How Tesla lost a brand advocate through poor recruiting practices

[andrewket]

While you've called attention to some areas that Tesla could improve, I hope you haven't destroyed any chance of finding your dream position. There is a very good chance that Tesla was just waiting for the Tyson's location to open before making you an offer.

I remember your post last year. You're clearly passionate about Tesla and the technology. I hope you still manage to find your way there.

 

[tomas]

This is honestly not intended as snippiness, just frank and open feedback.

Based upon a number of "red flag" indicators (inclination to go on a forum to litigate, repeated mis-spelling in posts, over-persistence), if I were in Tesla's shoes, I would be hesitant to hire you. So, you can balance that out against the dozens of sympathetic posts you have gotten. I only post this because you need to stand back and look objectively at the process in order to learn from it. It may be all their poor practices. But maybe not.

If Tesla does not hire you... failure to get back to you and inform you is inexcusable... totally passive/aggressive behavior. Over the years, I've seen that behavior time and time again among inexperienced managers - they never want to deliver bad news, would prefer you just read the tea leaves and go away. This is common in start-ups. They are hiring people based on potential, and everybody is running fast. It's swim or sink, and Tesla (like many startups) is probably poor at identifying and eliminating the sinkers.

Best of luck. Seriously!

 

[AnOutsider]

Why does everyone keep harping on about him not being hired after this? He clearly stated he doesn't care at this point. He doesn't want to work for Tesla anymore.

While I have already turned my back on this company, I still really do hope that they work this out and learn to take a much different approach to recruiting before trying to take on the big dogs in a realm other than small brand luxury.

 

[tomas]

Why does everyone keep harping on about him not being hired after this? He clearly stated he doesn't care at this point. He doesn't want to work for Tesla anymore.

Because he posted on a public forum stating that Tesla's practices are shoddy with the evidence being his subjective experience. OK, seriously still, I don't want to harp on it, and wish him the best.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Communication is Tesla's biggest problem--and it appears to extend to their hiring practices.

As a shareholder and more-than-once customer, I remain greatly disappointed at their lack of progress in this area to include my remarkable service experiences with our Model S's.

I think the OP is passionate about TM and the TM cause; he did the right (and gutsy) thing by using the TMC forum to expand on how he was treated. TM would be foolish to not contact him ASAP, apologize profusely, and get him on the payroll yesterday . . . .

The question is: Will Tesla learn from this?

 

[houdini]

Communication is Tesla's biggest problem--and it appears to extend to their hiring practices.

As a shareholder and more-than-once customer, I remain greatly disappointed at their lack of progress in this area to include my remarkable service experiences with our Model S's.

I think the OP is passionate about TM and the TM cause; he did the right (and gutsy) thing by using the TMC forum to expand on how he was treated. TM would be foolish to not contact him ASAP, apologize profusely, and get him on the payroll yesterday . . . .

The question is: Will Tesla learn from this?

I'm doubting Tesla will learn from this, at least not in the short term. It speaks to culture, not communication.

Culture beats strategy, beats efficiency, beats so many things. And TEsla is very soon going to have to move from the under dog, start-up, work for low pay because you believe culture into a more mature one befitting a large, successful cutting edge, disruptive Company - which it is. But if it doesn't change it's culture it may stop being.

 

[GreenT]

Communication is Tesla's biggest problem--and it appears to extend to their hiring practices.

As a shareholder and more-than-once customer, I remain greatly disappointed at their lack of progress in this area to include my remarkable service experiences with our Model S's.

I think the OP is passionate about TM and the TM cause; he did the right (and gutsy) thing by using the TMC forum to expand on how he was treated. TM would be foolish to not contact him ASAP, apologize profusely, and get him on the payroll yesterday . . . .

The question is: Will Tesla learn from this?

Completely disagree. TMC is not the place to take out ones feelings about their hiring practices. Certainly not to the point that he provided enough clues as to his identity to them.
If I were in their shoes, given their rule that no TM employee can post here, and rightly so, I'm not sure I'd trust him not to avoid posting here in the future.

 

[AustinPowers]

If I were in their shoes, given their rule that no TM employee can post here, and rightly so, I'm not sure I'd trust him not to avoid posting here in the future.

Is this really so? Is there actually a rule at TM that employees must not post at TMC?

 

[bonnie]

Is this really so? Is there actually a rule at TM that employees must not post at TMC?

Most public companies limit public statements by their employees to only authorized spokespeople. It wouldn't be unusual.

When I was with a Fortune 100 company, I went through pretty intensive press training - two cameras on me while I was drilled with tough questions. Then the fun part! We went over the video, frame by frame. 'Bonnie, see how your eyebrow lifted there? What was going on?' And did it again. And again. The goal was not to mislead anyone, but to tell the company's story in the most positive light and to control the story. It's amazing how an honest statement can be twisted by unethical journalists.

So a Tesla employee posting on TMC, as a Tesla employee, could inadvertently say or do something that could be twisted & quoted as 'this Tesla employee stated...'. Or they could inadvertently share some confidential information. I don't find Tesla unique in this type of request. It's pretty normal from my experience.

 

[flankspeed8]

Completely disagree. TMC is not the place to take out ones feelings about their hiring practices. Certainly not to the point that he provided enough clues as to his identity to them.
If I were in their shoes, given their rule that no TM employee can post here, and rightly so, I'm not sure I'd trust him not to avoid posting here in the future.

Why not discuss here on TMC forum? We dissect every accident which involves (or might) a Tesla. We talked about Elon's divorce, we gripe about stock movement and wether people in China are being truthful about the difficulty in charging. We speculate about events 5-10-15 years in the future. We talk about if people who deny climate change should be thrown in jail. Why not talk about this, if the OP feels like it? Are we not free to move on from post to post.

