The CEO of a food delivery company in India recently posted a job offer that not only offered no salary for the first year but also required the successful applicant to pay 20 million rupees (S$31,900) in application fees.
The offer, made by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on X, was met with much ridicule earlier this week.
Source: @deepigoyal on X
In the tweet, Goyal said he was looking for someone hungry and with “not a lot of experience” for his chief of staff. He also wanted someone with zero entitlement, a willingness to do the right thing, and a learning mindset.
Source: @deepigoyal on X
Though the job description only comprised a single bullet point, it mentioned that the shortlisted candidate would be required to do “anything and everything”.
What perhaps stood out most was a line that said the candidate would not be paid a salary for their first year.
In fact, the employee would have to pay 20 million rupees (S$31,900) for the opportunity to work for the company.
The proceeds will be donated to the non-profit organisation Feeding India.
The company will start paying a salary — which it claimed to be “definitely more than” 50 million Rupees (S$79,750) — from the second year.
In an update, Goyal said he received over 18,000 applications for the role. He said the “fee” was a filter aimed at weeding out undesirable applicants.
Attaching a screenshot of a private message on X as evidence, Goyal said he didn’t plan for the applicant to pay the fee or forego their salary for the first year.
Source: @deepigoyal on X
He called the stunt something that “can only be pulled off once in the world”. Now that people know the gimmick, it would not work a second time.
He concluded by saying:
I really hope that ‘pay the company to get a job’ doesn’t become a norm in this world – that’s not cool.
According to CNN, the job post and subsequent updates were met with plenty of backlash online.
“Guys basically he is trying to uplift those who are already uplifted,” one user said.
An Indian economist said the stunt may have instantly excluded talented candidates. Particularly those who didn’t have the financial stability to even consider the job, he said.
“While demonstrating passion for a job is commendable, financial privilege often dictates whether one can ‘afford’ to pursue such passions – similar to participating in an expensive hobby like golf,” Soumya Bhowmick told CNN.
Goyal said he believes in paying more than the market rate. Despite that sentiment, labour research project Fairwork found that Zomato was among 11 Indian gig economy apps that did not have a minimum wage policy.
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Featured image adapted from @deepigoyal on X and @deepigoyal on X.
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