Elon Musk fans solicit Twitter jobs by tweeting at him
ALTHOUGH Elon Musk’s $44-billion deal to acquire Twitter, Inc. is still months away from closing, some of Mr. Musk’s fans are soliciting future employment at the social media platform via the mercurial entrepreneur’s Twitter feed.
Considerable turnover is likely, at least based on Mr. Musk’s twitter feed, which is often critical of leadership. So his followers are taking their shot.
“Hire me to run Twitter as VP of Product,” wrote Nikita Bier, co-founder of a positivity-focused polling app called tbh that was acquired by Meta Platforms, Inc., in a post tagging Mr. Musk on Twitter. “I’ve been building social apps for 11 years — and not in a way that leads products to decay like a typical Big Tech ‘product director dad.’”
During negotiations to acquire Twitter, Mr. Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social media company’s bottom line, and floated nonspecific proposals to cut both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter.
It’s unclear how Mr. Musk envisions his leadership team — especially the chief executive officer role. The billionaire is unlikely to take the job himself, which means he’ll need to find a thick-skinned executive who can handle Mr. Musk’s penchant for airing his displeasure in public.
In a regulatory filing, Mr. Musk said he does not have faith in the company’s leadership, leading many to speculate that Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, is on his way out the door. And on Wednesday, Mr. Musk posted two tweets that were critical of Vijaya Gadde, the executive who oversees the policy and legal teams, for a decision the company made in 2020 to restrict posting of a New York Post article about US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s son, Hunter. A wave of trolls proceeded to wage personal attacks against Ms. Gadde online, prompting former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to accuse Mr. Musk of bullying.
For all the conflict that Mr. Musk seems adept at stirring, he’s also maintained an ardent fan base who believe that the Tesla, Inc. CEO has made profound contributions to the clean energy, digital payments and space exploration sectors. Some took the same public leap as Mr. Bier. Antonio García Martínez, the author of the tech insider tell-all “Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley,” nominated himself for a job at Twitter and even listed a brief resume fit for the platform’s 280-character tweet limit.
Even William Shatner, the actor best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise, is vying for a job as “the face of Twitter.” He’s got experience; Mr. Shatner was paid in equity to be the spokesperson for Priceline.com in the early 2000s, and reportedly missed out on millions in gains by selling his stake too early.
Conservatives and libertarians, who have argued that social media platforms disproportionately suppress right-wing speech, have applauded Mr. Musk’s Twitter takeover, particularly his vows to loosen content moderation restrictions. Now, a number of conservatives are jokingly soliciting job offers at the social media company.