After Tesla
- 6%Founded something17
- 15%Joined a startup39
- 23%Joined a big company61
- 56%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Tesla most often go to Apple, Meta and Google. 6% found something next. 15% go small. Median stay 1y 10m
These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not Tesla's headcount: 318 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 26 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.
- People on the map
- 3181.2% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 4815% of the people here
- Moved on
- 27085% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 10mmiddle half 7m to 3y 1m
Put Tesla side by side with another company, every number against every number.
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Apple (5% of recorded departures).
45 of 305 recorded arrivals shown, 260 more from 240 other companies85 of 282 recorded departures shown, 197 more to 157 other companies
The Tesla mafia
17 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 are the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders count in the total.
How long people stay
33%<1y
18%1-2y
32%2-4y
16%4-7y
1%7y+
205 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
4012
3013
8514
11915
111016
251817
343218
312919
482320
595121
354122
413623
212524
162325
4226
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 351 joined, 304 left.
Caliber
83mediantop 10%91
0Eng Scorer caliber, 318 scored99
there now 83 moved on 83. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer Intern75
- Software Engineer67
- Senior Software Engineer35
- Staff Software Engineer12
- Data Engineer7
- Intern7
- Senior Software Development Engineer6
- Software Development Engineer5
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 12% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 3%Exceptional11 people
- 22%Strong69 people
- 43%Solid138 people
- 27%Emerging86 people
- 4%Unproven14 people
318 of the 318 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 80 of the 318 people here with a read sit in them, 25%. A tier is the band an Eng Scorer 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.
43%Titles that rose115 of 269 classified people
- 43%Rose115 people
- 53%Stayed level142 people
- 4%Fell12 people
269 of the 318 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 who recorded one title here and then left, it is 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. A title that matches no rung is left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely, being a different ladder. That leaves 269 of the 318 people here classified, and it leans towards people who have left: someone still here on a single recorded title has nothing to be measured against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley13.9%
- Stanford9.2%
- Georgia Tech5.1%
- Carnegie Mellon4.7%
- UIUC4.7%
- UCLA4.1%
- University of Waterloo3.8%
- MIT3.5%
The 8 most listed schools among the 317 people here with a school on file.
Of the 317 people here with a school on file, 44 list UC Berkeley, 29 list Stanford and 16 list Georgia Tech. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
29%have a public GitHub account on their profile
93 of the 318 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check did not find reads the same as no account, so this is a floor rather than a census.
Across the 325 companies on the map that can show this figure, the median is 38%.
Where they are now
59% of the people who have worked at Tesla and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.
Tesla
Everyone on the map
- 59%SF Bay Area189 · map 47%
- 29%New York91 · map 33%
- 7%Los Angeles21 · map 6%
- 2%Washington DC6 · map 7%
- 2%Seattle5 · map 3%
- 2%Somewhere else6
All 318 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 they worked at Tesla: a metro here does not mean the company has an office in it. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map, for comparison.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Tesla, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 318 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Tesla: 48 are there now and 270 have moved on.
- The most common next employer after Tesla is Apple (14 people, 5% of recorded departures), followed by Meta and Google.
- The most common previous employer before Tesla is Meta (9 people), followed by Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
- The median tenure at Tesla is 1y 10m (middle half 7m to 3y 1m).
- Of those who moved on from Tesla, 6% went on to a founder title, 15% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 23% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
- The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at Tesla is 83 on the 0 to 99 scale (318 scored).
- The most common title held at Tesla is Software Engineer Intern, then Software Engineer.
- Of the 317 people here with a school on file, 44 list UC Berkeley (13.9%), then Stanford (29). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
- 59% of the 318 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 29% of the 318 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
- Of the 269 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 115 rose, 142 stayed level and 12 fell.
About this data: built from 144,786 jobs across 26,572 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated August 20, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving; companies with fewer than 20 people on the map are not shown, and destinations with fewer than 3 people are folded into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
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