Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are recruiting Americans for a new project called the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), an initiative they describe as a major effort to reduce federal bureaucracy and government spending.
The role comes with intense requirements: applicants should be “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries,” willing to work over 80 hours per week—and all without pay.
In a recent post on the X platform, the account for the new department, Doge, outlined the criteria for potential recruits: “We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” The department’s name, Doge, appears inspired by the popular meme of a shiba inu dog.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the post continued.
Musk himself added to the appeal in a separate post, acknowledging the role’s challenges: “Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.” He added humorously, “What a great deal!” Musk also committed to reducing federal bureaucracy by a third and cutting $2 trillion from the U.S. government’s budget—a task he noted would “necessarily involve some temporary hardship.”
Earlier in the week, former President Donald Trump announced Musk and Ramaswamy’s involvement in Doge. Trump stated, “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies—essential to the ‘Save America’ movement.”
He went on to describe the department as the “‘Manhattan Project’ of our time,” likening it to the monumental World War II research program that developed the nuclear bomb.
