Elon Musk says he has ‘fallen prey’ to fancy resumes, shares foolproof plan he swears by during hiring
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, recently admitted that he was attracted to “fairy dust” resumes and said that finding the right employee is not that easy.
Speaking in a special podcast co-hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison and tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Musk said he now relies on the ‘wow’ factor when it comes to hiring.
Elon Musk, who runs companies such as Tesla, CEO and SpaceX, is known for his micromanagement style of leadership and does not shy away from this quality in hiring. Speaking on the podcast, he said that in the first few years of starting SpaceX, he hired a few thousand employees until he ran out of time.
During this time, Musk learned his lessons on how to hire the right candidate, which is no easy task.
He recalled a time when companies, like people, “carpet bombed” Tesla’s leaders and engineers with hiring calls. He said there was a general idea at the time that Tesla employees had the “fairy dust” that would make any business successful just because they worked for the car company.
Tesla CEO admitted that he fell into the trap of such a thought in the early years.
“I’ve been a victim of the pixie dust thing, too; it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ll hire someone from Google or Apple and they’ll be immediately successful,'” he said.
However, Musk noted that “that’s not the way it works.”
“People are people. There’s no such thing as magical fairy dust. So when we had a fairy dust problem, we were hired non-stop,” she said.
Elon Musk’s recruitment tip
Elon Musk offered some foolproof hiring tips and stressed the importance of “kindness.”
“At one point I took it for granted. So, are they a good person? Are they trustworthy? Are they smart, talented and hard-working? If so, you can add domain knowledge,” he said.
Musk said he now trusts his staff to look for an employee’s “wow factor” or list “evidence of exceptional ability” when it comes to hiring.
“What I generally tell people—I think I enthusiastically tell myself—is don’t look at the resume,” he said.
“Just believe in your interaction. The resume may look very impressive… but if the conversation 20 minutes later isn’t ‘Wow,’ you should believe the conversation, not the paper.”
He explained that working hard at Elon Musk’s companies will be in the leader’s good books.
“If someone gets things done, I love them, and if they don’t, I hate them. So it’s pretty simple. It’s not a personal thing. If someone does a good job, I’m a big fan, if they don’t, I’m not,” Musk said.
