By
Bena Ilyas
May 6th, 2024
Elon Musk says that all Tesla’s potential employees should have an exceptional ability, which is much more important than a university degree.
CEO Elon Musk said in a recent tweet that Telsa’s hiring process doesn’t require a degree. He said this in answer to a question on his twitter handle. This is in line with the Technology Entrepreneur’s belief that people are more important than their academic qualifications. It has also affirmed the belief that there are people who possess abilities that college degrees can’t measure.
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2019
This echoes the same requirements he gave for employment at the electric car maker in 2014 when he responded to questions in an interview with Germany’s Autobild. He said:
“There’s no need even to have a college degree at all, or even high school.”
He further went on to explain his position on the issues at hand:
“If somebody graduated from a great university, that may be an indication that they will be capable of great things, but it’s not necessarily the case. If you look at, say, people like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, these guys didn’t graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them, of course, that would be a good idea.”
He also stated that he looks for an “exceptional ability” in individuals. This is something that people in his class of intelligence look for in others as well. He indicated this in the interview when he said:
“If there’s a track record of exceptional achievement, then it’s likely that that will continue into the future.”
During interviews, he asks the candidates detailed questions about the most difficult situations they’ve ever faced. This is how he knows that they aren’t taking any credit for others’ work. This is also how he selects individuals during Tesla’s hiring process.
Tesla’s Hiring Process is Based on Thinking Outside the Box
Elon is a graduate in the fields of Physics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is known to have this out-of-the-box thinking that has led to him to realize that in the future. This ability may be more important than education in many cases. We can all see the various ventures that Elon has ever engaged are either hare-brained or down-right crazy if it weren’t Elon Musk or others who are part of a rare breed of entrepreneurs. They change the world with their thinking. A university education can give anyone a great head-start in life. The lack of being able to use the university degree to propound solutions to the world’s problems is exactly what Elon is talking about.
From Paypal to SpaceX, to Tesla, to Open AI, Hyperloop and a host of the other highly successful initiatives and startups that Elon has brought to the table, one thing is noticed about each of them. They are aimed at solving problems. It is this exceptional ability that Elon referred to when he spoke about hiring those without one.
People keep up appearances. They do this to gain acceptance. The reverse seems to be the case with Elon. He has embraced one fact about life that most people know. Appearances are nothing. Solutions are everything.