Elon Musk took to his own platform to search for ‘hardcore software engineers to help develop the Everything App. But what does it take to be an employee of the richest man on earth?
Elon Musk took to his own platform to search for ‘hardcore’ software engineers to help develop the Everything Ap(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The richest man on earth has opened up applications for top-notch employees to join his team, regardless of background.
Elon Musk, known for his unconventional approach to almost everything, took to his own platform, X, formerly Twitter, in a quest for “hardcore” software engineers to help develop the Everything App. The app is a one-stop digital shop offering messaging, social media vibes, money transfers, and shopping too. He stated that he had no interest in the history of the applicants, provided their coding work was good.
But how could you start working for the tech billionaire, who admittedly has a chequered history when it comes to how he treats his employees?
Musk’s employment drive on X has gone viral(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
In his now viral post, after an appeal for applicants to send their best code in, the SpaceX owner wrote: “We don’t care where you went to school or even whether you went to school or what ‘big name’ company you worked at. Just show us your code.”
Coding is the process of writing step-by-step instructions for a computer to follow, using programming languages. It is used to create software, games, apps, and websites.
While little has been advertised about this particular job’s perks, ie holiday, pension or company car, former employees have spoken up about the job satisfaction of working for Musk.
One wrote on Quora that following an early flight of the Falcon 1, which went wrong, Musk turned the team’s deflation into determination with an inspirational talk.
‘For my part, I will never give up and I mean never’ (stock)(Image: Getty Images)
She said he walked past the gathered press and addressed the company employees first. He proceeded to point out other places that had also failed, before adding they should dust themselves off and get ready to go again.
Adding: “Then he said, with as much fortitude and ferocity as he could muster after having been awake for like 20+ hours by this point that, ‘For my part, I will never give up and I mean never,’ and that if we stick with him, we will win.”
Another user, who claims he was interviewed by Musk to work at Tesla when it was a fledgling start up, asked his potential boss whether huge hurdles, bureaucracy and high barriers caused him to pause on ideas.
He said the answer given won him over: “He said he looks at 2 things before embarking on anything. 1) Can it be done? (That by doing it we are not breaking any laws of physics) 2) Is it important? Is it important enough for humanity that it would make a major dent. If the answers to both the questions is ‘Yes’ then he goes ahead with it. Simple. I was floored!”
So, how can you become one of these happy employees?
Musk has been described by people who say they have worked with him as inspirational(Image: Getty Images)
According to Manatal, Musk: Values a strong work ethic, passion, and commitment, believing that genuine enthusiasm for the company’s mission drives exceptional performance and significant contributions.
Speaking on AutoBild TV, Musk said: “When I interview somebody I really just ask them to tell me the story of their career. What are some of the tougher problems that they dealt with, how they dealt with those, and how they made decisions at key transition points.
“Usually that’s enough for me to get a very good gut feel about someone.”
He said he was looking evidence of exceptional ability, how they face and overcome really difficult problems.
He added: “There’s no need even to have a college degree, at all, or even high school. If you look at people like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, these guys didn’t graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them of course that would be a good idea. Just looking just for evidence of exceptional ability, and if there’s a track record of exceptional achievement then it’s likely that that will continue into the future.”
Some X users found fault’s in Musk’s plan to net the top coders (stock)(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
However, in spite of the opportunity some would-be employees were quick to point out the stumbling blocks on the unorthodox call to applications.
One X user wrote: “I’m a hardcore software engineer that gets paid $200k to write code for a major us bank. Guess what! THEY OWN THE CODE NOT ME. I cant show it to you. I think you’ll find the best programmers are “employed” and dont own any of their code.”
Another took pity on Musk’s current team, adding: “If I was an X recruiter or engineer and I saw Elon post this online I would lose my mind This is the epitome of a clueless boss idea Sounds really cool, but is completely oblivious to how tedious, ineffective, and time consuming this will be to implement
“How is your talent acquisition team going to go through a mountain of code submissions?”