I applied on line and was contacted by email to set up a phone interview with a Technical Recruiter. This interview was mostly a review of my resume with some chances to discuss my key technical skills that would apply to the job. The recruiter was very friendly and hinted several times about the "passion" and "dedication" required to work at Tesla.
The recruiter passed me along to the hiring manager for a phone interview. She asked me to put together a short summary of three technical projects to demonstrate my problem solving experience.
The second interview did not go well. I had overestimated the technical requirements of the job. Also, because I thought I'd be doing more measurements and analysis I had wrongly assumed I could bring work home with me so I could be home for dinner most nights. I understood going in to the interview that Tesla hours are intense but it also turned out that none of the work for this job could be done remotely.
The rest of the interview was OK. I had lots to talk about in regards to the prepared project summaries since I had spent several hours reviewing old projects to pick the most applicable three. The hiring manager asked me to pick any one of them for discussion. That went well, though the hiring manager indicated a bit later that this job wouldn't have much "deep-dive type engineering measurements and analysis." By this point I should have seen the writing on the wall and bailed, but I didn't want to give up.
There was a short series of typical interview type questions asked as well. Here are the ones I remember:
-Why Tesla?
-We have a lot of talented people. What makes you special?
-Are you more of a hands-on type person or a project manager?
The end of the interview was simply saying goodbye. The hiring manager didn't give me any indication about what was coming next told me there was no "next." A few days later I got a "thanks, but no thanks" email from the recruiter.
Overall I was impressed with the interview process. Things moved along at a good clip, it was all done within 2 weeks of applying on line. The recruiter kept me in the loop and everyone called on time as scheduled. The recruiter gave not-so-subtle hints about the work hours load. The hiring manager told me exactly how many hours per week he expects (60 in this case) and was transparent about what the job would actually entail (which wasn't as interesting as the written description). In the end I agree with the hiring manager that I wasn't a good fit for the position.