Working for Tesla... What's it like?

dmwahl

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I recently was contacted by a Tesla recruiter about working as a desing/optimization engineer at the new "Gigafactory" in the Reno area and was hoping to get some input on what it's really like to work for Tesla. I know a few people on here have worked for them and probably more know someone who has. The various job boards I've looked at have had less than favorable reviews, citing lack of work/life balance as the main concern. Granted, the internet is not always the best place for unbiased opinions as the happy people tend not to post reviews as often. Thanks in advance for any input.
 
if you wanna do stuff in life it is best to go with the leaders. the bullshit about balancing work and life is a total fail. the only thing that matters is if you finally become good enuff at your specialty to make a contribution that changes things.

just drawing a salary and going home and listening to the news is so lame. if you don't find yourself pushing 100 hour weeks for years then your life will be wasted.

been there, done that. in my old age i look back with pride at what i added to the knowledge base. every VLSI integrated circuit manufactured today uses manufacturing procedures i came up with over 33 years ago to solve the problems we had when developing the nMOS 3 manufacturing process at H-P.

you may have the same chance. you should go for it and not let your presumptions of what is valuable personal stuff to you now stop you.
 
I have heard that Tesla more or less owns its people...life/work balance not what many people would like, but that's just hearsay. That said, if I'm in a job I like and feel good about, I'm already going to land on that side of the equation by my own volition. My kids are all young adults, so it's easier for me to accept that now than it was at one time. Were I to go to Tesla I would expect to work just as hard as I ever have...and I've had some pretty crazy periods.
 
dnmun said:
if you wanna do stuff in life it is best to go with the leaders. the bullshit about balancing work and life is a total fail. the only thing that matters is if you finally become good enuff at your specialty to make a contribution that changes things.

just drawing a salary and going home and listening to the news is so lame. if you don't find yourself pushing 100 hour weeks for years then your life will be wasted.

That's very sad, not to understand what wasting your life is. See numbers one and two on this list.

When I worked for a private space program, the director said his expectation was that the company would be everyone's number one priority. I guess it's not a surprise that the environment he made was one I eventually could not stay in.

Now I do what I want, set my own priorities, work just about as little as I can get away with... and still advance the state of technology. It's just my nature. If it's your nature to advance technology, you don't need to work life-destroying hours to make it happen.
 
I appreciate the responses so far. I should have mentioned that I have a wife and 15 month old son, I'd consider them some of those "valuable personal" things. Were I 22 and just out of college or had kids that were older or out of the house I might be more willing to work crazy hours, but I've done that and while it's fun for a while, I'd rather go home at 5 and be with my family. I already work for one of the leaders in the medical device industry and find the work very rewarding. While I certainly think that Tesla will be one of those industry changing companies, it's not like I'd be moving from creating useless widgets.
 
Chalo said:
Now I do what I want, set my own priorities, work just about as little as I can get away with... and still advance the state of technology. It's just my nature. If it's your nature to advance technology, you don't need to work life-destroying hours to make it happen.
I'm not quite yet to the "do what I want and set my own priorities" part of my work life yet, but it won't be long... Nice work achieving that yourself, it's something few people ever get to do.
 
When the Model S was launching the parking lot was half full at 9pm

At SpaceX the lot is still half full at 9pm

Working at the gigafactory is going to be insane until the first line is complete, then it will get easy as it is simple replication to complete the full build out
 
I have 2 friends who work in Teslas engineering and love it.

It depends on what you are looking for in a job.

I think any job that is doing something good for the world is going to be more enriching and satisfying than any job where you are not.
 
Don't be seduced by the company name.
Only you can decide if a new job offer gives you a significant improvement in your life plan.
If you have a secure , satisfying , rewarding job already, will a change bring worthwhile improvements to any of those areas.
It would seem that this opportunity would mean a major relocation for your family. Don't underestimate the impact that can have , .
A new home, a complete change to your family , friends , and social circle can be a real problem when you are trying to commit time to a new job.
 
Chalo said:
That's very sad, not to understand what wasting your life is. See numbers one and two on this list.

When I worked for a private space program, the director said his expectation was that the company would be everyone's number one priority. I guess it's not a surprise that the environment he made was one I eventually could not stay in.

Now I do what I want, set my own priorities, work just about as little as I can get away with... and still advance the state of technology. It's just my nature. If it's your nature to advance technology, you don't need to work life-destroying hours to make it happen.

