Chaotic and Disorganized. I was cold-contacted by a recruiter who was interested in my skill set. A phone interview was scheduled for a week out. The phone interview consisted of questions to probe my interest in Tesla, as well as questions about my design background. At the end of the interview, it was agreed that an onsite interview was appropriate - and they asked for a list of available days in the near future. I specifically said that I was available any day except for XXXXXX, which was ironically followed by a request for me to interview on said date. The recruiter later caught his mistake, and an appropriate date was set. I was then directed to a site for planning travel - they gave me a corporate account for a flight from the east coast, but offered no suggestions on hotels in the area. This was unusual, but not really an issue. However, when all was said and done - only the flight was paid for. I ended up paying for rental car / hotel out of pocket, and was never reimbursed. Again, not unheard of, but unusual.
I arrived on site at roughly 8AM and was offered breakfast from the employee area. I then proceeded to give a presentation on previous work experience to a group of design engineers. The rest of the day consisted of perhaps 5-6 1:1 interviews with both engineers and management. The engineers seemed generally excited, interested in the work, and personable,which was welcome. However, interviews with management were particularly disrespectful. While I was treated with pleasantries, the manager spent the entire 1:1 interview alternately asking questions, and then answering emails on a laptop, and responding to txt messages during my replies. Zero eye contact. Questions from management were of a particularly canned nature. At the end of the day, I was asked to take a rather thorough practical design skills exam.
The interview ended at about 4PM, with no break for lunch. The recruiter then closed the day and suggested 'there were some cool restaurants to check out in downtown'; however, he could suggest none, and I was not accompanied to dinner. Again, not a problem, but unusual.
I felt the interview went well on both ends, and was in fact contacted the next day about final steps for an offer. I completed the last step, which consisted of answering several questions from their CEO. I was then asked to call them back to complete the offer process - I got voicemail, left a message, and followed up via email. 2 weeks elapsed with no contact. I emailed back and received no response. I called and left a 2nd voicemail, asking for confirmation, and let Tesla know that I was entertaining offers and needed a final response. I finally got a call back several days later, saying ' sorry we weren't able to give an offer in time'. There was also a line about not getting final authority to fill the position. How very interesting - no details on what went wrong were offered.
If that wasn't strange enough...I was later contacted through linked-in by a second recruiter. I expressed that I had already interviewed several months earlier.
TESLA seemed like a true engineer's company - but they were undergoing some serious growing pains, and seemed to be suffering great disorganization because of it. My impressions could have been much different, if planning, interviews with management, and my general in-city experiences had been better.