Tesla Walk-In Recruitment - Was It Simply A Well Executed PR Gimmick?

Last Monday we wrote about the Tesla walk-in interview that was to happen over the last weekend in Cyberjaya as Tesla, a renowned US electric vehicle manufacturer, is working towards bringing its presence into the Malaysian market fueled by the government's BEV Global Leaders Initiative.

The interviews were scheduled to begin at noon, but interested candidates started queuing as early as 8 am, with approximately 3,000 people showing up at the Cyberview office building by 12:30 pm. To accommodate the large crowd and combat the hot weather, Tesla management provided mineral water and ice cream to those waiting in line, as reported by Chinese daily Sin Chew.

Tesla Malaysia had advertised a walk-in interview opportunity for five positions: Sales Advisor/Inside Sales Advisor, Enterprise Sales Advisor, Delivery Advisor, Customer Support Specialist, and Service Advisor. The job interviews were slated to continue until 4 pm on Saturday.

However, it was understood that a Tesla representative later instructed candidates to fill out the online application form via their career websites, redirecting them away from the interview as they were unable to interview everyone who turned up.

Fadzrain, a Kuala Lumpur resident, shared his experience of having applied for a position through Tesla's career website in May and encouraged others who were turned away from the walk-in event to pursue the online application route. Tesla's website confirmed that the company was also accepting online applications for administrative, human resources, and sales positions in Malaysia reported The Star.

However, considering Tesla's global prominence and digital skill, we would have expected a corporation that prides itself on providing a pure digital vehicle ownership experience to have properly thought through the entire interview approach. We are confident that their online employment page, which was launched a few months ago, attracted a large number of job applications. Tesla could have pushed harder on this, conducting interviews on shortlisted individuals or in stages if they wanted the luxury of screening through all applicants.

Or is this entire interview just another PR ploy by the carmaker, which has previously stated that it will not advertise its products? Tesla has been losing global vehicle market share to other competing brands in recent months, despite significantly lowering vehicle pricing, causing them to abandon their no advertisement strategy and hit the market with advertisements shot in neighbouring Singapore.