Phone screen, Hiring Manager call, Case Study, Onsite Panel I was given a verbal offer that was never pulled through. They never gave me a rejection email or anything. I was ghosted. This was during Tesla's hiring freeze/layoffs.

It starts with an HR screener conversation, then some assigned writing homework (free labor), and concludes with meeting individually with a handful of people -- a mix of managers and other writers. The process was pretty standard interview stuff, but the way my interview went, I suspect it wasn't real -- that they had no actual intention of giving me a chance. I came in with years of relevant experience, including a few doing almost the exact same job -- quite successfully too. I also had solid answers to their questions, thoughtful examples for the scenarios they dished out, and strong writing samples. And yet that was the end of it. I couldn't help but notice that all five of the people who interviewed me were white males -- which is very unlikely in any meritocratic, tech-centric company operating in Fremont. Looking around the factory floor showed more of the same -- I saw some variety in the ranks of expendable low-paid manual labor, but when it comes to workers of any rank or importance (engineers, managers, writers, etc.), it's basically a sea of Caucasian faces. It seemed like the few women there were largely screened for looks and youth, too. By now it's been well publicized in TV reports and news articles how bigotry of all kinds (racism, sexism, homophobia) runs rampant at Tesla's plant -- dating back well into the 2010s. I'd bet a pretty penny that my interview was a false front to fulfill some kind of interviewing diversity quota. Speaking of money, Tesla seems to offer very little of it. I asked about salary multiple times, and the question was met with several dodges and deflections. They finally coughed up an answer AFTER the interview, and the number revealed why they were trying to hard to conceal it -- a Technical Writer at Tesla makes right around $70K! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bay Area average is around $115K, putting Tesla's pay a whopping $45,000 (or 40%) under market. Disgraceful... just like the company's morals as a whole.

First two rounds were great but long gaps in between contacting me. The last round turned suddenly cold as my male interviewer seemed to react to my mentioning that I had a 12 year old child and I had already located a school to make the relocation go smoothly. Suddenly he was taking about how they all worked ungodly hours there. I could hear the subtext, that as a female with a kid I could not function in the environment the department required. It felt very discriminatory especially since my prior interview went very well and a unique qualification I brought was experience documenting hardware and software as well as having many years as a trainer/ end user expert.