100% agree! Been in my IT career for 20yrs now (I'm 37) and took a position that is way below my skill level, but pays the most I've ever made as a full time W2 employee. I've had to put the brakes on my IT creativity, but my personal interests have grown by leaps and bounds. With a well paying job, health benefits for my wife and I, 3 weeks paid time off + 2 weeks of paid sick time, I have options to go do stuff I could NEVER afford the time or money to do. I'm choosing to do what makes me happy and my day job is the vehicle which is helping me get there.

It's hard to follow your passion when you come home so physically/mentally exhausted that all you can do is be a potato.

I've found that more people in my age group have decided to do the same when the option comes up because they are "sick of making other people wealthy and getting no reward".

One thing I've found that's true in today's business culture that I've hard many others say. The only reward for hard work is more hard work.

Sucks that's how it is, but employees are rarely rewarded for their efforts.
 
zombiess said:
It's hard to follow your passion when you come home so physically/mentally exhausted that all you can do is be a potato.
This is true. :/

But a potato has more energy than I do.
 
dnmun said:
if you wanna do stuff in life it is best to go with the leaders. the bullshit about balancing work and life is a total fail. the only thing that matters is if you finally become good enuff at your specialty to make a contribution that changes things.

just drawing a salary and going home and listening to the news is so lame. if you don't find yourself pushing 100 hour weeks for years then your life will be wasted.

been there, done that. in my old age i look back with pride at what i added to the knowledge base. every VLSI integrated circuit manufactured today uses manufacturing procedures i came up with over 33 years ago to solve the problems we had when developing the nMOS 3 manufacturing process at H-P.

you may have the same chance. you should go for it and not let your presumptions of what is valuable personal stuff to you now stop you.

Serious ?

I always apply what I call the 'old folks home' argument. Later, when you're 90 and sitting in the old folks home, are you going to regret not having worked 100 hours
a week for your contribution ? Or are you going to regret not having traveled and seen the world, not having spent more time with your friends and family, not having
persued all of your many many different interests ?

Working hard for a company is something you do when you're 25, when you don't know any better. After working hard for a company giving all you got and being fired
because your company went down the drain due to consistently bad and incompentent management, after that you know better.

I think anyways working 100 hrs a week (or overtime in general) is a very bad thing to do. First of all you're lowering your own hourly rate. But worse, by working
overtime you're basically taking someone else's job away. Two people working 60 hour weeks, that should have been 3 people working 40 hour weeks. This 3rd
person is now unemployed ! Working overtime is just plain bad.

I, by the way, am 42 and work only 4 days (33 hrs) a week...
 
Many of those who work 60+ hrs/week are "salary" employees who get no financial reward for the extra hours. They do it in the belief it will benefit their future career prospects, ..or they don't have a life to go home to !
Employers are happy to encourage this illusion ( beware the friendly manager with promises of future reward !) as it has advantages for them also
Either way, it makes for low labour costs for the employer, who would otherwise have to pay a second salary and all the additional employment costs.
The only time you should work long hours is if it is your own business and effectively your efforts pay back proportionately.
(IE, if there is a substantial bonus payment for a job completed before a deadline)
 
When your work is what you love doing, and the product you create is something you would have built as a hobby for yourself in your spare time anyways, long hours become more pleasure than burden.

The right job can be like having someone not only fund your personal passions, but they pay you too!


That's why I think the type of work is what matters most. I used to work 60hr's a week for Microsoft, what a pointless waste of my life, I would rather put a gun in my mouth than work in a shattered broken corporate bureaucracy environment of failure again.

Working 30-40-60-80hrs a week (I work whatever hours it takes to get my projects done) designing EV's in a friendly positive non-corporate environment feels like a pleasure that I look forward to each day.
 
liveforphysics said:
When your work is what you love doing, and the product you create is something you would have built as a hobby for yourself in your spare time anyways, long hours become more pleasure than burden.

The right job can be like having someone not only fund your personal passions, but they pay you too!


That's why I think the type of work is what matters most. I used to work 60hr's a week for Microsoft, what a pointless waste of my life, I would rather put a gun in my mouth than work in a shattered broken corporate bureaucracy environment of failure again.

Working 30-40-60-80hrs a week (I work whatever hours it takes to get my projects done) designing EV's in a friendly positive non-corporate environment feels like a pleasure that I look forward to each day.


Amen, brother!

