On August 7, Elon Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla Motors ($TSLA) private. It sent just about everyone into a speculative frenzy. On August 24, he put the idea to rest, saying that going private would have been "more time-consuming and distracting than initially anticipated."
With that sojourn aside and as the dust settles on Wall Street, job-listing data indicates that Tesla is quickly moving back into "make-money" mode at the retail sales level.
A day after the August 7 tweet, job listings at Tesla saw a minor dip followed by a hiring run. In this case, it appears the company is focused on filling out its stable of "Customer Experience Specialists", employees who work in Tesla's showrooms — many of which are in high-end malls and shopping districts — and act as both sales and customer service agents on the company's front lines.
Hiring activity at the electric-vehicle manufacturer have been erratic over the past couple years, with a major slowdown in May-June, as we reported earlier this month when the company saw a 24% reduction in new job listings.
However, since the infamous (dare we say historical?) tweet, hiring at the company has been on an upswing again.
Of the more than 2,000 open positions today, the most-common job title is for Customer Experience Specialists, a sales-oriented position, with 129 such listings. Vehicle Prep Specialists, those who set up new cars for new customers during the delivery process, saw 49 such listings as of today, followed by Delivery Experience Specialists with 45 such listings.
Putting this all together, it appears the hiring strategy at Tesla goes something like: Sell, prep, and deliver.
|
Title |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
Customer Experience Specialist |
129 |
|
Vehicle Prep Specialist |
49 |
|
Delivery Experience Specialist |
45 |
|
Owner Advisor |
42 |
|
Field Service Associate |
36 |
|
Field Service Crew Lead |
32 |
|
Lead Field Service Associate |
25 |
|
Associate Delivery Manager |
24 |
|
Sr. Field Service Associate |
21 |
|
Field Manager - Energy O&M |
20 |
Hiring for Customer Experience Specialists is distributed across 98 locations, with the top-10 locations reading a lot like a list of high-income communities:
|
Location Text |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
NA-US-CA-Santa Monica-3rd Street Promenade |
4 |
|
NA-US-PA-King of Prussia-King of Prussia Mall |
3 |
|
NA-US-NY-White Plains-The Westchester |
3 |
|
NA-US-AZ-Scottsdale-Fashion Square |
3 |
|
NA-US-VA-Tysons Corner-Tyco Road |
2 |
|
NA-US-VA-McLean-Tysons Corner |
2 |
|
NA-US-CA-Corte Madera-The Village at Corte Madera |
2 |
|
NA-US-CA-San Diego-UTC |
2 |
|
NA-US-CA-Palm Desert-The Gardens on El Paseo |
2 |
|
NA-US-HI-Honolulu-International Market Place |
2 |
This marks the steepest jump in hiring for Customer Experience Specialists that we've seen since we began tracking Tesla hiring activities in 2016.
