In the race for tech dominance, finding the right workers isn’t so simple, says billionaire CEO Elon Musk.
“Generally, what I tell people—I tell myself, I guess, aspirationally—is, don’t look at the résumé,” he said. “Just believe your interaction. The résumé may seem very impressive…but if the conversation after 20 minutes is not ’Wow,’ you should believe the conversation, not the paper.”
That approach paid off, and Musk added that Tesla’s senior leadership now has an average tenure of 10-12 years. But there was a time earlier, during a more rapid-growth phase, when executive positions changed more frequently.
He said that at the time there was an idea that Tesla employees had “pixie dust,” or the quality to make business successful because of their background with the company. Apple offered employees twice as much as Tesla was paying them, Musk said, explaining that poaching employees is easy in Silicon Valley because people typically don’t have to relocate or change their lifestyles when they move between companies.
Musk, who has 200,000 employees across his five companies, admits to making some personnel mistakes.
But strong credentials and an impressive work history don’t tell the whole story, he added. Musk also puts value in a candidate’s talent, drive and trustworthiness.
“I think goodness of heart is important,” he said. “I underweighted that at one point. So, are they a good person? Trustworthy? Smart and talented and hard working?”
Personnel changes at Musk’s companies
Employees told FT that Musk has put more pressure on xAI employees, which they believe stems from his competition and personal rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
