Zomato CEO and co-founder Deepinder Goyal stirred a debate upon announcing a highly unconventional job opening for the role of Chief of Staff.
Within just 24 hours of announcing the hiring alert, Goyal revealed that Zomato had received over 10,000 applications. The job has an unusual twist -- instead of a salary, the selected candidate must pay a Rs 20 lakh “fee," which will be donated to the charity Feeding India, a cause supported by Zomato.
The announcement drew mixed reactions. While some viewed it as a clever marketing strategy, trying to use social media for publicity, a few others like industrialist Harsh Goenka raised ethical concerns. Goenka argued that the Rs 20 lakh fee could exclude talented but underprivileged candidates, making the job potentially exploitative. At the same time, he also questioned about the lack of clarity regarding the second-year salary. He said the arrangement was “innovative" but raising serious ethical issues.
On Wednesday evening, the Zomato boss had announced: “I am looking for a chief of staff for myself. However, this role is not a conventional role with the usual perks that such jobs come with. In fact, we are making this job unattractive for most people. There is no salary for this role for the first year. You will have to, in fact, pay Rs 20 lakh for this opportunity. 100% of this ‘fee’ will be paid in the form of a donation directly to Feeding India."
Also, to demonstrate that the company is not trying to save money, Zomato would contribute Rs 50 lakh (equivalent to a chief of staff salary) to a charity of the employee’s choice.
“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 the Year 2," Goyal added.
Speaking about the perks of the job, the Zomato boss said that the chief of staff would get “10x more learnings than a 2-year degree from a top management school, working with him and some of the “smartest folks in consumer tech".
