India has an incredible pool of talented engineers, but hiring them can be quite a challenge. Here are some tips for anyone looking to build a team in India:
Look Outside the Hubs: It’s natural to start looking for engineers in Bangalore (ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಗೆಲ್ಗೆ!) for good reasons—it’s home to a dense population of talented engineers. However, this comes with a catch: these engineers are in high demand, and hiring the good ones can be highly competitive. Instead, consider hiring from Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Chennai, New Delhi, and other places. The best way to do this is by filtering engineers based on their current location or making an educated guess based on their college and years of work experience.
Look Beyond the Top Schools: Top schools produce excellent engineers, but CS grads from these schools are in high demand and tend to be expensive. Instead, look for folks from regional engineering colleges. Each state in India has hundreds of engineering colleges, and the top 5 schools in each state generate very competitive engineers. An engineer with a CS degree from a regular school often scores better than a non-CS engineer from a brand-name school.
Hire 100% More Than You Need: Indian engineers are arguably experiencing a golden age of demand. This means that when we make an offer, another company might make “an offer they cannot refuse"™. So if you need 10 engineers, plan to hire 20. Typically, 50% of them will show up.
With these basic tips, you can start hiring high-quality engineers who are dedicated and serious about their jobs.
As always, feel free to reach out to me if you need any help at [email protected].