Elon Musk's DOGE Is Hiring—Here Are the Details

Key Takeaways

• Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is hiring, according to an X post.
• The office is looking for "super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries" who are willing to take on a tedious volunteer opportunity.
• Trump on Wednesday announced the formation of the DOGE, which is expected to function outside of the federal government as an advisory body.

President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is hiring, and according to the office's co-leader and the world's richest person, Elon Musk, it'll be neither a glamorous nor lucrative place to work.

The department is fielding applications from "super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries" as it sets out on its mission to cut $2 trillion from the annual federal budget. The department added candidates must be "willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting."

Interested candidates were encouraged on Thursday to send the department their CVs via direct message. Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the post said, would personally review "the top 1% of applicants." Several commenters pointed out that the account's DMs were closed at the time. They have since been opened. 

According to Musk, successful applicants can expect to work for free. "This will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero. What a great deal!" he wrote on X on Thursday. 

What Is DOGE?

Trump announced the formation of DOGE on Wednesday, when he appointed Musk and Ramaswamy to head the department. He said the group would "pave the way" for his administration "to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." 

Though DOGE is expected to function outside of the federal government as an advisory body, its official account on X, which Musk owns, has a gray checkmark. That label is usually assigned to government/multilateral organizations and officials. According to X's profile label policy, eligible federal government organizations include "main executive office accounts, agency accounts overseeing specific areas of policy, main embassy and consulate accounts, and parliamentary or equivalent institutional and committee accounts." 

The threat of massive cuts to government spending has weighed on the stocks of major federal contractors this week. Shares of defense contractor Leidos (LDOS) have lost 22% of their value since DOGE was announced. Amentum (AMTM), another major federal contractor, has dropped about 19% over the same period.