One in three engineers at top tech firms come from Tier-III Indian colleges

A new survey has revealed that top global technology firms — including Apple and NVIDIA — are increasingly hiring employees from Tier-III Indian colleges, marking a major shift in the tech sector’s approach to talent. The findings challenge the long-held belief that graduates from elite engineering institutes dominate high-end tech jobs, showing that skill and adaptability are now more valued than institutional prestige.

The survey, reported by Education Times, was conducted by the anonymous workplace app Blind and gathered responses from 1,602 Indian professionals working across technology and finance. Institutions were grouped according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025: Tier-I (IITs, IISc, top IIMs, BITS), Tier-II (NITs, DTU, Jadavpur and others), Tier-III (state and private universities), and overseas institutions.

Across the full sample, 41% of respondents came from Tier-I colleges, 30% from Tier-II, 25% from Tier-III, and 4% from overseas universities. However, when the data was narrowed to employees at fast-growing product companies such as Zoho, Apple, NVIDIA, SAP and PayPal, about 34% of professionals said they had graduated from Tier-III colleges — far higher than their representation at finance-led firms like Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, Oracle and Google, where Tier-III alumni made up just 18%.

Skills Over Pedigree

The survey underscores a clear trend: global tech companies are focusing more on demonstrable skills, coding ability and project experience than on institutional brand. Nearly half of all respondents (49%) said that campus placement had the biggest impact on their careers, a reflection of the advantage that Tier-I and Tier-II colleges still hold through structured recruitment.

But among Tier-III graduates, 59% said their college name carried little weight in job searches, describing it as “just another line on my CV.” A Salesforce engineer who participated in the survey told Education Times that while graduates from IITs and NITs tend to perform better in interviews, opportunity is no longer limited to them. “Companies are not just looking at IITs anymore — they’re hunting grads from small towns and Tier-III colleges,” said one employee from Goldman Sachs. “They’re betting that with the right training, anyone can become a tech rockstar.”

This reflects a growing belief within the industry that a strong coding portfolio or real-world project record can outweigh traditional academic advantages. Companies like Apple and NVIDIA, which are rapidly scaling up operations in India, now rely heavily on skill-based hiring tests, coding platforms and technical assessments to evaluate candidates.

Education and Earnings

The study also examined how educational background affects salary and career growth. Only 36% of respondents said their education played a strong role in salary offers or progression. Among Tier-III alumni, the number was just 15%, while 74% said their college background helped only early in their career or not at all.

Interestingly, even among overseas graduates, 53% said their education had little or no effect on pay, suggesting that employers now weigh hands-on ability more heavily than degrees or school names.