Tesla Reviews
60% would recommend to a friend
(7821 total reviews)

Elon Musk
70% approve of CEO
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Found 7,821 of over 10K reviews
Updated Dec 7, 2023
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "Pay is good and it is exciting to see all the leading technology in electric cars" (in 458 reviews)
- "Working with great teams and highly motivated colleagues means that you find ways to succeed against the odds." (in 195 reviews)
- "Long hours and working weekends are fairly normal depending on the importance and timelines of projects." (in 461 reviews)
- "very poor management; no life and work balance; pay rate is miserable according to the work being done." (in 427 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Tesla and is not affected by filters.
- 5.0Dec 7, 2023InternshipFormer EmployeePalo Alto, CA
Pros
Ambitious Team, dynamic working environment.
Cons
No food subsidies, only milk and cereal in the work fridge.
- 3.0Apr 27, 2017Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsFremont, CA
Pros
Completely casual dress code Flexibility to work from home when needed Always interesting to work at the factory If you look at the SEC filings, you can see that the top people are basically compensated the same as the other employees, which is a pleasant surprise. Many “beautiful people” here (male and female). Lots of eye candy. A lot of people complain about the pay, but they paid me more than my last company, where I had the same title LGBT friendly The product is cool, and really fun to drive If you’re in the right department, you might be able to drive a Tesla somewhat regularly. If not, there is an ongoing contest where you can be randomly selected to take one home for a couple of nights The company is still growing There is room to move geographically within Service, since Tesla owns the Service Centers Lots of “car guy” coworkers to keep conversations interesting Benefits actually got better and cheaper every year from 2012-2015, and stayed similar after that. I guess this was due to the company growing and getting better group rates. Regardless, not many people can say that. You’ll frequently come to work that day expecting to work on a certain project and end up on something totally different. This can be good and bad. Starting hours are typically flexible, which is a really nice perk. Nobody is making sure you’re in your seat at a certain time. Most employees are surprisingly responsive and friendly. Very heavy email-based communication, and it mostly works quite well. You get good at doing the best you can with the resources you have, rather than doing the best possible job. This isn’t necessarily a complaint, since it’s a valuable skill to have, but you should consider if you’re going to be okay in that kind of environment before applying.
Cons
Rare to be recognized, let alone thanked, for going above and beyond to accomplish something out of the ordinary. Once you've "done the impossible", it's just assumed that you can and will do it again and again from now on. Literally hundreds of people in one room, desks on top of each other, as many as possible in every little space. Companies claim that they’re being “modern” and “progressive” by not having offices and cubicles, but they’re just being cheap. Look at pictures of offices from the 1950’s. You’ll see the same hundreds of desks in a room. Yearly raises are typically less than the cost of living Work/life balance is mediocre at best Smallish yearly bonuses in the form of golden handcuffs. RSUs that vest over 4 years, so you’ll wait a long time to benefit from them Those who were hired before mid-2013 made a lot of money off stock options, but many of those people are leaving now that all of their options are used up. Revolving door. It’s hard to last more than a couple of years here. It’s always seemingly a few steps away from massive failure Very few processes in place, so work is done extremely inefficiently Very common to compose an email and see “This is no longer a valid Tesla address” The entire Service organization shares one budget. I am scrimping to save $50 on software while a barely-related manager wastes literally tens of thousands of dollars a week on cool toys, and it all comes from the same place. Everything’s urgent, and people try to name-drop that Elon’s watching this very project so I need to stop everything for them. Luckily those of us who have been around for a while see right through that charade. Technically, no 401(k) match, though if you’re careful with the health benefits you choose, you can end up with some leftover that can be diverted into the 401(k). Middle managers are very hit-and-miss. Many were promoted because a manager was needed and they were the only one who knew anything about the department. Much room for improvement here. Minimal leadership training. No real employee development opportunities. The results are just as bad as you’d expect. Massive inter-departmental struggles. Most of my problems can be traced to one power-hungry manager of a sister department. It only takes one person to ruin the work lives of many people. There are more meetings than I expected from this kind of company. Elon sent a great email about how wasteful meetings are, but people have fallen into old bad habits. Completely ineffective HR department Every department is grossly understaffed, just barely above the point of collapse. Nearly everyone has to work harder than they would if they were doing the same job at another company. Anything that they can do in house, they’ll do, rather than outsourcing to a supplier. There are people who spend their whole careers deciding “make vs. buy”… no need for them here, it seems. This is corporate arrogance, and it reduces quality, wastes human resources, and slows time to market in many cases. A positive side effect is that more products are made here in California than would be if they were outsourced. Inadequate parking Note to hiring managers at other companies: Watch out if someone from Tesla has “Project Manager” on their title. Many of these people are just general office workers with no skills beyond harassing people via email.
