The Diary of an Ex-Tesla Intern | Hacker News Reader

The Diary of an Ex-Tesla Intern

fastcompany.com

66 pointsprostoalex33 comments

Wow, the Clickbait Enforcement Officer will surely win this years Golden Eleven award for the original title. The content reads like a Tesla PR piece all the while the title hints at yet Silicon Valley expose.

What's "Golden Eleven" in reference to?

https://youtu.be/uMSV4OteqBE?t=1m16s + golden as in golden globes.

This bit is interesting :

"I remember distinctly my first day, a full-time software engineer asked me to finish coding something that was to be pushed out in a firmware update later in the day. He rattled off a few instructions, told me to be careful not to ruin all the cars, and promptly ran off to a meeting."

Is this for real? An intern on their first day writing production code to be pushed into a firmware update for same-day release?

I surely hope they have a rigorous testing process before releasing firmware updates.

Also for legal reasons doesn't automotive code need to go through some complex process before being released incase there ever is an investigation by the NTSB?

FTA: "I focused specifically on technical documentation and diagnosis of issues with Model S components. I also worked on the product development of internal widgets"

So, he didn't work on things like battery firmware or self-driving. That makes it _slightly_ more believable, but I think the probability is higher that this was either a prank, or they checked his work behind his back.

> or they checked his work behind his back

I'd be pretty sad if there was code being pushed out at Tesla which wasn't checked first. I don't think the implication is that it wouldn't be checked, just that they felt that they got to make a meaningful contribution on the first day.

I think it is a drill for new interns. I mean look at the parts of the sentence. "asked me to finish coding", "firmware update later in the day", "be careful not to ruin all the cars". I don't think tesla finishes the firmware of such important thing in the last day, let alone be it modified by an intern. This just seems like someone thought it would be fun in the first day of the new interns.

You're intentionally breaking up the sentence and dropping key words, reassigning new, contradictory meaning based on gut-feel: "I remember distinctly my first day, a full-time software engineer asked me to finish coding something that was to be pushed out in a firmware update later in the day."

That is unequivocal - the code was going to be pushed out in the firmware later that day.

I believe the parent is suggesting that the task was created to be something exciting - not necessarily that it was entirely true in some way.

I have no idea what the basis of such a suggestion would be - besides their gut.

It is either a) a joke on the new employee, courtesy of the other engineer, or b) true, but "pushed out" means to 1..N internal testing cars. Even the latter would be crazy for a new hire but if the test suite or manual testing barriers are high enough then it's at least a possibility.

Wow, their on-boarding process must be really really good. I will be lucky to work the phones and read emails when I start at a new place. The Telsa guys can push code into a car on their 1st day! What's their secret sauce /sarcasm.

No one said the intern pushed out the code, did they? Maybe the senior person said: look for string literals, and make sure that all sentences end with a period, to then return later, review the work, push it out, to some cars, of which was never mentioned if they were of customers (probably not) or whether they were even real cars in your and my perception of a car. Maybe they have stripped down test models, or mockup hardware (where you can just manually simulate some inputs at will), we don't know. The idea to have new people push out code to the main development branch, short after their arrival, is a common practice for me, to give them early feeling of accomplishment, before the rather unavoidable overwhelming of new job--lot to learn. It needs to fit the culture, though, of course...

"ate a ton of Costco breakfast sausages. I must have eaten close to 15-25 sausages a day"

I knew it was a sausage fest, but I misunderstood what kind of sausage fest.

I wonder how he'd feel after 450mg of cholesterol each day, too!

[1] http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/costco-breakfast-s...

Cholesterol is fine, the lack of vitamins is not. Too little potassium too. Also never mix this with much sugar.

> Elon calls those working at Tesla the “special ops” of the industry. You’re expected to do more with less every single day

I hate it when leaders that probably never served in the military use metaphors they don't understand for pushing employees to the limit.

SpecOps are all about having the best tools for the job, preparation, training, in order to succeed on a mission.

Supply chain. Special ops are behind enemy lines without access to the supply chain, backup, or ongoing intelligence. And despite all this they must complete more difficult missions. That is doing more with less.

But to compensate for the less, they get more in other areas. The less they're saddled with is dictated by circumstances, not as some form of cost cutting. In fact, no expense is spared on the more they're given - the best training and best equipment. They don't have to do more with less, they have to do more with more, in harsher conditions.

> I hate it when leaders that probably never served in the military use metaphors they don't understand for pushing employees to the limit.

It's a brilliant bit of persuasive rhetoric, though. Very few people know what special ops does. They only know what they see in the movies, which is that they're badasses. The best of the best. Elon is taking a negative (no resources for you!) and making his employees think of it in a positive and flattering way (we're the best of the best! Only we can take so little and use it to make so much!).

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a reprehensible way to take advantage of your employees. But it's a good lesson that can be applied in other, better ways. It's also good to be able to recognize dark patterns like these so you don't fall victim to them.

I think the more interesting thing here is probably what he doesn't mention. Given the amount of sausages he appears to be eating daily I suspect he was spending most of his day there. However his previous history also indicates working all hours. I'm guessing if work dominates your life then Tesla is for you. Personally I need a good work/life balance.

[edit] As mentioned in the comment below, "good work/life balance" is subjective and "different work/life balance" is a better way of putting my point across.

Good is subjective. It resonates more with me, if you'd say: "I need a _different_ work/life balance". Just as a suggestion...

Have updated my original comment to reflect this. It's a very valid point.

You know, I think this is the first article I've seen on working for Tesla (or SpaceX, for that matter) that has been wholly positive. Most of the time its more "They work you like hell and I have no life outside of work, but damn is this going to look good on my resume when I move on in a year"

> but damn is this going to look good on my resume when I move on in a year

I'd guess those are exactly the people those companies want to avoid, so no surprise those are also the people who are complaining the most.

My take from this was that that intern was worked like hell and then adding the sausages on top of that... This is the first bit of working for Tesla (or SpaceX, for that matter) I've ever read and the picture I was left with isn't pretty, despite the lipstick service paid by the intern and the writer.

> As an intern [...] spent only 10% of my time on meetings

In my experience, interns spend maybe 2% of their time on meetings. Mostly they are left to do their thing, be it alone (if you have a project, common in higher levels of education) or with colleagues (more hands-on stuff; lower levels of education). Is that different in America?

Honestly don't understand who has upvoted this, it's just a PR fluff piece.

Why is the webpage 100x longer than the article?

And he didn't get to drive one of the cars? I would be flippin' tables and causing all kinds of scenes!

Site scrolling is horribly broken on mobile. I couldn't read beyond 1 paragraph.

https://outline.com/entYNq

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