Work environment as software engineer at Tesla

Great CEO

It can be hard to talk about because the culture and WLB can vary drastically from team to team. My manager is very reasonable (he tries to keep us challenged but not burned out) and my team gets along great. People typically eat in groups together over lunch every day unless they’re too busy, and the whole team usually goes out for lunch once a week. Lately, the teams focused on getting V9 out the door have been putting in very long hours and coming in on weekends. Other teams, mine included, have been off the hook for this particular push, so we’ve been working pretty average hours. Our time is coming, though... lot’s of stuff in the pipeline. And we’ve definitely had stressful periods in the past. The 9% layoff hit certain orgs harder than others. Nobody in my team was affected, and I only know one or two people who were let go from other teams we frequently work with. I’m sure others were impacted more. Generally, people are optimistic and passionate. Tesla has a lot of really smart people and everyone is on-board with the mission. Unfortunately, it feels like sometimes the company takes advantage of that to exploit people. Compensation is often (but not always) below par, and at the end of the quarter, the company always asks everyone to volunteer to help out with whatever crisis we’re dealing with to hit whatever numbers we need. It can be chaotic, but it’s also fun and challenging in its own way. Hope that helps a bit.