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One story tells you everything you need to know about working for Elon Musk

Oct 3, 2015, 02:23 IST

REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Elon Musk runs two big, crazy companies: Tesla and SpaceX.

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At SpaceX, he has a strong operator, Gwynne Shotwell, who makes life easier. At Tesla, however, he has no No. 2.

But that doesn't mean he hasn't been looking.

According to Ashlee Vance, author of a fantastic book on Musk, he has been interviewing "some really high profile names" for a year and a half trying to find the right person.

But Musk isn't ready to cede control to someone just yet, so he hasn't hired anyone yet.

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This makes sense. Musk is a highly involved CEO who attends to the most minute details. He's also pretty tough to work for.

Vance says one of the funniest moments of his life is when he visited Musk at the Tesla offices on a Saturday. The parking lot was filled with cars. Vance noted that there were a lot of people working for a weekend. Musk said there used to be more people working Saturdays.

Musk added, "I was just going to send out an e-mail. We're f------ soft."

That pretty much sums up what someone can expect working for Musk. He's hard-charging and working at Tesla and SpaceX isn't easy.

Vance was a guest on the podcast I do with New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo. We talked about Tesla's new car, the Model X, as well as Musk's reaction to Vance's book. If you're interested at all in Musk, it's worth a listen.

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And you should buy Vance's book "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here, or look for it in your favorite podcast app under "Jay and Farhad." Here's an RSS link to the show. We use SoundCloud as a host, so you can listen to the show over there, too.

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