Zomato's Deepinder Goyal offers job with no salary, asks applicant for 20 lakh; X users call Narayana Murthy ‘a saint’
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal just posted a job opening with no salary, asking applicants to pay an exorbitant amount from their own pockets; netizens react
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal recently shared a job posting on his X (formerly Twitter) account that has sparked widespread controversy. The position? Chief of Staff for Goyal himself. However, there’s a surprising twist — there’s no salary for the first year. Instead, the selected candidate would be required to pay ₹20 lakh to Zomato's NGO Feeding India. Goyal's job description which was captioned, “ Update: I am looking for a chief of staff for myself”, outlined the ideal candidate — “Someone who is hungry, has a lot of common sense, empathy, and not a lot of experience (and therefore no conditioning/baggage). Is down to earth, and has zero entitlement. Wants to do the right thing, even if it comes at the cost of displeasing others. Has Grade A communication skills and most importantly, has a learning mindset,” read the post.
The twist came under the Salary Details subsection where Goyal mentions: “There is no salary for the first year. You will have to, in fact, pay ₹20 lacs for this opportunity. 100% of this ‘fee’ will be paid in the form of a donation directly to Feeding India.” It also states that, “Second year onwards, we will start paying you the usual salary (definitely more than Rs. 50 lakh, but something we will only talk about at the start of Year 2).”
What do netizens have to say to this:
While the role involves working across various Zomato brands, including Blinkit, netizens were not impressed with this alleged opportunity of a lifetime. “Even Narayana Murthy seems like a saint after reading this,” said a netizen. “All that is fine, but will banks give a 20 lakh education loan for a zomato offer letter?" asked another. “You don’t have enough faith in your hiring process so you need 20L ticket as barrier for improving your efficiency? Poor move,” was one more opinion. Others pointed out how this felt like a publicity stunt more than a job offer saying, “cons: not paying workers for their work; pros: viral engagement for not paying workers for their work.” Another comment was, “I love Zomato! They know how to trend and still be the talk of the town with their moves.”
What do you think about this?