 

[tomas]

Why not discuss here on TMC forum? We dissect every accident which involves (or might) a Tesla. We talked about Elon's divorce, we gripe about stock movement and wether people in China are being truthful about the difficulty in charging. We speculate about events 5-10-15 years in the future. We talk about if people who deny climate change should be thrown in jail. Why not talk about this, if the OP feels like it? Are we not free to move on from post to post.

Sure, we can talk about almost anything within the forum's rules. I think @GreenT's point was that the OP probably did harm to his now and future candidacy by posting here, and that is a valid point.

 

[flankspeed8]

Sure, we can talk about almost anything within the forum's rules. I think @GreenT's point was that the OP probably did harm to his now and future candidacy by posting here, and that is a valid point.

And that is the risk that the OP hopefully took into account.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

Because he posted on a public forum stating that Tesla's practices are shoddy with the evidence being his subjective experience. OK, seriously still, I don't want to harp on it, and wish him the best.

I think it's crystal clear that Tesla's communications practices are shoddy (The OP's situation is a symptom of a longstanding problem at Tesla IMO). Look at the way they handled the P85D range issue, and tell me they don't have a serious problem. As a shareholder, yeah, I want people to air their grievances re: communications, because the company needs to fix this now rather than in 2018 when they are trying to deliver 300k vehicles/year. It's going to be a disaster if Tesla tries to deliver 10x what they are delivering now, and angers mainstream buyers.

Sure, we can talk about almost anything within the forum's rules. I think @GreenT's point was that the OP probably did harm to his now and future candidacy by posting here, and that is a valid point.

And the OP already pointed out that he doesn't wish to work for Tesla any more.

If customers are being treated the way the OP was treated, some are going to walk. That's going to hurt the company's finances.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

It's a good thing to talk about their hiring practices here in a civilized and positive fashion, but I certainly wouldn't hold my breath for Tesla to call me and apologize. Nor should they really. Just use it as a learning experience all around.

 

[TEG]

...If I were in their shoes, given their rule that no TM employee can post here, and rightly so, I'm not sure I'd trust him not to avoid posting here in the future...

Is this really so? Is there actually a rule at TM that employees must not post at TMC?

FWIW, I know some people who used to be vocal on the forum that got hired by Tesla and stopped posting soon after.
#1: Yes, I think they have some sort of policy that staff are not supposed to post on public forums unless authorized.
#2: People can resist the urge to post if it is a requirement of their job. Just because someone is very vocal today doesn't mean they won't curb it when required.
#3: Once and a while someone working there "doesn't read the memo" and posts here mentioning that they work for Tesla. Forum mods/admins tends to send them a note asking to make sure that they have permission from their employer to post here, and we usually don't hear from them again.

 

[SteveTheTech]

It's a good thing to talk about their hiring practices here in a civilized and positive fashion, but I certainly wouldn't hold my breath for Tesla to call me and apologize. Nor should they really. Just use it as a learning experience all around.

I had the same thoughts when I decided to post here.
This afternoon I received a call from an executive in a position to actually affect change within the system. He shared a very plausible explanation for what happened in this case, said they are making appropriate changes, and personally apologized for my experience. From our conversation I took away that we both (and most of us here) believe in the product and admit some work is needed, but they are listening and receptive to change. I think he understood why I chose this route and said exactly what I had hoped whomever contacted me would have said if the company operates the way we have been led to believe it does.

 

[bonnie]

I had the same thoughts when I decided to post here.
This afternoon I received a call from an executive in a position to actually affect change within the system. He shared a very plausible explanation for what happened in this case, said they are making appropriate changes, and personally apologized for my experience. From our conversation I took away that we both (and most of us here) believe in the product and admit some work is needed, but they are listening and receptive to change. I think he understood why I chose this route and said exactly what I had hoped whomever contacted me would have said if the company operates the way we have been led to believe it does.

That's great to hear. Thank you for posting (both the original post and this gracious followup.)

 

[Vger]

I had the same thoughts when I decided to post here.
This afternoon I received a call from an executive in a position to actually affect change within the system. He shared a very plausible explanation for what happened in this case, said they are making appropriate changes, and personally apologized for my experience. From our conversation I took away that we both (and most of us here) believe in the product and admit some work is needed, but they are listening and receptive to change. I think he understood why I chose this route and said exactly what I had hoped whomever contacted me would have said if the company operates the way we have been led to believe it does.

Wow, as Bonnie said, bravo to you for raising the issue in good faith and sticking to your principles until you evoked a positive and progressive response from Tesla.

Elon has often said that he does not want "yes men" around him; that he wants and needs those strong enough and diverse in experience enough to challenge his thinking and earnestly work for a better company and product than he alone could produce. You, Steve, elicited an important statement of that culture and ethic. May it grow further from your seed.

Hats off! You can work on our cars anytime! :wink:

 

[SW2Fiddler]

A grain of sand in the right place at the right time produces a pearl.

 

[artsci]

I just came across this thread for the first time. I'm not surprised at all that you had this experience, SteveTheTech, although I deeply regret what you experienced with Tesla. The odds of finding someone, especially in the HR realm, who is conscientious, thoughtful, and considerate when dealing with job candidates is low enough in any organization, least of all a new company like Tesla in a major growth mode with staff.

Even in my small firm (15 people) we sometimes are not fully considerate in the way we deal with job candidates.

I hope in your case Tesla reconsiders your candidacy. Based on your posts you appear to be extremely well qualified. Lord know I'd be delighted to have you work on my Model S