The new Department of Government Efficiency, a group created by President-elect Donald Trump with the task of identifying ways to cut federal spending and headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is already taking resumes.
The request for job applicants was posted Thursday by the new X account for DOGE, which despite its heady mission isn’t an official government department. In his statement on Tuesday announcing the effort, Trump described Musk and Ramaswamy’s role as providing “advice and guidance from outside of government.”
It’s unclear where the funding for DOGE will come from or the size of its budget, as well as whether Musk, the world’s richest person, and Ramaswamy, who has an estimated net worth of $1 billion, will be paid for their efforts. The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for information.
In the meantime, DOGE is starting to hire, according to the post on X, the social media service (formerly known as Twitter) owned by Musk. The account already has 1.2 million followers on the platform.
What qualifications is DOGE looking for?
The post didn’t disclose the specific educational or career experience it is looking for in applicants. Instead, it described the kind of person they want to hire: “We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
It added that it doesn’t want “more part-time idea generators.”
How can people apply for a DOGE job?
The post said that interested applicants should send a direct message, or DM, to the account with their CV, although the DOGE account wasn’t open to messages when the job notice was first posted.
“Off to a great start. ‘DM this account with an application’,” one person pointed out. “DMs not open.”
Even after the DOGE account opened to direct messages, not all X users could send their resumes because only verified accounts or accounts followed by DOGE are able to DM the account. The DOGE account currently doesn’t follow any other X users, and verification on the platform costs $84 a year.
Only the “top 1% of applicants” will be reviewed by Musk and Ramaswamy, the DOGE account added. The post didn’t specify how it will rank applicants.
What does a DOGE job pay?
The post didn’t specify the salary range or benefits, but Musk said in a separate post that the 80-per-week job pays “zero.”
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero. What a great deal!” Musk wrote.
What kind of response is the post receiving?
A mix of pointed questions, humor as well as support from fans of Musk and Trump.
“Anything over 40 hours will be paid overtime right?” one person posted on X in response to the job post.
Others posted tongue-in-cheek “qualifications,” with one person writing, “I’d love to join here’s my resume: – B+ in Science – JV soccer team (2 years) – Can eat >10 Oreos in one sitting – Owner of several Dogecoins – Can burp the alphabet – Can run fast (top 25% of class).”
Another touted his “104 IQ (4 points above highest score possible).”
Valentina Gomez, a Republican politician who posted a video of herself burning books in February, responded, “But I’m ready to cut & make a dent on that outstanding budget. TSI, IRS, ATF are the first to go.”
