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What it’s like having a job interview with Elon Musk (Spoiler: Terrifying)

Published May 14th, 2015 3:09PM EDT

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As we’ve observed in the past, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is something of a classic mad genius. Because of this, you can imagine that having him interview you for a job at one of his companies might be a little intimidating just based on his reputation alone. And now we know that Musk’s own behavior during prospective employees’ job interviews doesn’t help matters either, thanks to Ashlee Vance’s new book on Musk’s life and career.

RELATED: New book makes Tesla CEO Elon Musk sound borderline insane

 Mashable’s Seth Fiegerman zeroes in on an excerpt of Vance’s book in which she describes what it’s like to have a job interview with Musk and it’s something that sounds absolutely terrifying to any applicants who don’t know what to expect.

Why is interviewing with Musk so daunting? A couple of reasons stand out:

  • Being the workaholic that he is, Musk often does work on his computer while he’s interviewing you. This means that he won’t make eye contact at first and he’ll give off the distinct impression that he’s already bored with you.
  • Musk is also very fond of asking riddles during interviews one of his favorites: “You’re standing on the surface of the Earth. You walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you?”

Even if you get the job after this, working for Musk is no walk in the park. Your life will be hell, one ex-Tesla exec tells Vance, until Musk determines that “you’re as crazy as he is.”

Vance’s book is called Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future and it will be released on May 19th.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.