Tesla is No. 1 most attractive company for engineering students, and that’s a massive advantage

Tesla has now taken the No. 1 spot in the rankings of the most attractive companies for engineering students to work for in the US.

That’s a massive advantage that can’t be overstated.

In the fast-paced tech world, innovation is the most important way for companies to stay competitive.

The best way to achieve a high pace of innovation is through establishing a culture that nurtures it within the organization and attracts top engineering talent.

On the latter, Tesla appears to have an important lead over the competition.

Universum conducts extensive surveys of students around the world and recently released its 2020 report:

Universum Global has just released its 12th annual World’s Most Attractive Employers report. This year Universum surveyed over 235,000 business and engineering/IT students in the world’s 12 largest economies (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and the US). We asked this group of future talent to provide insights on the company characteristics they find most attractive in a potential employer, as well as who they perceive to be their ideal employer.

In the US, Tesla has now topped the list of the most attractive companies for engineering students.

Tesla is also the only automaker in the top 10:

1. Tesla
2. SpaceX
3. Lockheed Martin
4. Google
5. Boeing
6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
7. Apple
8. Microsoft
9. The Walt Disney Company
10. Amazon

Tesla also makes the top 10 for business and computer science students.

The automaker has always been in the top 10 over the past few years, but this year has been the first time that Tesla was able to edge NASA and SpaceX for the top position.

Electrek’s Take

As I previously said, that’s a massive advantage that can’t be overstated.

To be fair, attractive established talent in the industry is also very important, but being the top company that new engineers want to work at is a big deal.

Considering that Tesla and SpaceX are numbers 1 and 2, it’s fair to say that Elon Musk has a big effect on this.

Tesla is also known for having a somewhat high turnover rate, because it pushes its employees hard.

As I previously reported, Ben Schaffer, president of Unplugged Performance, has an interesting perspective on Elon’s impact and the flow of talent at Tesla.

There are a lot of talented engineers in the world and most of them want to work at Tesla and for Elon, who Shaffer describes as the best engineer in the world.

Schaffer told me:

It’s a magnetic effect and the magnet is Elon, the world’s most brilliant engineer. That, and Tesla’s mission, which is solving the world’s biggest problem.

He believes in Tesla’s ability to keep attracting top talent, and even if they don’t stay for too long, Tesla and even Elon himself are absorbing a lot of their knowledge and using it long after they are gone.

It’s also not to say that the people are disposable, but it’s an interesting perspective to look at it as a cycle.

That cycle is a lot easier to maintain if you have a strong flow of new engineering students that are excited to come work for you.