In a LinkedIn post, a tech recruiter shared why he chose to hire a candidate from a Tier 3 college instead of someone from IIT Delhi. He expressed that he doesn’t care for JEE scores and is keen on knowing what they have “built, broken or fixed.”
“I rejected an IIT Delhi grad today. And hired someone from a college you’ve never heard of,” the recruiter wrote.
“The IIT grad had 1800+ LeetCode rating. Couldn’t explain how his college project handled 100 concurrent users. The Tier 3 grad built a payment system processing 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 till 2nd year. Today, he got the offer. You got ‘we’ll keep your resume on file’.”
The recruiter shared that he is more interested in knowing what a candidate can do rather than their ranks. “I care about what you’ve built, broken, and fixed. Companies don’t pay for algorithms you can solve. They pay for systems you can build.”
How did social media react?
The post prompted various reactions, with many accusing the recruiter of demeaning one candidate and praising another just for views.
An individual wrote, “I don’t get the logic of solving 1800 LC questions. Many people waste a significant amount of their energy simply because the hiring committee cannot devise a more effective hiring strategy. It’s a sham of the current assessment process. We learn new things, but the hiring process remains unchanged. It’s ages old.”
Another added, “What a rage bait post. You judged one of India’s top institutes using a single new grad kid’s college project? You could have said, talent is present everywhere without demeaning the other person. I sincerely hope you fix your attitude and bias before taking additional interviews!” The recruiter responded, “I didn’t judge IIT. I judged one candidate. If the roles were reversed – Tier 3 grad couldn’t answer, IIT grad nailed it – I’d have hired the IIT grad. The post isn’t anti-IIT. It’s anti-credential-worship. The comments proved my point better than I ever could.”
Another commented, “You don’t need to show one down to praise the other candidates. No IITian pays ₹50 lakh on coaching; some even get in without it. And most of them are talented, considering the ratio. The post is just to gain a non-IIT audience.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)