Ask HN: Would You Work for Elon?

I prefer working in a stable environment, where I know the entire situation won't change from one moment to another. This allows me to do better work, with less stress. So no, I wouldn't work for Musk under a similar situation to Twitter, it'd be far too unpredictable.

Right now? Hell, no.

He's fired half the team, he's making radical changes very quickly, he's requiring long hours, and likely any new employee needs to figure out how to do their job on their own because it seems he fired people without much thought and so it's very possible that the people who know how stuff works are gone or too busy to help.

Meanwhile, revenue seems to be going down, and the perception is that it may all go down the drain.

That seems a very un-fun situation to be in, with very little to gain or learn from it.

Now, if he somehow left or sold the company to somebody else, then trying to pick up the pieces afterwards might be an interesting challenge, assuming the new management is supportive.

I've worked for CEOs who were very much like Elon.

Back in the 90's, it was exhilarating, and he made you feel like you were an important person working on important things for an important company.

To give you an idea of what this company was like, the employee sexual harassment manual came in a huge white three-ring binder. The binder contained a single page, with a single sentence: "Use your common sense." Each employee had to sign the bottom of the page and return it to HR.

The CEO's personal stationery had a monogram of a butt on it.

Looking back, that feeling of invincibility and righteousness was probably just the CEO exploiting the youthful optimism of employees like me.

I wouldn't do it again. It's exhausting, and hollow. I'm a better person today than I was then.

I would not want to work at any company with a recently-gutted workforce where people are constantly looking over their shoulder, and where people with institutional knowledge have been pushed out.

Yes. It'd probably pay more than I get now, and might include relocation. [EDIT] Sorry I didn't read the question properly. I'm not an engineer, just a programmer.