SPEED AND ABILITY: Tesla Event a Huge Success for SJVC Students and Staff

One Friday morning at 10am, Tesla’s Lead Recruiter for skilled trades, called Career Services Advisor, Victoria Krayna’s office on the SJVC Modesto campus and said “let’s get your graduates over here … by next Wednesday.”

After waiting two years for the COVID pandemic to end so they could resume recruitment events, Victoria and her colleagues jumped into action almost as fast as a Tesla on the track:  a mountain of liability papers had to be signed by over 30 students and delivered by that Wednesday so the graduates of the Electrical Technology and Maintenance Technician programs would have the opportunity not only to meet the Tesla job recruiters, but to ride in a Tesla Plaid Model X or 3 – to experience what it’s like to go from zero to 90 in 3 seconds.

The speed and efficiency of SJVC staff to make that happen in such a short amount of time is testament to their dedication of finding ways for their students to connect to the excitement within their own future career as SJVC graduates.

On hand at the event were Tesla Lead Service Technicians, Equipment Maintenance Team Leaders, and the Tesla recruitment staff, who contacted the graduates only days after the event. Follow-up interviews were soon arranged to meet a rolling employment schedule of hiring technicians every two weeks. Victoria says, “Two graduates began working June 16^th, one begins June 27^th, and four have start dates for July 5th. Tesla hopes to employ as many from the graduating class of July 14^th as they can sign.”

Victoria is a former pilot. She also took a ride, or shall we say a “launch,” in the Tesla Plaid Model X. Sitting in behind the test pilot, she “likes it better when I’m steering,” but nevertheless found the trip around the track “invigorating.” So did the students, who kept asking “Can I go one more time?” like kids at a merry go round would ask their mother.  As a good mom, she was genuinely thrilled for them. And also happy that she and her colleagues had managed to make this a special day that could change the course of these young students’ lives.