I was very excited to get an interview with this company - their vision of focusing on the "machine that builds the machine", innovative products, and a household name CEO were all appealing.
However, things started to sour as the process started.
1) The interview process was extremely uncoordinated. There were no fewer than 3 occasions where interviewers did not attend the scheduled interview which they had booked. I had ~10 interviews if you add all the phone calls and onsite interview.
2) After the onsite interview, a Tesla recruiter called on a Thursday and asked me to work on a 3 hour coding challenge due by Friday. Why did they not have me take it when I had flown to California for the onsite visit? Why such a short notice? I will discuss the nature of the challenge in the interview questions section.
3) I was provided a verbal offer of intent for a Sustaining Controls Engineer at the E3 level in early 2020. I did not wish to continue the interview process due to the uncertainties of the pandemic, the emphasis of this position was primarily line maintenance, and I felt like I was funneled into this position despite expressing more of an interest in machine design and commissioning. Later in 2020, I was contacted by a recruiter for a different position. The interview process started back up, I had several phone interviews and eventually an onsite interview in Fremont. They offered me a Controls Engineer E1 position. I pressed the recruiter on the difference in position rank and salary cap. Their response was they did not feel I had enough PLC experience and discontinued the process from the executive approval. Why were they unable to discern my level of experience from my resume and set the expectation if it was not adequate for the position? The nature of questions I received rarely emphasized PLC skills but could have highlighted my skillset if they were judging me against this criteria.
4) The recruiter framed the various missteps alluded to above as stating that Tesla is a scrappy company. Be on the look out when they name-drop Elon whenever possible, this is all very cultish behavior honestly.
"Did you check out Elon's most recent Twitter post?"
5) During the onsite interview I needed to create a presentation and list 3 accomplishments that demonstrate that had exceptional abilities. I thought this was a great change of pace from other interviews and allows you to showcase things you are proud of - no complaints here.
