In the race for dominance in the technology sector, it’s not so easy to find the right workers, he says Trillionaire CEO Elon Musk.
Musk is known for this Micromanagement Management style (which he jokingly referred to as nanomanagement) and hiring are no different. In the early years of building SpaceX, he was interviewed the first few thousand employees before he ran out of time, he said.
Musk now relies on his employees to find the “wow” factor, asking for bullet points to “demonstrate exceptional ability,” he told Stripe co-founder John Collison and tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel during an event common consequence their podcasts.
“Generally, I tell people — I tell myself, I think, ambitiously — don’t look at the resume,” he said. “Just believe your interaction. The resume may seem very impressive… but if the conversation isn’t ‘Wow’ after 20 minutes, you should believe the conversation, not the newspaper.”
That approach has paid off, with Musk adding that Tesla’s senior leadership now has an average tenure of 10 to 12 years. But there was a time earlier, in a faster growth phase, when leadership changed more frequently.
He remembered a time when companies liked Apple We bombarded Tesla’s executives and engineers with recruiting calls. In 2018, Apple hired 46 former employees Tesla Employees for the now discontinued electric car project and other roles, it is said CNBC.
He said there was a perception at the time that Tesla employees had “fairy dust,” or the ability to make a company successful, because of their background at the company. Apple offered its employees twice as much as Tesla paid them, Musk said, explaining that it was easy to poach employees in Silicon Valley because people typically don’t have to move or change their lifestyle when they move between companies.
Musk, who employs 200,000 people across his five companies, admits he made some HR mistakes.
“I’ve also fallen victim to the fairy dust thing where you say, ‘Oh, we’ll hire someone from Google or Apple and they’ll be successful right away,'” he said.
But strong credentials and an impressive professional history don’t tell the whole story, he added. Musk also values a candidate’s talent, drive and trustworthiness.
“I think goodness of heart is important,” he said. “I underestimated that once. So are you a good person? Trustworthy? Smart and talented and hard-working?”
Personnel changes in Musk’s company
More recently, Musk’s companies have suffered major executive losses as some employees left the company to start startups or take breaks, while others became burned out or soured policystrategic decisions and current ones redundancies.
Tesla’s chief information officer and senior members of the company’s public affairs department and its U.S. battery and powertrain division have left the company in recent years Financial Times reported.
And Mike Liberatore, CFO at Musk’s xAI startup, switched to OpenAI after three months, writes further LinkedIn, “102 days – 7 days per week in the office; 120+ hours per week; Wild ride to say the least.”
Employees said FT that Musk has put more pressure on xAI employees, which they believe is due to his competition and personal rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In August, Musk, one of the company’s early investors, said filed an antitrust lawsuit against OpenAI and Apple for allegedly attempting to restrict AI competition. OpenAI has accused Musk on harassment and trying to slow down the company’s progress.
Working for Musk pays off
Those who persevered with Musk were generously rewarded. SpaceX’s June 12 IPO spawned many Musk supporters Multimillionaires. The company’s chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell‘s stake was reported to be worth more than $2 billion before its debut. CFO Bret Johnsen became a billionaire overnight on Friday with a stake worth $1.4 billion. Both of their net worths only skyrocketed when SpaceX’s valuation peaked Amazon And Microsoft already on the third trading day.
Former employees also benefit. Juan Hernandez, who works as a welder, received $10,000 in equity when he was hired full-time Wall Street Journall reported. Even after selling some of his shares in 2020, his remaining shares are now worth well over $1.1 million.
A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on February 9, 2026.
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com