I was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn based out of California around March 2021. The role was with the cell engineering team located in Austin, TX. I took a panel interview with a technical presentation June 2021 and they had me on the waiting list until August 2021. The hiring manager was on vacation and apparently the quality engineer and process engineer who used to work at Apple did not like that my six sigma project took about a year or so. This project required investment from the company that they were not willing to make. Both of these engineers claimed I would not be a good fit for a fast paced company like Tesla as this project took a long time. I suppose when you are dealing with engineers not familiar with R&D and patented chemistry root cause analysis, these are the types of narrow feedback you receive. It appears that if you have an organizational roadblock, Tesla wants you to front your own person money to quickly solve the issue. The quality engineer was disrespectful during the interview and the way solid candidates are treated throughout the interview process will eventually catch up with Tesla's business. Many chemical engineers I graduated with have had similar issues.
Late July 2021, before I was rejected for the first role.. another recruiter reached out for a similar role on same team. I connected the 2 recruiters on the same email stating that I was being considered for 2 roles. After rejection number 1, the second recruiter has me take a 24 hr. exam along with a supplemental exam for powder delivery systems. Ended up passing the exam, no feedback was given except that I passed, whatever that means.. and the recruiter in Austin calls me and says, "Wow, I see you passed the exam... I didn't know you had already interviewed for a role and the other team was not in FULL consensus, as a result we cannot proceed with another panel interview (which was already scheduled)."
This level of communication within HR is unacceptable.