Tesla Motors Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for less than a year

Pros – Fast paced, growing, and fascinating place to learn and grow within your role and the company. No day is the same as the company continues to grow.

Cons – Constant process clashes between start-up mentality and corporate mentality clamps. Company continues to grow, but is experiencing growing pains while implementing new processes.

Advice to Senior Management – Create better training programs for new hires as trial by fire may cause the company to lose some great employees that may sink/not swim.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Tesla Motors full-time for less than a year

Pros – The people there are great, the product is amazing & there are many good minds & great collaboration. Everyone here believes in team work & it's the only way to get things done in time & get things accomplished in a timely manner...

Cons – Very demanding. Sometime their expectations of people are not realistic. They tend to keep asking for more & more...

Advice to Senior Management – We don't mind working hard but please cut as a small break once in a while...

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for more than a year

Pros – The 'coolness' factor is very high and that is what drew me to Tesla. My job is exciting to some extent and I have a decent boss who understands my pain. Plus pay is OK

Cons – There is absolutely no work life balance and the upper management sucks, especially when they think anyone not with a IVY LEAGUE degree is not Tesla worthy! I have seen contractors are worked to the bone and I have first hand information that they are told to not charge overtime if they want a permanent job!!! THAT IS NOT COOOL AT ALL!!!!!!!

Advice to Senior Management – Respect people with experience and people who give their time away from family to make Tesla a better company. You have some people who do their job to a minimal extent but survive because of a pretty face!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Tesla Motors full-time

Pros – Very inspiring corporate mission
Great cutting edge product - cool, innovative, beautiful, object-of-desire
Lots of opportunity to contribute your talent
Employees generally encouraged to stretch and grow
Ability to personally observe Elon Musk in action
Hands-on understanding of where the world is going (or should be going) in transportation

Cons – Little regard for motivating, retaining or rewarding talented employees (aside from being self-inspired by the mission)
Under market pay and equity
Dysfunctional environment - extremely political

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Tesla is young and growing extremely fast, both in employee numbers and production volumes. They have built mid-sized manufacturing lines from scratch in under a year. This is driven by smart teams of individual contributors. There is management and direction, but success depends on the motivation, self-direction, and effectiveness of lots of individuals. This provides a chance to direct what you work on and how you will develop. (At least in my experience)

Cons – Can be a hectic, fast paced work environment. Projects accelerate change directions fast, as needed.

Advice to Senior Management – Communication and management across teams is improving, but this needs to get a lot better as Tesla gets bigger. In early years, decisions were made by bumping into someone in the parking lot. Now we need to grow better institutionalized collaboration and communication.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Tesla Motors as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Everyone was passionate about their job and will always go above and beyond to accomplish the task ahead of time. Asking for help was easy and everyone looked out for each other. Able to work with other departments and communicate effortlessly since everyone was either at the same location or a 30 mile drive away. Great place to work because all employees made that extra effort.

Cons – Busy Busy Busy. With multiple projects happening at once, the department definitely was understaffed and had its hands full. Manager was unfortunately too distracted at times to be able to listen and help employees within department. Be prepared to be married to your work with long hours and working weekends was a norm.

Advice to Senior Management – Be sure to conduct review/improvement meetings with interns at the beginning, middle, and end of intern work period to provide valuable feedback for improvement and constructive criticism.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Tesla is an exciting environment and there is never a dull moment. The constants media attention is interesting. There is unlimited challenging opportunities. It is rewarding to change the world with innovative products and a game changing business model.

Cons – The hours are long and the challenges can be extremely difficult. It can be difficult for individuals and teams to have enough energy and innovation to accomplish goals year after year in a perpetual start-up environment. There is very little formal training.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work!
Consider adding sabbaticals after high years of service.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Tesla Motors as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Work was interesting and rewarding
Worked with a nice product/brand that most people recognize
Nice facilities/"No Wall" office format

Cons – Lack of career growth/support
Management always seemed ready to have a replacement for me
Low pay for interns compared to other jobs
Easily pidgeonholed into one specific task/group
Minimal benefits (Low pay/No opportunity to Test Drive cars)

Advice to Senior Management – Management cannot continually think they have an endless line of people lining up at the door to replace dissatisfied workers

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for more than a year

Pros – They are very innovative company that "flies by the seat of their pants" is good in some aspects.

Cons – Retail side needs much improvement to run like a business and "flying by the seat of your pants" is good for an early startup it is not a way to run a multi-billion dollars company with locations all over the world. It is no longer considered a startup.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Tesla Motors full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Great pastoral setting in Deer Creek with horses all around
- Free cereal / soda
- Smart and fun coworkers - lots of trips planned outside of work, hanging out, and exercising together
- Oftentimes can get a lot of responsibility if you seek it
- Opportunities to pick up many new skills if you are self motivated

Cons – - very difficult to switch groups, internal mobility is low
- effective mentorship / growth opportunities are nonexistent for junior engineers. A lot of engineering is done "on the fly" by inexperienced people
- decisions from executive management often seem arbitrary and designed for short term stock goals as opposed to long term strategy
- tendency to hire overqualified people for mundane tasks, not follow through on promises made during recruitment, and then fire those who get pigeon holed into working on things well below their pay grade

Advice to Senior Management – Engage core engineers more frequently rather than only sitting in closed door meetings with middle management all the time

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend