Former Zomato Employee Reveals What It’s Like To Work With CEO Deepinder Goyal – News18

Last Updated:November 22, 2024, 09:10 IST

The man worked for Deepinder Goyal’s Zomato for a year. He joined the company in 2019 as Engineering Lead and was promoted to Engineering Head the same year.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, who has been searching for the right fit for the Chief of Staff role at his company, posted a job opening on November 20. However, the “unconventional” posting received a lot of backlash online as the ideal candidate would not receive a salary during the first year. Instead, they have to pay Rs 20 lakh for the “opportunity” to work at Zomato, which the company would donate to Feeding India, their non-profit arm. Additionally, Goyal announced his own contribution of Rs 50 lakh – equivalent to the Chief of Staff’s annual salary – to a charity of the candidate’s choice. He further assured that the selected individual would earn more than Rs 50 lakh annually from the second year onwards. Amid this, a former Zomato employee, who worked for the company for a year, shared his experience of working with Goyal.

Arnav Gupta, who joined Zomato as Engineering Lead in 2019 and was promoted to Engineering Head the same year, defended Goyal’s Rs 20 lakh stipulation, saying that it would give “better returns than IIM” and that the role is “worth” it.

“I know people are commenting various stupid things about ‘paid internship’,” Gupta wrote in response to the job listing.

“Leaving this note here as someone who got the chance to work 1 year with Deepinder Goyal, if you’re looking for a career in Management Consulting/Strategy, this is worth way more than Rs 20 lakh!”

In a separate post, Gupta referred to Goyal’s job posting as a “real altMBA”. He described it as a “one-year program” with a ₹20 lakh fee, during which the candidate would undertake a “concurrent one-year internship” at the office of the Bengaluru-based company. Gupta highlighted that this program comes with “guaranteed placement” at Zomato, with an “annual package of Rs 1 crore”.

Adding a touch of humor, he noted that unlike traditional MBA programs, this one would have just a single seat. He went on to say, “We need more such programs, because for rich kids, fighting over the scraps to get CAT 99.99% for IIM makes no sense compared to this? For the right person, this will have better returns than IIM.”