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What if your next job search didn’t start with a resume?
Across India’s tech and startup scene, employers are testing a new formula: “Show me what you’ve built.” Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal made a controversial post on X late last year, asking people to pay him ₹20 lakhs if they could become the Chief of Staff of Zomato. His reasoning was that those ₹20 lakhs, instead of going to an MBA program, would give these applicants more experience, and a much higher salary when they finish 2 years with the company. The post made waves, with many incensed at the idea that potential applicants would have to pay to be accepted into this lucrative job.
A New Way Forward
While this was later clarified by Deepinder himself, that the amount was a smokescreen, one very important detail went below the radar. The job posting explicitly stated they did not want a resume. He wanted a simple cover letter to outline applicants’ experience.
It didn’t stop there. In Bengaluru, the CEO of an AI lab simply wrote, “If your resume can’t prove impact, it won’t get you an interview. Send your GitHub repo.” Within a week, two candidates won offers by sharing slide decks and annotated notebooks addressing the lab’s real challenges. Across early‑stage startups on LinkedIn, most of them are now hiring through such “portfolio calls” rather than traditional application portals.
What does this mean for students and career changers? First, it underscores an undeniable truth: hard skills demonstrated through real projects can outweigh a string of degrees or certifications. Instead of spending weeks polishing a resume, tomorrow’s talent is investing that time in building solutions, whether that’s a drone‑based crop‑monitoring prototype, a mobile app that tracks urban pollution, or a data‑driven marketing campaign that boosted engagement by 42 %.
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Here’s how to take advantage of this new form of hiring:
- Curate a concise online portfolio. Highlight projects that solved real problems—be it a web tool you coded, a community initiative you led, or an algorithm you tuned. Include outcomes and metrics: time saved, users onboarded, or dollars earned.
- Leverage LinkedIn posts and newsletters. Share case studies, failure stories, lessons learned. Tag relevant leaders or groups, and invite feedback.
- Treat every academic or side project as a potential portfolio piece. Collaborate across disciplines, seek mentorship, and document your journey: challenges faced, pivots made, final deliverables.
How PBL Will Help
Educationally, this is where project‑based learning shines. By engaging in cross‑functional assignments, from building low‑cost water purifiers to prototyping e‑commerce solutions. This way, students acquire not just theory but tangible artifacts that hiring teams now crave. These real‑world deliverables demonstrate initiative, adaptability, and the ability to deliver under constraints.
The resume remains a useful summary, but it’s no longer the sole ticket to the interview room. As more CEOs opt for portfolios over paper, developing a diverse body of work is your strongest competitive edge. Whether you’re still in college or seeking a mid‑career pivot, focus on creating, testing, and sharing projects that tell the story of what you can do today.
Your next role might be just one GitHub link, or one LinkedIn newsletter away.
