other positions.
He said that at that time, there was a perception that Tesla employees had “pixie dust,” or the quality to make a business successful because of their association with the company. Musk explained that Apple offered employees twice as much as Tesla was paying them, adding that poaching employees is easy in Silicon Valley since people usually don’t have to relocate or change their lifestyles when switching between companies.
Musk, who has 200,000 employees across his five companies, admits to having made some personnel mistakes.
“I’ve also been a victim of the ‘pixie dust’ idea. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’ll hire someone from [company] or Apple, and they’ll be successful right away,'” he said.
But strong credentials and an impressive work history don’t tell the whole story, he added. Musk also values a candidate’s talent, motivation, and trustworthiness.
“I think having a good heart is important,” he said. “I didn’t give it enough weight at one point. So, are they a good person? Trustworthy? Smart, talented, and hard – working?”
Personnel changes at Musk’s companies
More recently, Musk’s companies have experienced significant executive departures. Some employees left to start their own startups or take a break, while others became burned – out or disillusioned with his [aspect], strategic decisions, and recent [event].
Tesla’s chief information officer, along with high – ranking members of the company’s public affairs department and U.S. battery and power – train operations, left the company in recent years, the reported.
And Mike Liberatore, the chief financial officer at Musk’s xAI startup, left for OpenAI after three months, writing on [platform], “102 days — 7 days a week in the office; 120+ hours a week; It’s been a wild ride, to say the least.”
Employees told FT that Musk has put more pressure on xAI employees, which they believe is due to his competition and personal rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In August, Musk, an early investor in the company, [took action] against OpenAI and Apple for allegedly trying to restrict AI competition. OpenAI has [accused] Musk of harassment and attempting to slow the company’s progress.