An average MBA would cost Rs 25 lakh and one would have to remain a student for two years. After that, the most likely salary would be around Rs 24-30 lakh in the third year. At Zomato, they would pay Rs 20 lakh in the first year and earn at least one crore rupees in the next two years (remember, Deepinder Goyal promised over Rs 50 lakh as salary).

In addition, they would obtain a position at the top of the managerial ladder, from the start of their career. In contrast, a normal corporate career path would take them a decade to achieve.

What if they were fired after a year, I asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” one of them said. “I would have learned enough to start my own business and market it the same way Zomato and Blinkit were able to market themselves.”

“I would use my stint at Zomato to become famous,” said another student. “If Deepinder Goyal selected me from thousands of candidates, millions of people would know my name. I was posting videos daily on what I learned at Zomato and tweeting about it. That would be enough for me to launch a career as an influencer and earn way more than I would with a regular job.

What Mr. Goyal is proposing is a 1 in eighteen thousand chance of getting a Zomato MBA, landing a top job, and then making a lot of money after “graduating”.

Mr. Goyal realized that the job offer had generated a lot of bad press for him. So, he spun it the next day, claiming that the “fee” of Rs 20 lakh was “just a filter, to find people who had the power to appreciate the opportunity of an accelerated career, without getting bogged down in the constraints facing you. two. »

It turns out that Zomato won’t ask for money and will “pay the right person anyway.”

“I really hope that ‘paying the company to get a job’ doesn’t become a norm in this world,” Goyal wrote, “it’s not cool.”

It’s a shame that young people are forced to consider such options, where only the extremely privileged – no bank gives you a Rs 20 lakh ‘education loan’ to work at Zomato – can ride the elevator up at the top, while everyone has the right to take the elevator. an eternally long ladder to climb.

This stunt is just the beginning. Prepare for lots of carrot/stick combos to be dangled by potential employers at young people, where they become willing participants in their own exploitation.

(The author was Senior Editor of NDTV India and NDTV Profit. He tweets @Aunindyo2023. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are those of the author. The Quint does not endorse or is responsible for it.)