Students from top engineering institutes in India – especially the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – are often more likely to get lucrative job offers, while students from Tier 3 colleges often face a harsher reality: poor placement opportunities and limited industry exposure. But a tech recruiter recently explained why he preferred a candidate from a lesser-known college over an IIT Delhi graduate — and his LinkedIn post is now going viral.
A user who goes by the name Pratham K on the networking site shared that he is not interested in JEE ranks; instead, what matters to him is “what they built, broke, or repaired.”
“I turned down an IIT graduate in Delhi today. And hired someone from a college you’ve never heard of,” the recruiter wrote.
“IIT grad had 1800+ LeetCode ratings. Couldn’t explain how his college project handled 100 concurrent users. Tier 3 grad built payment system handling 50K transactions. Deployed it. Scaled it. Broke it. Fixed it,” he continued.
He added, “Your parents paid ₹50L for coaching and IIT fees. His parents couldn’t afford a laptop until the 2nd year. He got an offer today. You have ‘we’ll keep your resume on file’.”
Emphasizing that he values practical skills over academic papers, the recruiter said, “I’m interested in what you’ve built, broken, and fixed. Companies don’t pay for algorithms you can solve. They pay for systems you can build.”
Mixed reactions online
Social media users were far from unanimous in their response. Many criticized the post, saying the recruiter was demeaning one candidate while glorifying another just to get views.
One individual wrote: “I don’t understand the logic behind solving 1800 LC questions. Many people are wasting a considerable amount of their energy simply because the hiring committee can’t come up with a more effective recruiting strategy. It’s a ripoff of the current evaluation process. We’re learning new things, but the recruiting process remains the same. It’s old.”
Another commented: “This is rage baiting. You judged one of India’s top institutes by a single new college project? You could say talent is everywhere without demeaning the other. I sincerely hope you correct your attitude and bias before taking any more interviews!”
The recruiter replied, “I wasn’t judging an IIT. I was judging one candidate. If the roles were reversed – a grade 3 couldn’t answer, an IIT graduate worked it out – I would hire an IIT graduate. This position is not against IITs. It is against the worship of credentials. The comments proved my point better than I ever could.”
A third user added, “You don’t have to show one to compliment other candidates. No IITian pays ₹50 million for coaching; some can get by without it. And most of them are talented, considering the ratio. The purpose of this post is to gain an audience outside of IIT.”
