Founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk recently said that one doesn’t need a college degree to work on his automotive and energy company, Tesla. Voted as the most Most Innovative Leader of 2019 according to Forbes, Musk has made it clear about not needing a college degree, especially since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Oracle founder Larry Ellison didn’t clear college to become who they did.
In a 2014 interview with German publication Auto Bild, Musk had said that “there’s no need even to have a college degree at all, or even high school” to work in Tesla.
Do you still stand firmly on not requiring college degrees?
— Alec Palm (@youfoundalec) December 22, 2019
Musk also explained in the interview that it isn’t always necessary a person graduating from a great college will be capable of great things. However, Musk himself has attended the University of Pennsylvania and received undergraduate degrees in physics and economics.
Instead, Musk says the one important thing to look while hiring someone is the “evidence of exceptional ability.” If a candidate has done some exceptional work before, it is highly likely that the person will do that again. It is the problem-solving skill that he thinks holds utmost importance.
In an interview, he also asks detailed questions about these achievements so that the potential employee cannot bluff or take credit for work that someone else had done. If the person is lying, he or she wouldn’t be able to answer such in-depth questions, says Musk.