Tech CVs pile up at job search companies as professionals seek secure options

With almost all big technology companies announcing global layoffs one after the other, professionals in the sector in India are frantically looking for more secure options.

The inflow of resume from tech industry employees who have not received pink slips has at least doubled in the past one month or so, said executives at recruitment services providers and executive search firms. They included employees from companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, which all have announced global layoffs.

Fearing more layoffs, employees in the tech industry are looking out for more stable jobs that often strictly exclude startups, said recruitment experts at firms including Transearch, ABC Consultants, Adecco, Careernet and CIEL HR Services.


“Employees in the tech industry are choosing stability over insane hikes. Gone are the days of 100% pay hikes (a year ago),” said Aditya Mishra, chief executive at CIEL HR Services.

Careernet, a staffing and recruitment firm in Bengaluru, got as many as 50 CVs last week from tech sector employees looking for a job change, compared with around five per week about a month ago. “Tech companies and startups went overboard on hiring in 2021 and 2022. During this rampant hiring spree, several of the processes were overlooked which impacted the hiring quality,” said Anshuman Das, cofounder of Careernet.

A lot of talent hired during the pandemic is overpriced, say experts. A techie with five years of experience and a salary package of Rs 20 lakh per annum (LPA) moved to Rs 50 lakh in the last one-and-a-half years in the mad hiring rush.

“The same talent is now an attractive hire at Rs 30-35 LPA but not at Rs 45-50 LPA. While some of this may seem like a clean-up activity … this is a much-needed market correction,” said Das.

Talent in the IT space is looking out for safer jobs especially in large enterprises.

“Tech talent is now weaning away from working with startups,” said AR Ramesh, director, Adecco India. There is a 40% to 100% spike in interest among software professionals depending on their skillsets to move out of their current organisation, he said, based on an internal analysis of more than 300 employees working with IT companies and startups.

If some professionals got 100% and higher salary increases while switching jobs in the last two years, the hikes are now down to pre-pandemic levels of 15% for permanent employees and about 30% for contractual employees, said Ramesh of Adecco.

In the last few weeks, the number of queries from senior talent from large tech companies has doubled for Transearch, an executive search firm. While most are avoiding startups, some who are facing more threat of losing jobs at the top tech companies are even opting for those.

“We recently made an offer to a senior executive from one of the FAANG (Facebook [now Meta], Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) companies to a growth-stage startup who took 15% cut on overall compensation in lieu of ESOPs (employee stock options),” said Ashish Sanganeria, a senior partner at Transearch India.