1330 - 3.0Nov 29, 2023Sr. Software EngineerCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsPalo Alto, CA
Pros
The company absolutely loves to take risk, which is great if you're an engineer that is keen to really test and build your skills. Tesla does greatly value strong technical talent. Best way to learn here is FAFO. Tesla is a good place to work for a short period of time but it depends what you want / value. So depending on your circumstance, Tesla will either be a great or a terrible place to work. So i'm not sure what to put for the "recommend to a friend" option below but it really depends on the friend and what they want. I have referred old colleagues to Tesla in the past so its definitely an individual question.
Cons
There's basically no mentorship so you have to learn most things on your own. Engineers are generally viewed as a commodity and the culture is also becoming more zero sum as time goes on, which means people at a Director level now either fire or give a minimum number of people a bad review for every performance review cycle. They want to fit everything to a bell curve. So far it seems to dis-incentivize collaboration because we're now all competing with each other.
2 - 2.0Nov 18, 2023Data annotation leadFormer Employee, more than 1 yearBuffalo, NY
Pros
Benefits are good, people will think your job is interesting, very casual dress code, stock awards
Cons
- micromanagement is their middle name - employees treated like children: one employee does something stupid or unprofessional, whole department pays the price - management will throw entire workflows under the bus because of their poor decisions to cover themselves - very boring, unfulfilling work. Think assembly line, production work. - stated in job description that exposure to machine learning/engineers: not true at all, unless you mean in the most peripheral way possible. TLDR: the skills gained as a annotator or lead will not serve you in any other company as they are so specific to your workflow PTO is a joke: 2 weeks vacation. Whether you are there 1 day or 15 years. It never increases unless you get to salaried position, and even they rarely took time because there was ALWAYS some frantic push or deadline to be reached. - Culture is horrible: clicky, high school feeling culture, constant team changes and turnover. I had 5 different managers in less than a year. In short, I’ve never worked with so many good people who were so miserable and desperate for change or a way out.
4 - 3.0Oct 31, 2023Sales and Service AdvisorFormer Employee, less than 1 year
Pros
- You have any opportunities to work on customer service - Benefits package is pretty good. - The people you work with a re generally good at their jobs - I genuinely enjoyed all of my managers. They were incredibly fair and very kind to me during my stay at Tesla.
Cons
- Base pay was above minimum but not enough for the reasons listed below. - Customer's are comically rude and sometimes it get's hostile. - Had the cops come 3 times in 8 months of working due to crazy customer interactions. - Worked excessive hours. When I first started 11 hours days were very normal. Nine hour shift minimums were expected and if you refused you were "not a team player." - Painfully understaffed in certain departments due to a "lean startup" mentality pushed down by corporate. We get it, Tesla is barely a decade old and is an infant compared to other automotive giants, but it's a multi billion dollar company and should operate as such. - Other departments outside of the service centers cause problems onsite for service advisors. For example, the amount of times customers would ask for a name, phone number, and email for lawsuit documentation due to a concern involving the roadside pickup function was immeasurable. - You will likely get screamed at, insulted, and degraded by your customers. 60% are fine and 40% will ruin your day. You need to be optimistic at this job and remember automotive repair isn't fun for anyone.
1 - 5.0Dec 6, 2023Production AssociateCurrent Employee, more than 1 year
Pros
nice pay, benefits, room for growth.
Cons
needs beater leadership and supervisors.
- 4.0Sep 5, 2023Repair Technician (level IV)Current Employee, more than 1 yearAustin, TX
Pros
Great benefits, the absolute greatest. Low payments, as well as good co-pays. Plenty of days off Plenty of opportunities for overtime. Stock shares are pretty awesome too
Cons
Pay, and advancement. There is little room for them to want to work with you yet your expected to work with them at the drop of a hat. You will go through and get a review but given "neutral" remarks because of lack and poor management. So which then impedes your movement up and around the company. And don't expect to get a raise, expect more from your vesting stocks. Management and leadership, is a absolute joke. You will have people "leading" certain areas of company, who have no business in doing so. No experience in that particular field of work, yet the favoritism is abundantly clear when those ones get advanced. It can be a toxic environment.
4 - 5.0Dec 6, 2023Production SupervisorCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearAustin, TX
Pros
Tesla is a great company to work for with a lot of benefits. The work isn’t hard. Leadership is pretty awesome
Cons
The hours can be long at times. Some inconsistencies with work schedule.
- 4.0Dec 6, 2023InternshipCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearFremont, CA
Pros
Very fast-paced company. A lot to learn. No discrimination based on position.
Cons
Sometimes gets overburdened with work
- 5.0Mar 9, 2016Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
* A lot of room for growth * Great work environment * Free coffee/snacks/beverages
Cons
* Management - not enough employee/manager relation. a lot of processes are still up in the air. Too much hierarchy (too many power trips from managers). A lot of managers do NOT lead by example.
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Tesla Reviews FAQs
Tesla has an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5, based on over 9,967 reviews left anonymously by employees. 60% of employees would recommend working at Tesla to a friend and 63% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.
60% of Tesla employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Tesla 2.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.3 for culture and values and 3.7 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Tesla to be culture, career development, benefits and the cons to be management, work life balance.