"Musk now relies on his staff to find the "wow" factor and asks for bullet points on "evidence of exceptional ability," he told Stripe cofounder John Collison and tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel during a joint episode of their podcasts. "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.""
"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."
Elon Musk uses hands-on hiring practices and initially personally interviewed thousands of early SpaceX employees. He now delegates screening to staff who identify a candidate's "wow" factor and request bullet-pointed "evidence of exceptional ability." He advises trusting the 20-minute conversation over an impressive résumé. Tesla's senior leadership average tenure reached 10–12 years after this approach, though turnover was higher during rapid growth. Competitors like Apple aggressively recruited Tesla talent, hiring dozens in 2018 and offering much higher pay. Silicon Valley poaching remains easy because relocation and lifestyle changes are often unnecessary. Musk oversees about 200,000 employees across five companies and acknowledges hiring mistakes.
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