After Tesla
- 6%Founded something32
- 15%Joined a startup83
- 31%Joined a big company175
- 48%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Tesla most often go to Apple, Meta and Google. Of them, 6% found something next and 15% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 10m
Not Tesla's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 745 people on a map of 67,181, No. 28 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 7451.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 17123% of the people here
- Moved on
- 57477% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 10mmiddle half 8m to 3y 6m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Apple (6% of recorded departures).
109 of 707 recorded arrivals shown, 598 more from 492 other companies175 of 594 recorded departures shown, 419 more to 289 other companies
The Tesla mafia
32 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 6% of those who moved on, half of them within a month of leaving. The bars cover the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
30%<1y
22%1-2y
28%2-4y
16%4-7y
4%7y+
525 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
6<312
4013
14914
251715
372816
633617
686118
564719
1005020
1118821
808922
1128023
748324
585825
181026
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 826 joined, 657 left.
Caliber
83mediantop 10%91
0Eng Scorer caliber, 379 scored99
there now 82 moved on 83. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer166
- Software Engineer Intern148
- Senior Software Engineer101
- Staff Software Engineer47
- Machine Learning Engineer20
- Data Engineer16
- Senior Software Development Engineer15
- Intern12
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 9% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 3%Exceptional12 people
- 20%Strong76 people
- 39%Solid149 people
- 30%Emerging114 people
- 7%Unproven28 people
379 of the 745 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
88 of the 379 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 23%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
49%Titles that rose293 of 599 classified people
- 49%Rose293 people
- 46%Stayed level275 people
- 5%Fell31 people
599 of the 745 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley13.2%
- Stanford9.7%
- Georgia Tech8.8%
- Carnegie Mellon7.7%
- UCLA3.9%
- MIT3.6%
- UIUC3.6%
- USC3.0%
The 8 most listed schools among the 743 people here with a school on file.
98 of the 743 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 72 list Stanford and 65 list Georgia Tech. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
30%have a public GitHub account on their profile
226 of the 745 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
65% of the people who have worked at Tesla and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Tesla
Everyone on the map
- 65%SF Bay Area487 · map 41%
- 16%New York121 · map 18%
- 4%Los Angeles29 · map 5%
- 3%Seattle25 · map 5%
- 2%Washington DC17 · map 13%
- 1%Austin10 · map 0.8%
- 1%Atlanta9 · map 1%
- 0.8%Boston6 · map 2%
- 6%Somewhere else41
All 745 people who worked at Tesla list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Tesla: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Tesla, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 745 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Tesla: 171 are there now, 574 have moved on.
- Most leave for Apple: 34 people, 6% of recorded departures. Then Meta and Google.
- Most arrive from Meta: 22 people. Then Google and Amazon.
- Median tenure at Tesla: 1y 10m, middle half 8m to 3y 6m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Tesla, 6% went to a founder title next, 15% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 31% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 83 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 379 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 98 of the 743 people here with one on file (13.2%). Then Stanford (72).
- 65% of the 745 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 30% of the 745 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 293 rose, 275 stayed level, 31 fell, out of the 599 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
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