I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Tesla
Interview
1. Contacted by recruiter. Went over my resume and job experience.
2. Contacted by senior engineer. Talked about my background. Very laid back.
3. Contacted by one of the managers. Talked about my past experience. Was asked for 1 or 2 specific examples. Phone interview was relatively easy.
4. Company flew me down to CA for an interview. Interview lasted for more than 5 hours in the Fremont, CA location. Interviewed with 5 managers/directors. Questions were very direct and mostly technical regarding my past experience. No written test or behavioral questions were asked. A couple of questions were asked about how would you persuade your manager to make changes even if they disagree. Each manager was very different. Got a bit nervous after a couple of hours. I did get a chance to go down on the floor and see Tesla Model S. Very cool!
Overall, I would say questions were not very difficult if you are well prepared. The mental exhaustion can play a part in getting nervous after a couple of hours.
Some of my observations:
Very open environment, no cubicles. Judging by the amount of people still in the office after 6 p.m, expect to work long hours and weekends. Also, be prepared to wear different hats since the company is currently understaffed for what it needs to do in order to build quality cars. I felt that the interviewing process could have been better in terms of timing and structure. There is no cafeteria in the building but they do offer some snacks, pre-made sandwiches (for $) and provide free cereal, coffee, etc... Coming from a big organization and based on my questions to the managers, I felt that the company needs a more robust structure, set processes, and approval process. Overall, good experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Unexpected question - name three (not one) weaknesses. This was asked after three strengths which is typically much easier to answer.
Most difficult question - for each job you held, name your greatest achievement and impact.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Tesla (Palo Alto, CA) in Jan 2012
Interview
Put in my resume at an info session at my school in October. Was cold called in December and had a 30 minute phone interview about the contents of my resume. A month passed and I was called in to interview in Palo Alto, CA which consisted of 10 or so 1:1 and phone interviews all day. Most of them wanted to talk about projects I had worked on, and I was asked several brain teaser type questions. The beginning was nerve racking, but as the day went on, I got more comfortable. Everyone seemed very excited about the new car coming out, and it was an overall positive experience. I am still waiting to hear back.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Walk me through the steps you took to finish a project on your resume.
The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Tesla (Palo Alto, CA) in Sep 2010
Interview
Applied online, received a phone call within 3 days from HR. They asked me about my personality and asked me to talk about a few previous projects outlines in my resume. Then I had 3 phone interviews with sr engineers and we continued to talk about my previous projects and hobbies. I then was asked to fly down to HQ for 1:1 interviews with 4 people, made a 45min presentation about a previous project, wrote a 20 question skills test which was on the hard side. I received a call the next day saying I had to write 2 essays, one about why i want to work for Tesla, and another about why Tesla should hire me, they had to be 800 words in length each. A week later I was contacted by a different HR person asking me for some more details about my resume (i was a little confused since I had already answered these questions to the other HR guy) then 4 weeks went by with nothing (I called twice and e-mailed twice, still with no response). I then got a call saying they were going to make their decision tonight and that I should expect a call, i waited and waited by the phone and never got a call. I called them the following day and the HR guy was on vacation... 3 weeks later he comes back and tells me the CTO decided to hire someone else... I wasn't very happy with the result, a little more communication would have been helpful...
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
. I received a call the next day saying I had to write 2 essays, one about why i want to work for Tesla, and another about why Tesla should hire me, they had to be 800 words in length each.
You're in a row boat, which is in a large tank filled with water. You have an anchor on board, which you throw overboard. Does the water level in the tank rise or fall?