12,000 Applications. 450 Interviews. Zero Offers: What’s Really Broken in India’s Tech Hiring?

A tech company recently revealed that it received 12,000 applications, conducted 450 interviews, and made no final job offers—a startling revelation that is igniting discussions throughout India’s employment market. This is a mirror reflecting the deeper problems in the tech hiring ecosystem, not just a hiring statistic. Is there a larger systemic problem, a shortage of qualified applicants, flawed interview procedures, or irrational expectations? In this piece, we explore the lessons this incident teaches us about the widening gap between employers and job seekers and the reasons that thousands of competent candidates are still on the waiting list.

Despite 12,000 applications and 450 interviews, a tech company’s hiring process for a junior developer position took an unexpected turn when no candidate was selected.

The company’s hiring process came to a standstill when the majority of applicants were found to be overly dependent on AI-generated code, according to a Reddit post that is currently making the rounds online.

The LinkedIn post stated, “We recently posted a job opening for Junior Frontend/Backend Devs and QA roles, offering a salary range up to Rs 20 lakh.”

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In order to save time for both parties, the company claimed that over 10,000 applicants were eliminated early on because of “insufficient skill sets or resumes that didn’t align with the role.”

It was surprising to learn that the company had permitted the use of ChatGPT and other AI tools during the hiring process. However, when asked to describe the code they submitted or deconstruct its time and space complexity, candidates consistently failed.

The post clarified, “We even permitted candidates to use GPT to solve problems.” “However, many are unable to respond when we ask about time or space complexity, or an explanation of the code they just wrote.”

The majority of applicants, the team observed, were “vibe coding,” copying and pasting code without comprehending its reasoning. Hiring managers were thus unable to discern between mediocre work and genuine talent.

The result has compelled the business to reconsider its hiring practices. According to a Reddit user, the company may be moving to a quiz-based system that uses DoSelect and Google Meet rounds.

There were a lot of responses to the post. While some blamed the recruitment design, others expressed sympathy for the company’s frustration. “Allowing AI in the DSA round is more of a red flag,” one commenter stated. This sounds more like a boast about how inadequate everyone is.

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“Either your process has some issues or your recruiting team is bringing you bad devs,” said another user.

“You seriously need to evaluate your interview process and the time wasted on interviews,” remarked a third user, echoing the sentiment. Either there is a problem with your process or your hiring team is sending you subpar developers. In any case, it is foolish to say the least to waste 450 hours looking for one engineer.