BREAKING: While Elon Musk Prepares To Take Over Twitter, Job Interest At Twitter Have Grown By More Than 250 Percent, Causing Concerns Among Current Twitter Employees

When Elon Musk successfully acquired Twitter for $44 billion last month, he threw doubt on the company’s future. CNBC reported Thursday morning that he will take over as interim CEO once the purchase is completed. While many Musk supporters and a slim majority of Americans, 59 percent, approve of the buyout, several existing Twitter employees are concerned that it would drastically alter the company’s culture and general direction.

It’s still unknown how a Twitter controlled by Musk would affect the company’s capacity to retain current employees and recruit new ones. In a Monday SEC report, the business described the transaction as a possible danger to its personnel capabilities.

However, since the Tesla billionaire expressed serious interest in taking over the firm, casual interest in available positions has soared. Daniel Zhao, a senior economist and data scientist at Glassdoor, tweeted on Thursday that interest in job vacancies at the social media behemoth increased 263 percent between April 24 and April 30.

Zhao confirmed to Fortune that interest is measured by the average daily clicks on Twitter job ads on the site, compared to the average daily job clicks in a March 2022 baseline prior to the news of Musk’s ambitions for the business breaking.

Though clicks may not always correspond to real job applications filed and are more likely to reflect current media coverage, the surge indicates that individuals are interested in the company’s employment openings. “Say what you want about Elon, he does have a sizable fan following of people eager to work for him,” Zhao said on Twitter. “As CEO, he’s much more inclined to take advantage of that appeal than as an owner.” Musk gave some of his own opinions on Twitter recruiting on Friday, citing Fortune’s findings.

On Friday morning, he tweeted, “If the Twitter acquisition goes through, the firm will be hyper focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec, and server hardware.” “I am convinced that all technical managers must be technically proficient. It’s like being a cavalry commander who can’t ride a horse if software managers don’t build amazing software.”

On Saturday morning, Musk added to the Twitter thread, “Also, work ethic demands would be severe, but far less than I demand of myself.” Twitter stated in its SEC filing this week that Musk’s takeover may cost the firm advertising, employees, and users regardless of the outcome of the takeover – whether it succeeds or fails along the road.

“If the Twitter acquisition is completed, the firm will be highly focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec, and server hardware,” he tweeted on Friday morning. “I am a firm believer that all managers in technological fields must be technically competent. Managers in the software industry must build exceptional software or risk being compared to a cavalry captain who cannot ride a horse!”

“Also, work ethic requirements would be severe, but far lower than I demand of myself,” Musk said to the tweet thread on Saturday morning. In its SEC filing this week, Twitter stated that Musk’s acquisition might cost the firm advertising, workers, and users regardless of the outcome of the takeover – whether it reaches a final finish or fails along the road.

Musk launched an unsolicited bid for the social media platform last month after a plan to join the company’s board of directors fell through. He has already spoken out about his concerns about the platform’s constraints on free expression, having previously questioned Twitter’s decision to permanently ban former President Donald Trump following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Musk has also slammed current Twitter workers such as Vijaya Gadde, the company’s internationally respected chief lawyer who has guided the business through its numerous political snafus, including the decision to ban Trump.

Musk is likewise putting everything on the line for tweets. “How can a corporation that holds the public and private data of millions of customers swap owners with zero public scrutiny?” asked the finance team. Is a billionaire with an agenda—his own set of commercial interests; his own understanding of ‘free speech’—the best person to run an online platform that has essentially become a digital public square, cherished by politicians, journalists, and activists? And will Musk’s single-minded pursuit of Twitter considerably diminish Tesla’s market value—the primary source of Musk’s tremendous wealth?”

The company’s shares have dropped nearly 13% since April 25, the day the Twitter transaction was revealed publicly. Some Tesla investors are dissatisfied. They believe that Musk is jeopardizing the value of a world-changing firm by pursuing Twitter, a very tiny, slow-growing industry.

“It’s all anyone’s talking about,” said one investment advisor at a London-based investment bank regarding the transaction. The finance team’s analysis traces Musk’s whole journey from his 9.2 percent ownership of Twitter (which he began developing in January) through the purchase announcement on April 25.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter chairman Bret Taylor convened an all-hands meeting with staff, who had previously been mostly left to watch the drama in the media and, of course, on Twitter. “They held a town hall meeting with workers, and some of the discussions were leaked to the press,” Lars Schmidt, founder of HR recruiting firm Amplify, told Fortune.

“A number of workers expressed reservations about Elon’s perspective or apparent path for Twitter as a private firm.” Much of what Twitter execs say in response to that is—they don’t know what way to go. The truth is that we don’t know. And, in the lack of assurance, I believe that conjecture fills the hole.”