‘Zamindaari’: Indian founder offers ₹10,000 salary to intern, sparks ‘Tier 1’ college debate | Trending

A software engineer who recently became an entrepreneur has stirred up a debate on whether the prestige of one’s college should determine one’s salary at a job. Vinayak Sarawagi shared the screenshot of a WhatsApp exchange with the college student. (X/@vinayak2506) Vinayak Sarawagi posted a screenshot of his WhatsApp exchange with a college student for a potential role as an intern at his startup. The candidate turned down the offer because the salary was ₹10,000. “I thought this mindset was going away, but sadly it’s not,” Sarawagi said on X (formerly Twitter), sharing a screenshot of the brief conversation. The college student told him on text: “I am sorry it won’t work for me being from a Tier 1 college this is too low for me. Hope you understand.” The founder replied with a brief “okay cool” response. Sarawagi’s post quickly caught the attention of the internet, drawing mixed responses from people. Soon, a screenshot of him responding to an X user, revealing that the salary offered to the college student was ₹10,000 went viral. Following this, Sarawagi received some backlash for the amount he offered a potential intern. “Founder gets sad when someone from a tier-1 college refuses to join at ₹10,000 per month. Zamindaari nahi jaayegi is desh se (Feudal mindset won’t leave this country),” X user Ravi Handa said. Sarawagi shared a detailed response, explaining his rationale behind the salary offer. He said he was using his savings to pay interns at the open source framework that he was building. “I know the stipend is low. hence I try to offer other comforts like flexible hours. There are many other people paying much more than I am. So calling me a zamindar without knowing it all is not cool,” Sarawagi said. He said the candidate reached out to him after he posted the job opening in a group. Following this, the founder had a call with the student during which he outlined the expectation, revealed the monthly stipend as well as told that that the job would be remote, with flexible hours as the candidate attends college during the day. See the founder’s detailed response: “He was supposed to get back to me with confirmation if he will be appearing for the first round or not, and then he messaged me this,” Sarawagi said. “The candidate is not wrong here, and I wish him the best of luck! I just posted this screenshot because I could see that the ‘Tier 1’ debate is still not over yet.” He added that he had received absolutely blunt messages from several other candidates over the ₹10,000 stipend. (Also Read: Internship application’s ‘absurd’ childhood story question goes viral: ‘So annoying’)