8 ms·
I recently interviewed for Tesla's module department. Module engineering is essentially the gear between engineering and manufacturing. They're the heavy lifter
by fermienrico 9y ago
I recently interviewed for Tesla's module department. Module engineering is essentially the gear between engineering and manufacturing. They're the heavy lifters. They're the front line grunts. They're the ones accountable for everything - LVM to HVM feasibility, process development, metrology, selection of suppliers, qualifying the manufacturing cell, process control and sustaining(operations, efficiency, continuous improvement, training etc.) and troubleshooting lines down situations.
The interviewer was very polite and told me this is probably the most demanding job at Tesla, especially at this time of the company's state when they're ramping up the production lines for Model 3.
I was intrigued and went to second round interview, and it eventually led to an offer. That is where things got interesting. Tesla needs to invest heavily in their Module engineers. The pay package was extremely disappointing and I am not willing to let go of the golden years of my life (late 20's) for this kind of a job unless it is heavily incentivized. I've had similar demanding job offers from oil companies, but at least they offset with a very compelling pay package (15% Alaska bonus, 4 weeks off, presumably amazing yearly bonus).
- kilroy123 9y agoHow much under what you were expecting, exactly? 10% under? 50%?
- fermienrico 9y agoIt is hard to say the exact percent because of my unfamiliarity with the cost of living; but I was expecting about 30-40% higher...perhaps even more. I interviewed with several engineers and really got to understand (and appreciate) the kind of work they do.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- baseethrowaway 9y agoWhy not share the numbers?
- fermienrico 9y agoApologies, I will be very transparent: Offer was about $100-110k in the Bay Area + other perks (bonus/stock). I have 4-7 years of experience. This offer was before negotiation (which I didn't end up doing as I thought it was a fruitless endeavor). If I did negotiate, I always negotiate the base salary - that is a guaranteed pay. Bonus/Stock could be slashed, altered and neutered in future. The funny thing is that I currently make more than that outside of California (I wish to not disclose my location if that's ok). I am hearing from others that Bay area housing is approximately $2k / bedroom and that's not super nice. This leaves a bad taste for working in the Bay area where competition is insane, cost of living is through the roof, and compensation isn't adequate. Others are pointing out the thrill of working for Tesla/SpaceX has some value - that is, to work for the next gen American manufacturing. I am a bit more objective and less emotional I guess. I do have a question: Is expecting $130-140k too much for a Mechanical Engineer running one of the most critical areas in their manufacturing line? Edit - removed personally identifiable information.
- mi100hael 9y agoIn the Bay Area I'd expect a role like that to be in the neighborhood of at least $175k + RSUs/options/bonus.
- fermienrico 9y agoI think I could have negotiated up to $120 if I was lucky. I’m sick of the corporate grind. If people are interested in contacting me for a robotics startup, I could be reached at the email address on my profile.
- deepnotderp 9y agoWe're hiring. We're a chip company, not exactly robotics, but your role would be embedded systems on a board. I couldn't find your email, so if this sounds interesting, email me.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dawhizkid 9y agoTesla isn’t know to pay particularly well. Unfortunately, on average, non-software engineers, esp in the Bay Area, are not paid comparably very well.
- bpicolo 9y agoThat's pretty unusual. Tesla is cool but nearly as glamorous as spacex.
- stcredzero 9y agoIf that is generally true, then Tesla is squandering a golden opportunity. If they have the cachet to attract top-tier talent, they should take it.
- fermienrico 9y agoIndeed, I certainly noticed this disparity. My background is in Engineering (Robotics) and I am very capable of writing full fledged software - from FreeRTOS/ARM Cortex apps for embedded robotics to your typical engineering scripting (Matlab, Python). I've worked on a few major ROS projects and have an excellent grasp of C/C++. I find this "Education degree" based pay bias a little bit absurd. Of course, there is the demand/supply thing that should settle the equilibrium in a fluid job market -- but the reality is that non-software engineers that can also write software are underpaid. There is equal or more complexity in dealing with the interface of hardware and software (Robotics) as with any other "pure" software development task. I would love to hear more from the software folks on HN. I think pay should be based on the specific job role not Engineering degree. Edit: removed personally identifiable information.
- zpatel 9y agoI wonder why people get a masters in mechanical engineering or other field and code webapps or services just because they get a good job offer ? A software / compute engineer would never be able to get a mechanical or civil engineering job without appropriate degrees or certs in the field.
- postmeta 9y agoWow, oil company offers vs Tesla... I think you should choose Tesla and burn some of those golden years for the future of American manufacturing rather than scooping out more dead dinosaur goop.
- schwap 9y agoPay them the difference then.
- philsnow 9y agoTo be clear you're saying postmeta should pony up the difference right? (agreed)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- omegaworks 9y agoWhy are you blaming the individual for a institutional and societal failure? Tesla should pay - at minimum - market rate for this person's skills, to do otherwise is a failure at the institutional level. We should be valuing people that perform labor in service of jumpstarting a post-fossil economy higher than those that perform labor in service of the existing, damaging fossil economy. To do otherwise a failure at the societal level.
- dkersten 9y agoIt boggles my European mind that 4 weeks of holidays is considered a lot...
- flunhat 9y agoHow many weeks off are you guys given? 4 weeks sounds like quite a lot (it's a whole month!)
- to3m 9y agoIt’s 28 days in the UK. Those weeks include the weekends!
- Trundle 9y ago4 weeks of annual leave is the minimum here in Australia. Not including the 10 days of sick leave as well.
- whatusername 9y ago4 weeks. plus 11 public holidays. plus sick leave.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- alphonsegaston 9y agoI wonder at what point people will realize that Musk is a shyster who uses his media profile to underpay and overwork his employees. Can you imagine working for someone who engages in media spectacles as a way to induce death marches? "I told every media outlet that we're going to have fully autonomous cars next year, so you better deliver!"
- ctdonath 9y agoSo long as people are willing to do that work for that pay, he will. Nobody has to.
- TaylorGood 9y agoA buddy from childhood took a similar role there, albeit six years ago. He, now 31 is grinded down and wanting out. This of course stems from ~16 hr. workdays for the last couple years. That works perfectly against your dating and health. He did receive options and built a mini fortune but still.. his plan is to leave soon, relocate to a small mountain town, buy a fixer upper and essentially defrag himself. Edit/ Fun fact: paint was still wet on the Model X’s on stage at the press event. The parts to build them came in ten days before showtime. Groups of five or six were assigned one to build. He was one of them. He said he slept like 8 hours during the press build. To clarify, I love the ambitious nature of Tesla, SpaceX etc. but I have done 100+ work weeks and it sucks. Controlling your schedule or at least your queue is what I’d consider one of the most important things in life.
- eganist 9y agoThe culture wasn't really any different at SpaceX from what I can tell. I can tag a few friends to elaborate further, as I'm only operating on hear-say.
- pfarnsworth 9y agoThere's a lot of unnecessarily personally identifiable information about yourself in this thread. Although I appreciate your honesty and what you say is really interesting, for your benefit I think you should delete the posts with personally identifiable information before the 2 hour limit on HackerNews prevents you from doing it.
- hutzlibu 9y agohttps://xkcd.com/137/ https://xkcd.com/137/
- loorinm 9y ago^^^^^^^^
- Strom 9y agoCan you share any examples of what type of data they shared that is going to cause problems? Seems like a very non-revealing post to me.
- fermienrico 9y agoThank you, I will add some ambiguity.