I've always managed to work in fields that genuinely interested me, starting with music which was my sole professional pursuit until I was almost 30 years old. Musicians dedicated to creative music learn early to put everything they have into what they are doing because it is the only way to overcome the extremely intense competition for the few jobs that actually exist. This has colored my approach to every job I've had outside music, and when I'm in a job that doesn't require real effort and learning, I quickly lose interest and start looking for a way out. Working just for the money doesn't do it for me, and I'm willing to work harder to make sure that isn't how I'm living. I've had jobs working with leading-edge technology in RF and audio (and music, for that matter), but I don't think I've ever had higher job satisfaction than I do right now. The main reason for that is I believe without a doubt that this is the most important work I've ever done in my life, and among the most important work being done by anyone today. I keep playing with this stuff when I go home most nights, sometimes for work, sometimes for my own education (which benefits my employer) and personal projects (which benefit me). All of this works to move forward one of the most critical fields of endeavor of our times. My money is where my mouth is; my thoughts, words, and actions are in harmonious agreement. And, I'm making more money that I ever have anywhere else. What more can one ask for?
 
wb9k said:
but I don't think I've ever had higher job satisfaction than I do right now. The main reason for that is I believe without a doubt that this is the most important work I've ever done in my life, and among the most important work being done by anyone today. I keep playing with this stuff when I go home most nights, sometimes for work, sometimes for my own education (which benefits my employer) and personal projects (which benefit me). All of this works to move forward one of the most critical fields of endeavor of our times. My money is where my mouth is; my thoughts, words, and actions are in harmonious agreement. And, I'm making more money that I ever have anywhere else. What more can one ask for?

I can understand the enthusiasm, commitment, rewarding feelings, financial rewards, etc etc....
..been there, done that, etc
..but it is a fine line between being a genius , a mad scientist, and being a geek ,...who looks round and suddenly realises that whilst they were sweating the details of the next tech gizmo, ....life has passed them by, the kids have grown up, and they have an heart condition caused by stress !!
You only get one shot at life, chose carefully how you use that time.
 
Lebowski said:
I always apply what I call the 'old folks home' argument. Later, when you're 90 and sitting in the old folks home, are you going to regret not having worked 100 hours a week for your contribution ? Or are you going to regret not having traveled and seen the world, not having spent more time with your friends and family, not having persued all of your many many different interests ?

I on the other hand will regret both: I don't think I'll have done either. Perhaps if I'd found a way to do the first I'd have been able to afford the 2nd.

I can think of the jobs I'd have taken even after they told me I'd be working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week to meet deadlines when we were in production. Logging Reality TV footage for $600/week was not what I was thinking of. If they'd been offering me a good job that wasn't under minimum wage once you figured all that out, or a more normal hours/paycheck prospect for that job, I'd have done it.

Even so, if I'd have blown the 10 weeks on that one would it have made some sort of difference afterwards. Easy for me to say 'No,' but it's such a fine balance that decides who gets what opportunity in overcrowded fields such as my own. The material they cut off making this wound up in the trash. The part they didn't cut off is working seamlessly, going almost unnoticed. (Her name is Fani, by the way.)

Fani-Stipkovic-Khongboon-1.jpg
 
Important also is if you will like living and raising your young one in the area as well as if you will be in a creative/ learning work environment. If it is just a old school nuts and bolts job in a less than ideal family area, it may wear thin on you quickly. I would suspect, it would be relatively interesting for the first few years regardless unless a bad fit. Moving is a big issue for families most times. Younger the better.
 
Reno is freezing cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer.
And populated by people who left california so they avoid paying taxes.
Sounds bad to me... and if I said what I think of Musk and Tesla, that would be worse.
 
JackB said:
Reno is freezing cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer.
And populated by people who left california so they avoid paying taxes.
Sounds bad to me... and if I said what I think of Musk and Tesla, that would be worse.

you should stick to the carwash then, and this guy is gonna stay home anyway so whatsittoyah?

maybe one day you will find out about some of the new manufacturing techniques he created by getting a new generation of engineers to see beyond the old 'not invented here' mentality.

can you even imagine how a 3D printer can create a rocket combustion chamber from a refractory metal like tungsten and include eutectic mixtures of other refractory metals in the crystalline structure of the metal that now makes up this rocket engine combustion chamber? can you? can you even dream of ever dreaming so big?

that is how silicon valley was created. i doubt if you woulda appreciate Jean Hoerni either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Hoerni

or bob noyce, or gordon moore, whatta waste.
 
