Elon has personally been involved in the interviews of the first 3,000 SpaceX employees. Certainly he’s learned a thing or two in the process.
At the World Government Summit Elon was asked “How do you choose your team?”
Elon replied: “I suppose honestly it tends to be gut feel more than anything else…
So when I interview somebody my interview questions are always the same. I say: ‘Tell me the story of your life’
And the decisions you made along the way and why you made them.
Also: ‘Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them’ and that question I think is very important because the people that really solved the problem they know exactly how they solved it.
They know the little details. And the people who pretended to know how to solve the problem can maybe go one level and then they get stuck.”
Nonetheless small and strong is often superior to large and clunky.
Or as Elon would say: “A small group of very technically strong people will always beat a large group of moderately strong people.”
~Fast Company, Feb 1st 2005