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Career Advice About Tesla

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Software Engineering Intern at Taro CommunityPosted November 17, 2024

Meta or Tesla Autopilot (SWE - New Grad)

Hi everyone, I’m currently interning at a top-tier company (think small size, FAANG-level in terms of engineering prestige) and fortunate to have offers from multiple top companies. I’m trying to decide between two software engineering roles: Meta (Menlo Park) and Tesla (Autopilot team, Palo Alto). Just to clarify, this is a software engineering position on the Tesla Autopilot team, not a machine learning or research role. ### Meta Tons of publicly available data points. Top-of-market pay. Opportunity to work with some of the smartest engineers around. Fast promotions and clear growth opportunities. Amazing perks: free food, fancy office spaces. Overall, a safe and reliable choice where I know what to expect. ### Tesla Autopilot This is where I’m a bit confused. There isn’t much information available online about Tesla’s engineering roles, likely because their teams are smaller. Surprisingly, their New Grad compensation is an outlier, double that of Meta, which already pays very well. However, I have no idea how compensation at Tesla evolves over time (e.g., after promotions) compared to Meta. ### My Dilemma With Meta, I feel confident about what I’m getting into, as there’s a wealth of information online. I can reasonably predict my total compensation (TC) over the next 1, 2, or 5 years. On the other hand, Tesla’s Autopilot team is appealing, especially with the high starting pay, but I’m uncertain about their pay scale for higher-level roles or how career progression looks at Tesla. The perks at Meta like free food, a fancy office, and great benefits are definitely tempting, but Tesla’s compensation makes it hard to ignore. Does anyone have insights into Tesla’s Autopilot team or their long-term compensation structure for software engineers? Any advice or data points would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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