Elon Musk is hiring, and his simple application process reveals what he values in employees

• Elon Musk is looking for tech talent to work on Tesla's latest AI chip.
• On X, he told job seekers to list the toughest technical hurdles they've overcome in 3 bullets.
• The approach is a way to focus on results and avoid "the noise of the job market," a recruiter said.

Elon Musk wants to see your results, not your résumé.

The Tesla CEO this week requested that people who want to work on the company's Dojo3 AI chip email three bullet points describing the "toughest technical problems you've solved."

Musk's just-the-facts approach, outlined in a post on X, reflects a focus on problem-solving over fancy résumés or cover letters.

"He's basically just trying to cut through the noise of the job market," said Michelle Volberg, a longtime recruiter who is the founder of Twill, a startup that pays tech workers to recommend peers for key jobs.

She said that résumés or LinkedIn profiles don't always make it clear to employers where a person's skills lie. Asking a job seeker to lay out a trio of battles won can help hiring managers get to the meat of someone's abilities, Volberg told Business Insider.

It's a way of thinking that she expects more employers will adopt.

"Elon is showing the way that the job market is going to go," she said.

Already, some tech companies are eager for job candidates to demonstrate their abilities by highlighting how they arrived at an answer. It's part of what appears to be a show-your-work ethos in Silicon Valley, where hefty spending on AI projects and a hangover from the pandemic-era staffing boom are driving hiring austerity in all but the hottest areas.

The AI effect

Volberg said that hiring managers at large companies have told her that they're sick of relying on résumés so tailored to a job opening that they reveal little about candidates themselves. Asking job seekers to identify a small number of concrete problems they've solved can help overcome that challenge and help bring clarity for hiring managers, she said.

"They don't want to see fluffy résumés that have been written by ChatGPT," Volberg said.

Bullets over bona fides is, of course, a departure from the conventional approach of stuffing a résumé with bolded job titles, years of experience, and skills.

Asking applicants to summarize the value they would bring by sharing vignettes of success can elevate technical accomplishment over pedigree or background, she said. It's an example of what some HR types call "skills-based hiring."

Musk's no-frills call for applicants appears to build on his prior statements about being open to candidates from nontraditional backgrounds. For years, the billionaire has said that people didn't need a college degree to work for Tesla. Musk has said that he's more focused on evidence of "exceptional" ability or achievement.

He also requested bullet points in 2025 when he oversaw efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency group to remake swaths of the US federal government. A nearly year-old post on X said that DOGE was seeking "world-class" software engineers, product managers, and data scientists, among other roles.

An application portal linked to the post contains a field instructing applicants to include two or three bullets "showcasing exceptional ability," and to upload a résumé.

A focus on outcomes

Volberg said the bullet method is similar to guidance that her company already gives job seekers: Focus less on adjectives and more on outcomes.

From a hiring manager's perspective, she said, the central question is whether a candidate can make their job easier by solving real problems.

The corollary, Volberg said, is fakers beware: "If you say that you've solved these three things, you'd better be able to talk about them in detail."

She said that it's often immediately clear to tech recruiters whether someone has actually done the work they describe. Candidates who exaggerate or fabricate their accomplishments are likely to be found out — and potentially blacklisted, Volberg said.

Bullets might not work for everyone

Beyond candidate chicanery, there could be other risks to Musk's strategy, said David Murray, CEO of Confirm, a San Francisco startup focused on reinventing performance reviews.

Asking people to submit summaries of their greatest tech wins could mean that an employer like Tesla misses out on the quiet contributors and introverts who might not do as good a job promoting themselves, he told Business Insider. Bullets of key achievements — even more than with a typical résumé — require people to make the case for their own work.

Murray said that Musk's approach also overlooks the impacts of the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect, in which people who aren't great at something tend to overestimate their abilities, and those who are ace might assume a task is easy for anyone.

"What he is asking people to do is to market themselves," he said.

Do you have a story to share about your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.