Indian techie applies for 'CEO of Spotify', suggests shifting HQ to Mars; gets epic reply from streaming giant

Time of India

2 days ago

In a quirky yet bold move, an Indian techie pursuing his computer science degree decided to apply for none other than the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at global music streaming giant Spotify. Interestingly, the techie,
Shaunak Pathak
, is just an 18-𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳-𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘺, studying computer science 𝘢𝘵 the 𝘝𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘉𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘢𝘭.
Sharing his unusual job application story on LinkedIn, Shaunak wrote, 'I shot my shot. Thought I'd skip the ladder directly and apply to be CEO of Spotify. Apparently, shifting HQ to Mars was a bit much. Rejection happens. But real ones don't pause, they hit play again. Playlists > promotions.'
He later posted the response he received from Spotify — a hilariously worded rejection letter that has now gone viral. The company, while appreciating his enthusiasm, pointed out that some of his suggestions were not exactly practical. The letter read:
'Your cover letter included the phrase: 'As my first action I'll replace all ads with fun facts about dinosaurs.' This was seen as catastrophically unprofessional. Additionally, your proposal to 'Move Spotify HQ to Mars' was flagged as disruptive by Legal. While we admire your boldness, we've chosen to move forward with a more traditional candidate — one who did not ask for 'lifetime free Spotify Premium only for the CEO.''
The cheeky note ended with, 'We wish you luck in your future endeavors, preferably far away from our platform.'
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Shaunak's post drew dozens of humorous comments, with one user writing, 'Thank you sir, you've inspired me to apply to my dream job at NASA.'
Interestingly, Shaunak revealed that his inspiration came from Ömer Öztok, who had earlier applied for the CEO position at Clash Royale and received a similarly witty rejection. Öztok's post, which jokingly mentioned banning all Mega Knight users, had also gone viral across platforms.