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Billionaire Ron Baron, "It's Harder to Get a Job at Tesla Or SpaceX Than It Is To Get Into Harvard"

Ron baron, a billionaire investor in Tesla and SpaceX, gave a presentation stating that it was more difficult to get a job at Tesla or SpaceX than it was to get into Harvard University. Fewer than 1% of applicants get a job at Tesla or SpaceX.
Billionaire Ron Baron, "It's Harder to Get a Job at Tesla Or SpaceX Than It Is To Get Into Harvard"

Ron Baron - It's Harder To Work at Tesla and SpaceX Than To Get Into Harvard

Ron Baron, a billionaire investor famous for turning a few hundred million into multiple billions investing in Tesla, and also an investor in SpaceX, during a presentation at Baron Capital, said the following about Tesla and SpaceX.

"Tesla and SpaceX have the best engineers on the planet. They are the number 1 and number 2 career choices for today's top engineering graduates. In 2023, this year, these two companies, which employ 140,000 individuals (130,000 at Tesla and 10,000 at Spacex) - 140,000 mission driven individuals and they had 3.5 million applications for 30,000 jobs.

Most people can't get enough people to fill their jobs. 3.5 million people applied for 30,000 jobs. It's harder to get a job for SpaceX or Tesla than it is to get into Harvard."

This statement rings true to me because a while ago, I thought about what it would take to get a job at Tesla. It was then that I realized that I truly had to be exceptional and show consistent exceptional work through examples and deliverables over my career to even have a chance to work at Tesla (or SpaceX).

Working at Tesla would be a very fulfilling job - though job probably isn't the right word. It would be my life. It would require going into the office daily and showing genuine and significant contributions to the developments of whatever was being worked on. Whoever is working on the Cybertruck falls into this camp - there are significant advancements and improvements made in the Cybertruck from the generic pickup truck.

That would be difficult for me at this point in my life at age 45 and having chronic illness to deal with, but I can dream! Tesla and SpaceX are the leading companies in innovation and technology, and it requires truly being on your "A Game" to keep working there.

I think for many people that do work at these companies, they do a "sprint" for a few years or five years max, and then move on to something else due to the rigors and demands of the workplace. In order to get the steer-by-wire working in the Cybertruck, I imagine the engineers worked some very long hours.

I do not think you would have a work/life balance at Tesla or SpaceX, and I don't think the people working there are interested in that as much as they are in the mission and making a difference.

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What Makes It So Difficult?

When you have 3.5 million applicants for 30,000 jobs, that means you have less than 1% of those people that will fill those jobs, and that's if someone internally doesn't fill the position first. It comes out to (30,000/3,500,000) or .857%.

Tesla could just hire anyone, however, it would quickly be apparent that there are those who haven't really bought into Tesla's mission or are exceptional in their ability. When I think of the stainless steel exoskeleton, that is bulletproof, on the Cybertruck, I think someone must have been an amazing engineer to make that happen.

The work at Tesla is also not simple. The reason it isn't simple is that Tesla is often reinventing itself, rather than following a standard set of procedures year after year. You would have to be able to adapt day to day, week to week, month to month in new technologies in order to stay working there. Most companies follow a standard set of procedures and don't change too much over time.

A while ago, I applied for a job at Tesla just to see what would happen. I didn't do it expecting to get the job, and I never heard anything about my application, and I think this is what 99% of people experience when they apply for a job at Tesla.

Were I wanting a job at Tesla, I would immediately have to dedicate all my spare time to mastering a craft - whether it be programming, engineering, sales, etc. and then doing things in the real world that demonstrate my expertise with videos, graphs, and testimonials from others.

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I would have to put together such a compelling presentation that shows just how awesome I am at that skill, that Tesla would be crazy not to hire me. In addition to that, I would have to prove how adaptable I am and how I innovated in the past with whatever project I worked on.

This is how I see getting into Tesla or SpaceX. You truly have to be exceptional - in the top 1% or more at your craft AND have the ability to constantly innovate AND have enormous energy and stamina to withstand the vigor and stress required to work at these two companies.

Tesla isn't worth all the other automakers combined for no reason - part of it is because of how exceptional everyone is that works there and how much they and the company culture cares about everyone on planet earth.

However, I think those who are able to work at Tesla or SpaceX probably find great reward and fulfillment in the work they do that makes a difference in the future of planet earth.

In Other Tesla News: Tesla sends its competitors free guide on 48-volt architecture as it flexes technology muscles

What do you think about Ron's statement here about how difficult it is to get a job at Tesla or SpaceX? Are they really that more difficult to get a job at than to get into Harvard?

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Hi! I'm Jeremy Noel Johnson, and I am a Tesla investor and supporter and own a 2022 Model 3 RWD EV and I don't have range anxiety :). I enjoy bringing you breaking Tesla news as well as anything about Tesla or other EV companies I can find, like Aptera. Other interests of mine are AI, Tesla Energy and the Tesla Bot! You can follow me on X.COM or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow my Tesla and EV news coverage.

Image Credit, Jacob Hilton, Screenshot

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