So just after the peak of the pandemic, I was contacted by Tesla as a candidate for a mid-level field engineering role. I went through 4 levels of interviews (including an aptitude test and a presentation) that culminated in a phone call with the VP of engineering.
The recruiter was excited to draft up an offer for me - promised to be forthcoming within a few days.
Almost 2 weeks later, they still hadn't contacted me back with an offer. At the same time I also interviewed for a role as a government EE which they did decide to extend me an offer (I took it and then quit 3 months later but that's another story).
Anyways, I decided to give Tesla a call and find out what happened. The recruiter told me they were still waiting to formalize the offer and to give them a few more days to get an offer together.
I then called back a few days later. At this point my interest in working for them had evaporated but I wanted to see what such an offer would look like. They STILL couldn't extend me a formal offer - even though the recruiter desperately wanted to and begged me to give them more time.
I eventually got him to tell me what the hold up was.
Elon Musk has to personally review the dossier of every... single... engineer they hire.
So, the CEO of several multi-billion dollar companies, who has never met me, has to rubber stamp a specially prepared dossier on the candidate after that candidate has already been vetted by recruiters, staff engineers, managers, and even the VP of engineering before the company can hire a mid-level field engineer.
On top of that, the compensation was less competitive than the government job and the relocation package was an absolute joke (not even enough money to rent a moving van, let alone make a deposit on an apartment near Fremont, California).
And where I'm at now, the place is getting flooded with ex-Tesla engineers fleeing a chaotic and capricious work environment.