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Surprised by the India education-to-job pipeline in my applicant pool
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Anonymous
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I’m a hiring manager at a large tech company. For two recent software engineering roles, we received over 500 applications in a few week period. What stood out to me was how most of the candidates followed almost the exact same trajectory: undergraduate degree in India, followed by a graduate degree in the U.S. (often at a less selective or lesser-known institution), and then directly into the U.S. job market.
In contrast, only a small fraction of applicants came straight from a U.S. undergraduate program into industry. That imbalance made me pause — are domestic graduates simply not applying, or are they being outnumbered in a way that affects their chances? Is this effectively a backdoor to immigration and a way of pooling cheaper labor? It feels completely unfair and overwhelming, and I can’t believe we’ve ended up in this situation. I’d be interested to hear if others in recruiting or hiring are seeing the same trend. Is this just the new reality of how the global talent pipeline works, or does it point to a deeper challenge for U.S.-trained undergrads entering tech? |
Anonymous
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Are you kidding? This seems like a sh!tpost, because the questions have obvious answers and it's been happening for two decades.
Yes, the H-1B program dramatically depressed tech salaries and has been a cheap labor program for the tech companies for 20 years. This is "dog bites man" stuff. Not news. |
Anonymous
why is no one talking about it, its really annoying i have to weed through all these people |
Anonymous
| The whole industry has been talking about it. You've had your head in the sand. |
Anonymous
| It's not just tech jobs. |
Anonymous
| At one company I consult with (American, very large health insurance third-party administrator you’ve heard of) I’d estimate 50% of their IT staff is Indian. Of those, 10% followed your trajectory and the rest are offshored. |
Anonymous
Who is it unfair towards? If the U.S.-born applicants don't exist, they don't exist. |
Anonymous
| How many of the applicants are H-1B visa holders? Or do most of them have green cards or citizenship by now? Isn't it expensive for the company to hire H-1B visa holders? |
Anonymous
Are they not qualified to do the jobs, or are you racist and classist? |
Anonymous
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Do a search for the DCUM posts on the H1B program. Also - on the OPT program which is the graduate school to job program.
Many American techies would love to get hired. Oracle just canned a lot of people, as have other high tech corporations. Perhaps your HR department is funneling only the H1B/OPT resumes while holding back resumes from American applicants? |
Anonymous
DP, but it can be a PITA to hire someone who doesn't have a green card or citizenship. |
Anonymous
Or maybe there aren't American applicants. Find me a 22 year old that wants to provide tech support for a living. |
Anonymous
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Yes, been happening for years. DoD contracting less so because of the requirements associated with clearances and being a US citizen. One RFP for a different agency had a requirement for education and degree being from US institutions.
Also have seen where someone else interviews for a position and a different person shows up on day 1 for the job. We now require the candidate to show identification during the interviews (even zoom) to validate identity. |
Anonymous
I know an American born, recent college graduate who would be happy to start in tech support. |
Anonymous
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I think K-12 doesn’t prepare kids enough. It’s no longer rigorous unless you get into a top program like TJ.
American undergrad colleges have become so pricey that a lot of students can’t afford grad school now. So foreigners with cheap degrees and then a masters degree have a better resume. The US doesn’t invest in our colleges. This is nothing new. I worked for an engineering company 25 years ago and it was the same. |