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TLDR: The future is gonna be freakin’ awesome.

And fun.

And very fast.

Roughly 1 month into my New Zealand Working Holiday, I received the most epic phone call of my life.

Basically, a Tesla recruiter came across my online sustainability projects (where I frequently post Tesla-related content), and reached out to me to see if I wanted to join the team on a 3-month contract in Auckland, New Zealand.

I said yes. Duh.

From November ‘19 til January ‘20, I received training across multiple roles at the coolest company on earth, including face-to-face sales, delivery coordination, vehicle hand-offs, and even a couple of days helping out in the repair shop.

I’m not gonna lie folks…it was the most fun freakin’ job ever.

Here’s what I learned:

1. Teslas Are Insanely Fun.

In my 25 years of life, I’ve never been a car person. Never had a dream car, never had posters of cars on my wall, none of that.

But, when I had the chance to zoom around in a Model 3 Performance on my first day working at Tesla, something clicked in my head.

I’ll never be a car person- but I could totally become an EV person.

You can watch all the reaction videos you want, but it’s impossible to understand until you give it a go for yourself.

Teslas are true alien spaceship technology, and they are just TOO. MUCH. DANG. FUN.

2. Tesla Is Not A Car Company

I knew this was the case before working at Tesla, but after 3 months on the team, the point has been driven home.

Tesla is NOT a car company. It’s a full-blown fossil-fuel curbstomp machine.

I shared this video in my first Tesla post a few months back, but it’s too good not to reiterate:

Summary: Tesla is disrupting every industry that currently requires fossil fuels (energy & transportation being the 2 biggest) and replacing them with renewable, infinitely-improvable alternatives.

As far as specifics, I did notice one clear pattern while casually observing customers as they paced the showroom floor. In addition to checking out the cars, there was one other product, showcased discretely on the wall, that many customers were quite intrigued by:

The Solar Roof.

If you want to know the next big thing at Tesla, guess no more. The solar side of their business has been on the back-burner for a while, but is about to be an absolute game-changer for our sustainable energy future.

Photo: Rozette Rago/New York Times

3. The Employees Are Top-Notch

I’ve been blessed to be a part of some pretty awesome work squads in my life, but none have compared to the Tesla family I was a part of in Auckland. My co-workers were everything you could ask for in a team:

Welcoming

Smart

Open-minded

Scrappy

Passionate about building a brighter future.

Elon has created a management pipeline that puts a premium on folks who embody all of these characteristics, and I can confirm from personal experience: It’s paying off BIG-time.

This pattern is only set to continue, since there’s no company on the planet that generates the same amount of hype among the next generation of forward-thinking minds. There’s no doubt about it- working at Tesla has become the new bar for progressive job-seekers in the 21st century.

From an investor’s point of view, it’s good to know that the Tesla team is as strong as any on Earth, and the continuous recruitment of top talent should be a breeze.

4. The Work Environment Is Awesome

I usually came to work fairly early, so I could make myself breakfast before starting the day. More often than not, there would be a few people already in the break room, bantering about the stock price, or watching videos of Tesla smoking Lamborghinis and Ferarris in drag races.

And during lunch breaks? Same thing. Even when we people were off the clock, they’d be involved in the brand in some shape or form. Why? Because it feels freakin’ awesome to be part of the company that’s changing the world more than any other.

Ultimately, working at Tesla creates its own feedback loop of high energy and motivation in the office.

5. Every Customer Becomes A Salesperson

While working at Tesla, I met with stoked customers every day. It was my responsibility to walk them through the functions of their new car, and every time, the same thing happened…

Their face would LIGHT UP with each new feature I showed them. I mean, let’s be honest…have you ever seen a car that can do this?

As each customer drove their Tesla out the door, I knew it’d be a matter of hours before they’d be showing off their new toy to every friend, family member, and stranger on the sidewalk.

That’s what happens when you create a product that’s:

Faster

Safer

Better-looking

More advanced

Better for the environment

Simply put, it sells itself.

Oh, and did I mention that Tesla spends ZERO DOLLARS on advertising?

When the customers ARE the salespeople, you don’t need to waste money on advertising. Instead, you can spend it on research, and further innovation toward building out the most sustainable product supply chain ever.

6. The EV-Industry Transcends Cutthroat Competition

Being part of a mission-focused company like Tesla brings about an interesting dynamic when it comes to competition.

I can only speak for myself on this one, but I’d argue that the majority of employees working at Tesla (and some investors, too) would agree: Tesla fans care about the clean energy movement as a whole, and gladly welcome other Electric Vehicle companies that are joining the fight against big oil.

This notion is confirmed by the fact that over 5 years ago, Elon Musk open-sourced all of Tesla’s patents.

In layman’s terms, he’s letting the rest of the auto industry copy his homework, for the sake of accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable transportation.

Folks, this is unheard of in the business world, and just goes to show that the EV movement is not just about profits- it’s about changing the world for the better.

While working at Tesla, I felt this overarching warmth for this collective goal every day.

7. Tesla Is Becoming A Cultural Phenomenon

During my time working at Tesla, I could barely walk down the street without getting flagged down by strangers on the sidewalk. They’d see my Tesla shirt & badge, and ask me questions about the company, what it’s like to work there, what secrets Elon Musk had going on behind the scenes, etc.

This is the result of the company’s masterful execution of free, widespread marketing; EVERYONE is curious about what the heck Tesla is up to.

LOTS of people love technology, and LOTS of people love environmental sustainability. When Tesla came along and successfully combined these two teams into one, they became an absolute machine for viral online content.

Still not convinced?

Turn on the TV. Elon has guest-starred on Big Bang Theory, Iron Man 2, South Park, Rick & Morty, The Simpsons, and plenty of other household-name movies and TV shows. This brings awareness of his work to whole new audiences, and permanently stamps the Tesla brand into the archives of pop culture history.

The cat is out of the bag, folks. It ain’t goin’ back in.

Final Thoughts

I’ve always dreamt of working for a sustainability champion back in the states once I got home from my quarter-life crisis adventure…but I had no idea I’d have the opportunity to get my start WHILE traveling!

This experience has been such a score, and I’m so incredibly thankful for it.

If you are curious about Tesla, or EVs in general, I hope you can use my experience as inspiration for launching your own career in the clean energy field. Here’s a quick primer to get your EV gears churning:

Seeking A Career In Sustainability?

There are TONS of amazing new businesses joining the fight to break up the fossil-fuel party that has strangled the planet for generations. I encourage EVERY. SINGLE. ONE of you to consider pursuing this exciting, and extremely important field.

Here are my 3 current favorite EV companies to get your gears churning (in descending order by # of wheels):

Tesla (Worldwide)

Arcimoto (Oregon-based)

Zero Motorcycles (California-based)

For all sustainability job-hunting outside of Electric Vehicles, check out this awesome resource:

The Green Recruitment Company

Eager To INVEST In The Sustainable Revolution?

My sustainability obsession began when I bought a single share of Tesla stock on Robinhood- the brokerage app that I still use today.

If you’re a US citizen, CLICK HERE to sign up for a free Robinhood account. By using my referral code, we’ll both receive a FREE stock when you sign up!

I’m currently grinding on a new blog post where I’ll be diving much deeper into the general topic of INVESTING and why you need to start doing it, so keep an eye out for that…but for now, you’ll have to take my word for it! 😉

Alright gang, that’s all I’ve got for today.

The future is going to be epic – I hope you’re as excited as I am to be a part of it!

-Ben

(Long $TSLA)