On Monday, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) posted 1,656 new job openings. They need a manager to start service operation in the city of Mexico, product specialists in big cities such as Amsterdam and Shanghai and a radar engineer with a maximum of three years’ experience in automotive radar systems.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been losing money. Since 2007, the total loss amounts to $1.88 billion. Tesla has been coming up with new models and expanding internationally in cities such as Mexico and Edinburgh. The company is also building the largest battery factory. The new personnel will help accomplish their plans that are aimed at increasing profits. Tesla seems to be making efforts to grow without compromising the plans of Elon Musk, its CEO, to improve the company’s returns within the first quarter of the coming year.
“In 2016, our company will face the challenge of balancing their plans of escalated growth and proving their abilities to deliver profits,” said Ben Kallo, an analyst from Robert W, Baird & Co. “The increment of labor in all departments will help achieve the accomplishments that have to be made both in the car and battery business,” he continued to explain.
2010 was the year Tesla went public. Since then, their workforce has grown considerably to more than 14,000. The increase in the workforce is much in comparison to the increase in the enterprise. In that year, Tesla sold only one car; a roadster which was sold in the USA. Tesla now sells two models of electric automobiles across three continents. Tesla energy, the department of the company that sells batteries to households and businesses, is doing well.
Obviously, the automobile company is small compared to bigwigs in the business such as General Motors Co., which has more than 216,000 workers. General Motors deals with more than ten brands of automobiles across all continents. OnStar telematics is a unit of their business.
Hiring many employees in a short period is common for companies aiming at rapid growth. The first SUV model by the company was released in September. The company is willing to deliver more than 50,000 vehicles this year, 17-19 thousand of these vehicles will be delivered in the fourth quarter of the year.
In October, Tesla held an event to launch a self-driving feature they called ‘auto-pilot’. In the event Musk praised electrification and autonomy as “most profound innovations” in the industry of automobiles. Since the last quarter of 2014, all Tesla cars have built-in cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors. These features are important for adaptive cruise control and automated change of lanes.
At that time, the workforce in Tesla was more than 14,000. Then, Musk would only say that the Autopilot team was small.
“The people working on the Autopilot software are something close to 50,” Musk said in the event held in October. “Those working on the hardware part of the Autopilot system are a little bit more; they are about 100. The numbers are bound to increase with time, but we prefer a small team working on the software. Small teams always do greater things than large teams.”
In his Twitter account, Musk shared with his over 3 million followers that he was building a team that would work on the building fully autonomous vehicles. The post was updated about a month ago.
“We are seeking experienced software engineers. Previous experience in automobile technology will not be a necessity,” Musk said in the tweet. “I will interview the candidates myself and the autopilot reports directly to me. The project is a high priority.”
Software and automotive engineers are in hot demand in Silicon Valley. Google, Apple and Cruise automation are companies that have registered interests in self-driven and electric cars. However, Tesla claimed that the job applications are flooding their desks. According to them, all their employees are involved in their search for good talent.
“We have had more than 1.5 million job applications from applicants from all parts of the world in the last 14 months,” said Arnnon Geshuri, vice president of human resources in Tesla. According to him, people want to work in Tesla.
In efforts to be in a position to manage, the anticipated growth will hire reputable executives. As of the moment, Tesla does not have a chief operating officer.
In a press release for the third-quarter earnings report, Musk announced the hiring of two top executives. Tesla hired Jason Wheeler, who was at Google, as the chief financial officer to replace the retiring Deepak Ahuja. John McNeill, the former CEO at Enservio, was appointed the head of global sales and services.
“I cannot hide my excitement in the acquisition of these two top executives by Tesla. In the near future, we will have more announcements like this to make. We are hoping to season the Tesla management team in the months to come,” said Musk.
