So I’m in my last year of college as a computer science undergrad and we are required to meet with faculty (usually professors within our majors) about questions, concerns, or anything related to the field of study.
Since we’re required to meet with them every year, I usually ask forced questions and very generic ones…
“Should I get an internship?”
“Should I Take course X, Y, Z”
I already know the answers to these questions, but needed to satisfy these requirements because….college.
However, this year was different in that I had a question that I was genuinely curious about. I’m about to enter my first full time position and I wanted the professor’s take on which company to go to in terms of future outlook and company economics, particularly between Amazon and Tesla.
So the professor answered.
“AWS is a well established company and is highly technical depending on the team. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to work on highly impactful and technical projects. However, it is a large company and is past the growth phase. Lastly, the skills learned may transfer to another company should you transition.”
And also stated.
“Tesla is also a well established company, and there’s been a recent run up in terms of stock. However, they’re just a car company. If you work there, you’ll be stuck working on a project that will be impossible to solve, e.g self driving cars. Management is terrible and you’ll be overworked with no skills learned to transition.”
Now, am I no means more experienced in terms of industry than a faculty professor in the realm of artificial intelligence, but I’ll definitely note flaws when I see them.
“However, they’re just a car company”
Tesla is a company manufacturing cars, but they’re also pivoting on other bets, such as energy storage, insurance, trucking, and hopefully HVAC and VTOL jets. While some of these bets may not ever come to fruition, the fact that Tesla can dream of these proves they aren’t just a car company like legacy auto such as Ford, GM , Toyota.
“you’ll be stuck working on a project that will be impossible to solve”
People said Tesla couldn’t make a 35,000 dollar vehicle. Well, they did.
People then said Tesla couldn’t scale this vehicle to production. Well, they did.
People are now saying they can’t do Level 5 Autonomy. We’ll see…….
I was hoping for a more educated answer from the professor given his degree and field, but I guess we’ll have to take it with a grain of salt. Maybe I’m wrong and Tesla really is just a car company….