Thought I would throw in a bit of my life experience... Before I was married and had children (I married in my early 30's) I was working those insane hours in the space industry. It was exhilarating, and I was flying 5000 miles every other week for years. Some missions were civilian, some were for the other guys. I learned more in those 5 years than I did in any period of my life. My division also had the highest divorce rate in a 5000 employee installation. I could do it when I was young, but over 25 years it would have killed me.

Looking backwards now (I am in my early 60's and retired a couple of times over) what I remember fondly is the people. The times we worked together and solved great problems. I also am proud of the work for the "other guys." The work that saved lives and secured our nation at the time. Though the science stuff was very thrilling, to me now, it would not be worth loosing touch with my family.

Now as a getting older ol' guy, what matters most is my family. Relationships with them. Relationships with people at church. Relationships with young men, where I can share some of my hard earned knowledge and help them not get the same scars, bruises and bumps that I did.

Life is a journey. There are times or seasons for most everything. I have been blessed to be near great scientific things, to have my own company, and to work with refuges at church. The joy is in the journey!
 
dnmun said:
JackB said:
Reno is freezing cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer.
And populated by people who left california so they avoid paying taxes.
Sounds bad to me... and if I said what I think of Musk and Tesla, that would be worse.

you should stick to the carwash then, and this guy is gonna stay home anyway so whatsittoyah?

maybe one day you will find out about some of the new manufacturing techniques he created by getting a new generation of engineers to see beyond the old 'not invented here' mentality.

can you even imagine how a 3D printer can create a rocket combustion chamber from a refractory metal like tungsten and include eutectic mixtures of other refractory metals in the crystalline structure of the metal that now makes up this rocket engine combustion chamber? can you? can you even dream of ever dreaming so big?

that is how silicon valley was created. i doubt if you woulda appreciate Jean Hoerni either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Hoerni

or bob noyce, or gordon moore, whatta waste.

What is this? Did you wake up today with this rant in your head and just selected a post at random to shoe-horn it into the discussion?
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'm not sure if this is me being referred to below, but regardless, I stopped the interview process with Tesla when my wife and I decided that neither of us wanted me to be working crazy ours when we have a young child at home. They were very understanding and left an open invitation to restart the process again later if I change my mind. I've worked 10-12 hour days in the past and it's fine for a time, but right now I'm enjoying the fact that I have a flexible job that prioritizes not burning out employees and can enjoy our free time.
dnmun said:
...this guy is gonna stay home anyway so whatsittoyah?
 
Don't worry, only the fringe thinks you answer to the fringe.

I for one am glad you're committed to your decision making process. That'll make life easier all around.
 
just drawing a salary and going home and listening to the news is so lame. if you don't find yourself pushing 100 hour weeks for years then your life will be wasted.
been there, done that. in my old age i look back with pride at what i added to the knowledge base. every VLSI integrated circuit manufactured today uses manufacturing procedures i came up with over 33 years ago to solve the problems we had when developing the nMOS 3 manufacturing process at H-P.

He is a legend in his own mind!
I bet all the manufacturing procedures this guy came up with are all obsolete now a days. Someone else would have developed them if he had not. HP is doing really great now making chips ha! Looks like someone wasted their 100 hour work weeks.

Anyway, I've only known of a couple of people that worked for tesla and they only lasted a year. I'm not sure why they left or quit or fired or what.
I live in Reno, it's not super cold or super hot like the previous post. Go to Minnesota for the cold or Texas for the hot/humid extremes. It is a desert though and the sun and altitude/no humidy are nasty out here.
Where they are building the factory is a bit depressing sort of a vacant desert lot in a warehouse park 15 minutes from the edge of town.
It will probably take 30 minutes or more to get there from where you really want to live in Reno.
I was excited when I first heard they were moving here, but not so much anymore.
They are starting to go back on their promises of the "average" wage here and I have heard rumors about the employees being workaholic slaves.
The factory is coming along, I think they are almost done with the skeleton and are getting ready to erect walls.
Seems like the jobs they are advertising are mainly thru indeed.com and via working for Panasonic, not Tesla. Though there are a few listings on Tesla's website.
A lot of the jobs right now are thru agencies and the pay is pretty Nevada crappy but those are indirect jobs.
I thought I might get a job there, but now i'm hopeful that this area will now attract better tech companies to get work with.
 
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