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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
I worked at Tesla for 7 years. I quit because I couldn't support Elon Musk any longer.
Trae Cervantes worked at Tesla for more than seven years. Cervantes held several roles at Tesla's factory in Sparks, Nevada. He told Business Insider what it was like working at the company and why he chose to leave. 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. I never drank the Elon Musk Kool Aid. 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. 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 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 the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Your Daily Work Horoscope for June 28, 2025
Your Daily Work Horoscope for June 28, 2025. Discover your Daily Work Horoscope for each zodiac sign here. You've reached a point where you want to undertake something new. It might be a small project or a big career move. Either way, it's definitely time to get started and forge a new path. Push your ideas up to the front of the pack. You have your finger on the pulse of the masses, and you'll find it simple to devise messages and strategies that appeal to the broadest market. You're more absentminded than usual, and you might accidentally let the wrong information pass into the wrong hands. Be extra careful with important documents and confidential information. Even though you're surrounded by hysteria, you are calm, cool, and collected. Let them freak out and wear themselves down while you charge up and explore new avenues to get the job done. You have plenty going on without any added work, and it might be hard to focus on the business before you. Don't launch any new projects today if you can help it. Attend to your priorities. Discover why 2022 is the year you've been waiting for with your 2022 Premium Horoscope Momentum is on your side. Use it to your advantage. A surge of energy helps you manifest your ambitions more concretely than before. Work toward immediate goals and long-term milestones. You should be able to get a leg up on the competition once you've figured out what's really going on. Things are not what they seem, but just knowing that fact is more than half the battle. As usual, you're the most organized person in the office. Offer assistance if you think it will help. Try to cut other folks some slack as they flail and spin their wheels while you motor forward. You have to focus on the right stuff now. If it feels like you have too much on your plate, clear it off by getting your peers to take over some of the less important tasks. Iit's all about delegation! Your philosophy perfectly matches what's going on in your office and industry. Pursue long-term strategic thinking. Don't hesitate to touch on your mission and vision if you can influence that level. Shared work is easier for everyone. If you all see you're on the same side, productivity can only increase. This is a great time to remind teammates and coworkers of your common goals. The only way to move ahead is by staying put and being patient. Your seeming passivity will sound the alarm in enemy camps and send them running in the wrong direction. It's all about strategy. Find your cosmic purpose. Receive personalized astrological guidance with Astrology+.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Which career in Europe will reward you with the highest salary?
Salaries vary widely across sectors and professions in Europe. While a number of jobs are disappearing, new ones are also emerging. Some roles, like those in healthcare, continue to be essential. So, which sectors offer the highest pay in Europe? And what are the top-earning jobs? Exploring these questions can help when choosing a career — though salary may not be the main driver for everyone. Euronews Business analyses the highest-paying roles in Europe, using data shared by the global hiring platform Indeed with our journalists. The analysis covers four countries (the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands) and the salary data reflects annual earnings from May 2024 to April 2025. The occupation 'physicians and surgeons' is excluded from the main dataset, prompting a separate analysis. Medical consultants, radiologists, medical directors, orthodontists, and dentists are consistently among the highest-paid roles across all countries. These jobs appear in categories including: medical technician, medical information, nursing, and dental. This is especially true in the UK, where nearly half of the top 20 highest-paying jobs fall under these brackets. In France, three of the top four highest-paying jobs are also in these categories — particularly dental roles. Titles such as managing director, director of strategy, project director, and director of technology are well compensated across countries. These positions are found in sectors like sales, banking and finance, technology, and general management, indicating that leadership roles tend to carry premium compensation in many industries. Related Where did real wages rise and fall the most in Europe in 2024? Which countries have the highest and lowest pensions in Europe? Roles in software development, information design and documentation, and IT operations — like software engineer, data engineer, and SAP consultant — are well-paid, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands. While entry-level sales roles are less lucrative, senior roles like sales director, head of sales, and enterprise account executive show high earning potential. These roles often come with large pay packages in Germany and the Netherlands, where experienced sales professionals can earn salaries comparable to those seen in tech or management roles. Positions like tax director, labour law attorney (or an employment solicitor), and financial controller are consistently high-paying, particularly in Germany and the UK. These roles fall under legal, accounting, and banking and finance categories and reward deep regulatory or financial expertise. Job skills are constantly evolving, especially with advancements in technology. 'Continuous learning is essential in a fast-evolving market,' Pawel Adrjan, Director of Economic Research at Indeed, told Euronews Business. 'As was the case with all prior cases of technological innovations, professionals who proactively learn new tools, platforms, and methodologies will position themselves more competitively to work most efficiently with the emerging technologies.' In Germany, corporate tax advisors receive the highest annual median salary, at €145,000. The chart also displays mean salaries for comparison. Various sales roles, such as managing director and head of sales, follow closely, with median earnings ranging from €107,500 to €138,243. A labour law attorney earns €105,000, while a lawyer receives €93,334. System applications product (SAP) consultants earn just below the €100,000 threshold, with senior system engineers close behind at €95,000. Other tech roles such as IT security specialist and technical SAP consultant make around €90,000. In the management category, directors also earn approximately €90,000. There is only one medical title listed — dentists — earning a median salary of nearly €86,000. In France, dentists top the list with the highest annual median salary at €95,000, followed by orthodontists earning €78,750. In the tech sector, network architects receive €72,361, while medical