{"slug": "dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials", "title": "‘Don’t look at the résumé’: Elon Musk admits he’s ‘fallen prey’ to flashy credentials and says conversation matters most when hiring", "summary": "Elon Musk admitted he has 'fallen prey' to flashy credentials when hiring, emphasizing that conversation quality matters more than résumés. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he now advises hiring based on interactions rather than paper qualifications, and highlighted the importance of talent, drive, and trustworthiness.", "body_md": "In the race for tech dominance, finding the right workers isn’t so simple, says [trilllionaire](https://fortune.com/2026/06/12/where-does-musk-live-spacex-stock-ipo-net-worth-trillionaire-homes-texas/) CEO Elon Musk.\n\nMusk is known for his [micromanagement](https://fortune.com/2024/04/08/elon-musk-leadership-advice-principles-micromanaging-perfect-product/) leadership style (which he has jokingly referred to as nanomanagement), and hiring is no different. In the early years of building SpaceX, he [interviewed](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/09/why-spacex-ceo-elon-musk-asks-this-tricky-interview-question.html) the first few thousand employees, before he no longer had enough time, he said.\n\nMusk now relies on his staff to find the “wow” factor and asks for bullet points on “evidence of exceptional ability,” he told Stripe cofounder John Collison and tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel during a [joint episode](https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/elon-musk-on-space-gpus-ai-optimus) of their podcasts.\n\n“Generally, what I tell people—I tell myself, I guess, aspirationally—is, don’t look at the résumé,” he said. “Just believe your interaction. The résumé may seem very impressive…but if the conversation after 20 minutes is not ‘Wow,’ you should believe the conversation, not the paper.”\n\nThat approach paid off, and Musk added that Tesla’s senior leadership now has an average tenure of 10 to 12 years. But there was a time earlier, during a more rapid-growth phase, when executive positions changed more frequently.\n\nHe recalled a period when companies like [Apple](https://fortune.com/company/apple/) were “carpet bombing” Tesla’s leaders and engineers with recruiting calls. In 2018, Apple hired 46 former [Tesla](https://fortune.com/company/tesla/) employees for its now-shuttered electric car project and other roles, according to [CNBC](http://cnbc.com/2018/08/23/apple-hiring-many-tesla-employees-not-just-doug-field.html).\n\nHe said that at the time there was an idea that Tesla employees had “pixie dust,” or the quality to make a business successful because of their background with the company. Apple offered employees twice as much as Tesla was paying them, Musk said, explaining that poaching employees is easy in Silicon Valley because people typically don’t have to relocate or change their lifestyles when they move between companies.\n\nMusk, who has 200,000 employees across his five companies, admits to making some personnel mistakes.\n\n“I’ve fallen prey to the pixie dust thing as well, where it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ll hire someone from Google or Apple, and they’ll be immediately successful,’” he said.\n\nBut strong credentials and an impressive work history don’t tell the whole story, he added. Musk also puts value in a candidate’s talent, drive, and trustworthiness.\n\n“I think goodness of heart is important,” he said. “I underweighted that at one point. So, are they a good person? Trustworthy? Smart and talented and hardworking?”\n\n**Personnel changes at Musk’s companies**\n\nMore recently, Musk’s companies have faced major executive losses as some employees left to build startups or take breaks, while others burned out or soured on his [politics](https://fortune.com/2025/07/09/how-much-elon-musk-net-worth-tesla-stock-america-party-trump/), strategic decisions, and recent [layoffs](https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-xai-layoffs-data-annotators-2025-9).\n\nTesla’s chief information officer along with high-ranking members of the company’s public affairs arm and U.S. battery and powertrain operations left the company in recent years, the [ Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/21ec5a5f-0e9a-49b9-b64d-9ebc88e70aa7) reported.\n\nAnd Mike Liberatore, chief financial officer at Musk’s xAI startup, left for OpenAI after three months, writing on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeliberatore/), **“** 102 days — 7 days per week in the office; 120+ hours per week; Wild ride to say the least.”\n\nEmployees told *FT* that Musk has put more pressure on xAI employees, which they believe stems from his competition and personal rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.\n\nIn August, Musk, an early investor in the company, [filed an antitrust lawsuit ](https://fortune.com/2025/08/25/musk-sues-apple-openai-antitrust-monopolists/)against OpenAI and Apple for allegedly trying to limit AI competition. OpenAI has [accused](https://openai.com/index/the-truth-elon-left-out/) Musk of harassment and attempting to slow the company’s progress.\n\n**Working for Musk pays off**\n\nThose who stuck it out with Musk have been generously rewarded. SpaceX’s IPO on June 12 has made many Musk acolytes [multimillionaires](https://fortune.com/2026/06/11/spacex-ipo-wealth-jumps-executives-to-skilled-trade-welders-becoming-millionaires-elon-musk-trillionaire-status/). The company’s Chief Operating Officer [Gwynne Shotwell](https://fortune.com/2026/06/15/gwynne-shotwell-spacex-engineer-mars-nasa-ipo/)‘s stake was reported to be worth more than $2 billion ahead of the debut. Chief Financial Officer [Bret Johnsen](https://fortune.com/2026/06/13/spacex-cfo-bret-johnsen-overnight-billionaire-ipo/) became a billionaire overnight with a stake worth $1.4 billion on Friday. Both of their wealth has only skyrocketed as SpaceX’s valuation topped [Amazon](https://fortune.com/company/amazon-com/) and [Microsoft](https://fortune.com/company/microsoft/) on just its third day of trading.\n\nFormer employees are cashing in, too. Juan Hernandez, who works as a welder, got a $10,000 equity stake when he was hired full time, the* Wall Street Journa*\n\n[l](https://www.wsj.com/business/meet-the-spacex-employees-who-are-about-to-become-overnight-millionaires-1a1a1370)reported. Even after selling off some of his stake in 2020, his remaining shares are now worth well over $1.1 million.\n\n*A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on February 9, 2026.*\n\n## More on hiring:\n\n- This digital marketplace CEO says he’s\n[made 650 millionaires.](https://fortune.com/2026/06/14/gen-z-founder-steven-schwartz-whop-platform-minted-650-millionaires-wants-work-be-fun-money-worries-obsolete/) - Citadel just hired 350 intern.\n[Less than 1%](https://fortune.com/2026/06/11/115k-young-people-applied-citadel-internships-350-made-cut-acceptance-rate-0-36/)of applications made the cut. - Elon Musk\n[bans résumés](https://fortune.com/article/why-elon-musk-bans-resume-cover-letter-hiring/)and cover letters in hiring for his chip team\n\n**Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief**. Every Tuesday, this new newsletter delivers clear-eyed, authoritative intelligence on the deals, decisions, policies, and power shifts shaping one of the world’s most consequential regions, written for the people who need to act on it.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials", "canonical_source": "https://fortune.com/article/elon-musk-hiring-advice-spacex-resume-micromanagement/", "published_at": "2026-06-27 10:44:13+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-27 11:11:26.208877+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-startups", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Elon Musk", "Tesla", "SpaceX", "Apple", "xAI", "Stripe", "John Collison", "Dwarkesh Patel"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dont-look-at-the-resume-elon-musk-admits-hes-fallen-prey-to-flashy-credentials.jsonld"}}