Why Engineers are Rejecting Indian IT Offer Letters
Once considered a golden ticket for engineering graduates, job offers from giants like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, and Tech Mahindra are now leaving freshers disillusioned, mid-level engineers stranded, and lateral hires sidelined. Even as companies continue to make bold hiring announcements and indulge in AI washing, a different reality is unfolding on the ground. In a viral Reddit post, a backend developer with three years of experience recalls being rejected by a leading Indian IT firm three years ago, not due to a lack of skill, but because his engineering aggregate was 53%. Despite acing the technical round, HR shut it down, citing “company policy,” he said. Three years later, he claimed that the IT firm came knocking again—this time ready to overlook the same marks. But by now, the tables had turned. “I told them straight away that I don’t have qualifying marks…I rejected them,” said the OP in the post. This triggered hundreds of responses from others who had faced similar academic discrimination, including those with years of real-world experience. But the problem is not new for Indian IT. Read: No One Gets Named and Shamed Like Indian IT Hiring “When Are You Going to Onboard Me?” Several Information Technology companies are encountering similar challenges, as their interest in hiring freshers appears to be in a peculiar dilemma. TCS recently redefined what it means to be “on the bench.” In an internal email, the IT giant now mandates that all employees be billable for at least 225 days a year, effectively slashing bench time to just 35 days annually. Miss the mark, and you could face salary freezes, appraisal delays—or even dismissal. This policy shift isn’t just about margins. With AI eating into traditional IT roles like testing and low-level development, TCS is under pressure to maximise workforce utilisation and push employees into high-value, AI-integrated projects. It seems clear that Indian IT is going through a tough time as the shrinking of the bench size seems to be the best indicator of a struggling industry. A user shared on a Reddit post that they received a job offer in 2023 but, as of mid-2025, they have not yet been onboarded. They mentioned completing three unpaid training sessions and expressed frustration over the lack of responses from the employer. This occurred around the same time as the viral story in which Infosys terminated over 700 freshers at its Mysuru campus for failing internal assessments, with further cuts expected. Engineers are either billable, upskilling for the next AI gig, or simply out. This was also evident in a recent report by Mint, which stated that Indian companies TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech have increased their revenue per employee, much of which is also due to AI. This suggests that it may become even more challenging to secure jobs in these firms as AI adoption increases. According to a recent report by BCG, 92% of Indian employees are using AI at work, the highest percentage globally. Additionally, for the last three or more years, delayed onboarding has become a recurring theme across IT firms. Commenters on the thread echoed similar pain—no updates, unpaid training, and total silence from HR. “TCS. When are you gonna onboard me? It’s almost 8 months,” was a discussion a few months ago. A TCS employee with two years of experience wrote on Fishbowl, “The HRs are the worst. They’re rude, they don’t help—just obsessed with making sure you’re in the office 5 days a week.” With a 90-day notice period acting as a chain on employee mobility, many are asking the obvious question: “Why wait?” Some developers have waited for two years after having sat for interviews for the Ninja role at TCS. Instead, they could have gathered two years of experience elsewhere and applied for better jobs.Read: Why Indian Graduates Do Not Want to Join IT Companies ‘Stagnated Salaries, More Workload’ Bhupendra Vishwakarma, one of the IT company employees, stated, “Although promoted to Senior System Engineer, there was no increase in salary. The team size was reduced from 50 to 30, and the workload doubled. It feels like a career dead-end.” One employee shared how they were placed under a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) at a particular company right after being moved to a high-pressure project. The result was public humiliation and forced resignation. “Run if you can. They’re the worst of the worst of Indian offshoring companies,” wrote one user. Couple this with the fact that the Karnataka Government is also planning to amend the labour laws to normalise a 10-hour workday. Even TCS and Infosys, which built reputations for job stability, are seeing declining headcounts for the first time in a decade. Over 64,000 people have left these companies in the last 12 months. Indian IT is a $245 billion industry. Despite the lower salary, around 800,000 freshers have taken up jobs in IT firms over the past two years, but only as a backup option, i.e., until they secure high-paying jobs. Is the Indian IT Dream Dead? The reluctance of recent graduates to pursue careers in Indian IT can be attributed to the prolonged stagnation of entry-level salaries, which have remained at INR 3.5-4 LPA for over a decade. High-paying product companies with compensation packages ranging from Rs 10 to 20 LPA have become more attractive. Many are turning to product startups, freelancing, or remote jobs abroad. Some are opting for skill-building platforms and AI careers. Others are just opting out altogether. Indian IT doesn’t need another wave of freshers. It needs to improve how it treats the existing staff before hiring a lakh more this year. TCS claims it will hire 42,000 freshers in FY25. Infosys and Wipro say they’re bringing in 20,000 and 12,000, respectively. But for the thousands still waiting in onboarding limbo—some for over a year—these numbers ring hollow. India’s top five IT firms collectively cut over 67,000 jobs in the last year. In just the third quarter of FY25, more than 2,500 employees were let go, citing “performance” and “business restructuring.” At the same time, lateral hiring has slowed to a trickle.
Indian IT doesn’t need another wave of freshers. It needs to improve how it treats the existing staff before hiring a lakh more this year.
It seems clear that Indian IT is going through a tough time as the shrinking of the bench size seems to be the best indicator of a struggling industry.
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["AI", "Aim", "AWS", "R", "Go", "Rust", "startup", "cloud_platforms:AWS", "programming_languages:R", "programming_languages:Go"]
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.