technicians in the healthcare field make €70,000. A compliance officer in production and manufacturing earns €67,500. Roles like domain manager and sales agent follow, with salaries of around €65,000 and €64,855 respectively. The digital transformation consultant and mechanical designer earn €62,750 and €62,500. Several positions report identical median salaries of €60,000, including engineering director, real estate salesperson, operations director, senior sales representative, account executive, production director, human resources director, cloud architect (cloud IT professional) and loan broker advisor. Healthcare professions dominate the top end of the UK salary spectrum, with nine of the top 20 highest-paying roles in this sector. In the UK, fashion models top the list with a striking annual median salary of €166,390 (£140,000). They are followed by medical consultants, earning €145,821 (£111,412). Medical directors and radiologists both earn €137,566. Other high earners in the healthcare sector include orthodontists (€130,767), clinical consultants (€125,392), chief nursing officers (€124,793), and clinical directors (€109,442). Associate dentists (€116,785) and periodontists (€113,808) are also among the top earners. In sterling, their annual salaries range from £96,000 to £116,000. Senior leadership and technical roles also feature prominently: project directors earn €122,528, directors of technology €121,821, and microbiologists €121,313. In the Netherlands, roles in management, accounting, and software development are among the best-paid. General directors lead with a median annual salary of €115,000. Other top-paying roles include business controllers (€80,000), team leaders (€78,206), and engineers (€75,208). Finance roles like controllers and financial controllers also perform well, earning between €72,500 and €75,816. Salaries in sales and tech positions tend to cluster between €56,500 and €66,000, with roles such as sales manager, software engineer, data analyst, and account executive all falling within this range. 'Attending a top-ranked university can certainly influence job prospects and salary potential, especially in countries like France or the UK,' Pawel Adrjan said. He noted that graduating from elite educational institutions like grandes écoles and universities with a long history can be perceived as a signal of ability in the labour market. 'However, recent trends we observe on Indeed in both the UK and France show that formal education requirements in job postings are becoming less common, especially in high-skill fields like IT and data science, suggesting a gradual shift toward skills-based hiring,' he added. As jobs continue to evolve, it's completely natural for the highest-paying roles to change too. 'Over the next 5-10 years, we anticipate that green energy, AI/GenAI, cybersecurity, and biotechnology will produce new top-earning job titles,' said Adrjan of Indeed. He explained that roles like AI ethicist, key sustainability roles, GenAI engineers, and climate data analysts are gaining traction and are likely to move into the upper salary echelons as demand for specialised expertise in these areas grows. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Construction training program propels Clayton County students into career opportunities
Friday was graduation day in Clayton County, and the diplomas came with a bonus. Thaddeus Brown told Channel 2's Berndt Petersen he liked the math. 'At least 45 to 47, to 120, and maybe 200,000,' Brown said. That's dollars, salaries for qualified construction professionals who got trained by the metro Atlanta nonprofit Construction Ready. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Most of the 19 graduates just finished high school, then successfully completed the nonprofit's intense four-week pre-apprenticeship program at Clayton Schools' Perry Career Academy. 'This is for students who aren't going to college or into the military. This is another option for them to get into our industry very quickly and make a lot of money and have a long-term career in construction,' the nonprofit's CEO Scott Shelar said. 'It has been amazing in terms of the lives we have impacted through this partnership,' Principal Terry Young said. The graduates have already had interviews with local construction companies. They're prepared to report to a job site today, and some are thinking big about tomorrow. 'I will start my own business in construction,' graduate Sanna Brown Tucker said. Brown said he can't wait to get to work. 'The more you're willing to learn, the farther you will go,' Brown said. Industry experts say 7,000 construction jobs are currently unfilled in Georgia. TRENDING STORIES: Teen who went viral for working drive-thru with graduation medals on gets dream opportunity Driver killed in I-20 crash identified Meteorite hunters searching for fragments in Henry County [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
UAE Moments
20 hours ago
- Business
- UAE Moments
♑ Capricorn: Daily Horoscope for June 28th, 2025
Capricorn, today the stars align to highlight your career ambitions. With Mercury in Leo trine Neptune in Aries, your mind is sharp and your vision clear. This is a perfect day to strategize and plan for your long-term goals. Love Horoscope Today, dear Capricorn, the Moon in Leo squares Venus in Taurus, stirring a pot of emotions in your love life. You might feel a tug-of-war between your desire for stability and a yearning for excitement. This is a day to embrace the dance between these energies. Perhaps plan a spontaneous date or surprise your partner with a heartfelt gesture. Single Capricorns might find themselves drawn to someone unexpected. Remember, love is a journey, not a destination. Let your heart guide you and be open to new experiences. Career Horoscope In the realm of work, Capricorn, your ambitious nature is your greatest asset today. The cosmic energies are in your favor, encouraging you to focus on your career goals. This is a day to showcase your leadership skills and take initiative. Perhaps propose a new project or offer a solution to a lingering problem. Your colleagues will admire your foresight and dedication. Remember, success is not just about reaching the top, but also about the journey and the growth along the way. Let your work ethic shine and inspire those around you. Health Horoscope With Mercury in Leo trine Neptune in Aries, your well-being is closely tied to your mental clarity and spiritual connection today. Engage in activities that nourish your soul and mind. Perhaps a morning meditation or a walk in nature will help you align with your inner peace. This is a day to trust your intuition and let your inner voice guide you. Remember, your well-being is a holistic journey; nurture your body, mind, and spirit with equal care. Embrace the serenity that comes from within and let it radiate outward. Finance Horoscope Financially, Capricorn, today is a good day to review your long-term goals. The planetary movements encourage you to think strategically about your investments and savings. You might find new opportunities to grow your wealth by being open to unconventional ideas. Consider consulting with a financial advisor or doing some research on innovative investment strategies. Remember, your cautious nature is your strength, but don't be afraid to take calculated risks. Trust in your ability to make wise financial decisions that will secure your future.
