You’ve seen the tweets. Maybe you’ve seen the photos of people sleeping on office floors or heard the legends of the 100-hour workweek. It sounds like a badge of honor to some and a waking nightmare to others. But honestly, if you're thinking about trying to work for Elon Musk in 2026, the reality on the ground is way more complicated than just "working hard."
It’s not just one company anymore. It’s a whole ecosystem—the "Muskonomy." Between Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink, and X (formerly Twitter), thousands of people are currently living out a very specific kind of professional experiment. Some call it the peak of their careers. Others leave after six months feeling like they’ve aged a decade.
The "Ultra Hardcore" Reality of 2026
If you want to work for Elon Musk, you have to understand the "hardcore" pivot that happened recently. In late 2025, memos leaked from across the Musk empire with a pretty blunt message: 2026 is going to be the hardest year yet. At Tesla, the focus has shifted violently from just building cars to solving "Real World AI" and robotics. At xAI, they're racing to build the world’s largest supercomputer in record time.
What does this actually look like for a junior engineer or a factory lead? Basically, it means the 40-hour workweek is a myth.
Internal data from sites like Comparably and recent 2025-2026 employee reviews show that at SpaceX, roughly 26% of the staff are pulling shifts longer than 12 hours a day. That’s not a "sprint." That’s the baseline. You’re expected to be "on" all the time. One former xAI executive, Mike Liberatore, famously noted he worked 102 days straight—seven days a week—before leaving. That’s the level of intensity we’re talking about.
It’s not about the clock; it’s about the mission
People don't stay at these companies for the free snacks (which are often non-existent compared to Google or Meta anyway). They stay because they believe they are the only ones doing things that matter. Whether it's making humanity multi-planetary or preventing an AI apocalypse, the mission is the drug.
But there’s a flip side. When the mission is everything, your personal life often becomes nothing.
- The Velocity: Decisions that take months at Boeing take days at SpaceX.
- The Access: You might find yourself in a meeting with Elon at 2 AM where he’s micromanaging a single bolt on a Starship prototype.
- The Risk: If he loses trust in your ability to solve a problem "from first principles," you’re often out.
The Management Style Nobody Tells You About
There’s this idea that Musk is everywhere at once. In reality, recent reports from 2025 suggest his time is spread incredibly thin. He might spend only 15 to 20 hours a week physically at Tesla. This creates a weird vacuum. When he’s there, it’s high-intensity "production hell" vibes. When he’s gone, middle management scrambles to keep up with the impossible deadlines he set during his last visit.
Many employees report that the most stressful part of the job isn't the work itself—it's the "regime change" feel. One day you're working on a $25,000 electric car; the next, that project is canceled, and you're told to pivot entirely to the Optimus robot program. If you can't handle your entire career path changing over a weekend, you won't last.
The "Burn and Churn" Factor
Let’s talk about the executive exodus. In late 2025, a wave of senior leaders left Tesla and xAI. Why? Burnout is the easy answer, but the deeper reason is often a disagreement with the "hardcore" culture. As Musk’s public persona has become more polarizing, some staff have admitted it’s getting harder to recruit top-tier talent who just want to build cool tech without the political baggage.
Is the Pay Actually Worth It?
This is where it gets interesting. Salaries at Tesla and SpaceX are often lower than what you’d get at a "standard" Big Tech firm in Silicon Valley. But the stock options—that’s the "golden handcuffs."
- Equity is King: Many early employees became millionaires several times over.
- The Gamble: In 2026, with Tesla pivoting to AI and SpaceX eyeing a potential IPO for Starlink, the upside is still huge.
- The Cost: You are essentially trading your 20s or 30s for a lottery ticket that has a higher-than-average chance of hitting.
A 2025 survey of Tesla workers found that while 66% felt significant financial stress due to inflation, the "true believers" still viewed their stock as their primary retirement plan. It’s a high-stakes environment where your net worth is tied to a single man’s Twitter feed. Sorta stressful, right?
How to Survive (and Thrive) if You Get In
If you actually land a role, "surviving" is an art form. You have to be what they call a "first principles" thinker. Don't tell a manager something is impossible because "that’s how the industry does it." That’s a one-way ticket to a severance package.
Instead, you have to break every problem down to its physics.
Actionable Advice for the "Hardcore" Hopeful:
- Audit Your Energy: If you need a predictable 9-to-5 to stay sane, don't even apply. You'll be miserable within a month.
- Master the Pivot: Practice letting go of your work. You might spend six months on a feature that gets deleted in a "lite" software update. Don't take it personally.
- Build Your "Wall": Since the company won't give you boundaries, you have to build them yourself—quietly. The most successful long-term employees are the ones who figure out how to be "ultra-productive" in 60 hours so they don't have to work 100.
- Focus on the "Why": Remind yourself daily why you're there. If the mission to Mars doesn't make your heart race, the 3 AM Slack pings will eventually break you.
What to expect in the interview
The interview process for those who want to work for Elon Musk is notoriously grueling. It’s less about "where do you see yourself in five years" and more about "tell me about the most difficult technical problem you solved and exactly how you did it." They will dig into every detail. If you're faking your expertise, they’ll catch you in five minutes.
✨ Don't miss: Mueller Water Products Stock: What Most People Get Wrong About This Infrastructure Play
The 2026 Outlook
The "Muskonomy" is currently at a crossroads. With the massive investment in xAI's Colossus supercomputer and the push for full autonomy at Tesla, the pressure has never been higher. For the right person—someone who is obsessed with the future and has a high tolerance for chaos—it’s the most exciting place on Earth. For everyone else, it’s a cautionary tale about the limits of human endurance.
If you’re ready to jump in, start by sharpening your technical fundamentals and preparing for a life where the line between "work" and "everything else" doesn't just blur—it disappears.
Next Steps for Candidates:
Before applying, look up the specific "Master Plan" for the company you're targeting. Read the latest 10-K filings for Tesla or the launch manifests for SpaceX. You need to speak the language of the mission before you ever step foot in the room. If you can prove you’re a "force multiplier" who doesn't need hand-holding, you might just survive the 2026 "hardcore" gauntlet.