This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Trae Cervantes, who worked as an engineering technician at Tesla until March 2025. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I started at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada as a production associate in 2018, and I worked my way into a role as an engineering technician. I held at least four different positions during my time at Tesla.
I was drawn to Tesla because I needed a way to improve my situation. Leading up to Tesla, I wasn’t doing super well. I’d gone through a divorce, I got arrested for drinking and driving, and I was working two jobs to make ends meet. One of my best friends was working there and he told me to apply. When I got the job, I quit the two jobs and immediately got a better paying role with more time off.
The reason I stayed is because they kept treating me well. I was getting paid the most I’d ever gotten in my adult life. No education, no real skills to speak of, and Tesla offered me opportunities to take charge of my life and grow my career.
I started out on their production line for the Model 3 and I moved up from there. When I started out, it was grueling work. It was pushing heavy things up and down aisles. I was on my feet for 12 hours a day, but they also give you three to four days off a week to recover.
It was a physically demanding job, but it didn’t bother me. I knew that if I demonstrated a good work ethic I could work my way up, and that’s what I’ve done. Every few years I was able to move up, from production associate to technician to eventually lead and engineering roles.
A month into a new role, it was March 2020, and we were all furloughed. It was a big freak-out moment for me. Nobody was telling us what was going on, and I felt like I was going to lose my job. But we were back to work five weeks later and I learned to work around the new COVID safety standards.
I felt like I really took ownership of my area, and I eventually became a lead for that team. To do it, I really had to show my value — I had to leverage my skills and build the relationships and rapport. That’s what you have to do at Tesla — the skills aren’t enough, you also need the relationships, and you need to show you can pick up the slack because things are always changing there.
In 2023, they provided me an opportunity to go to school through a program at a local community college. They helped me get a certificate in advanced manufacturing. I took nine courses between January and May, all while I was still doing my normal duties, and I even made the Dean’s list. Later on I got another certificate, a green belt certification for Lean Six Sigma.
‘A cult of personality around Elon’
I never drank the Elon Musk Kool Aid.
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When I started at my orientation, they talked about his controversial tweets. They said it’s gotten him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but they were mostly joking about it, like his behavior was okay because of who he was, what he does, or however much he’s worth.
There’s always been that kind of mindset at Tesla, a cult of personality around Elon. I remember when he smoked weed on the Joe Rogan Experience, seeing so many T-shirts referencing it at the Gigafactory.
I’d thought some of the things he’d done were wrong, like the Thai diver incident, but I believed in the mission. Then all of a sudden, he jumped into a capacity where he could impact my daily life.
His involvement in Twitter, his involvement in the election, all of that was detracting from the company’s mission. I didn’t realize how much it mattered to me until the last couple of months.
Emily Najera for BI
When Musk started throwing his money around in politics — that was a big thing for me. What I took issue with the most was the giveaway for prospective voters. It seemed so morally wrong. I didn’t want to be associated with that.
I started actively looking into his history, and the company’s. The stock price and how we’re making money — none of it made sense to me. That was another reason I wanted to get out. There are a lot of empty promises that haven’t been fulfilled, like Full Self-Driving or the lower-cost EV.
When I first left, I gave myself a hard time
When he lifted his arm and did that Nazi salute, I was disgusted. (Editor’s note: While discussing the incident with Joe Rogan, Musk said, “Hopefully, people realize I’m not a Nazi.”) Last year, I started to be ashamed to tell people where I work.
I chatted with a couple of folks at Tesla and I explained to them why I believed that that was a Nazi salute, and most of the time they just heard me out.
Near the end of my time at Tesla, I started bringing up politics because I’d kind of got to a point where I didn’t really care. I started working on my resumé.
I spoke with my wife, my very close friends, and I explained the reason I wanted to leave. My wife just wants me to be happy. A lot of my friends are really, really pissed off at Musk, just like I am. They were all excited for me to leave the company. I have a pretty good support system.
I changed my profile on Teams to a meme of Musk. I resigned that day.
When I first left, I gave myself a hard time. I didn’t have a job lined up, and I could have stayed longer or waited to get laid off and gotten severance at least. But then I started thinking about the layoffs last April, and I remember sitting in the building, seeing people send out text messages and Teams messages and wondering if they had a job. There were people who didn’t find out until they got to the security gate at the factory. Why would I want to go through that?
Between that and then the day when Trump bought a Tesla on the White House lawn, which happened the same day I gave my resignation notice, I felt more resolute in my decision.
When I met with my supervisor and put in my notice, I told him, “I have to leave. I can’t do this anymore. It’s getting to a point where I feel like I’m compromising myself morally by walking through those doors every day.”
I’m not going to lie, I cried a little. Seven years is a long time and Tesla wasn’t always a bad thing for me.
What I would tell people is, if you’re sitting in my shoes, and you feel uncomfortable, go for it. Do what you think will help you sleep at night.
There are plenty of good people at Tesla. I didn’t leave the place because of the company. I left because of the face of the company.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter using a non-work device and email at gkay@businessinsider.com or via the secure messaging app Signal at 248-894-6012.
