A third of big tech Indian employees come from tier 3 colleges

• Established finance and tech companies like Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, Oracle, and Google maintain a preference for campus placements and brand-name institutions, with only 18% of surveyed employees coming from tier 3 colleges.

A significant portion of employees at major tech companies like Zoho, Apple, and NVIDIA in India are graduates from tier 3 colleges, according to a new report by Blind, an anonymous social platform for professionals.

Based on a survey of 1,602 Indian tech workers, the report reveals evolving hiring patterns in India’s competitive IT sector.

Shifting priorities in hiring

The Blind survey categorised educational institutions using the NIRF 2025 rankings, separating graduates into tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, and overseas backgrounds.

Notably, around 34 per cent of respondents working at prominent tech firms—including SAP and PayPal—were tier 3 college alumni. This represents a marked shift away from elite college-based recruitment and toward skills-driven hiring, especially in the fast-evolving tech space.

“Unlike many traditional finance organisations, where a prestigious college name still opens doors, leading tech companies in India are focusing more on skillsets and less on alma mater pedigree,” the report notes.

In contrast, established finance and tech companies like Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, Oracle, and Google maintain a preference for campus placements and brand-name institutions, with only 18 per cent of surveyed employees coming from tier 3 colleges.

When surveyed about the impact of their education, 59 per cent of respondents who were tier 3 graduates and 45 per cent of overseas graduates said their college was just a line on their resume.

In comparison, alumni from tier 1 and tier 2 schools largely credited campus recruitment for their career starts, highlighting that college networks still play a decisive role for many.

Does college prestige pay off?

The survey found only 15 per cent of tier 3 college graduates believed their education brought significant salary advantages, while nearly three-quarters said it was useful only at the start of their careers or not at all. For overseas graduates, just over half reported minimal or no impact on their earnings from college.

Overall, the responses break down as follows: 41 per cent of professionals surveyed graduated from elite tier 1 colleges (IITs, IISc, leading IIMs, BITS Pilani), 30 per cent from tier 2, 25 per cent from tier 3, and 4 per cent from foreign institutions.

This trend illustrates India’s gradual—but clear—pivot towards meritocracy in hiring, especially in the country’s dynamic technology sector.