Talent without tags: Over a third at Zoho, Apple, Nvidia are from tier-III colleges

Over a third of Zoho, Apple, and Nvidia employees come from tier III colleges, a survey by Blind, a platform for professionals, revealed on Wednesday.

However, legacy tech firms such as Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, Oracle, and Google were found to still rely heavily on hiring from premier campuses. Nonetheless, about 18% of the respondents in these firms were from tier 3 colleges.

The survey was conducted between September 17-24, across a sample of 1,602 Indian professionals. It highlighted a shift in recruitment strategy for tech firms like Apple, Zoho, SAP, and PayPal, which are prioritising skills over institution rank.


The colleges were grouped into three categories based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025

• Tier I: IITs, IISc, etc.
• Tier II: NITs, DTU, Jadavpur University, and similar.
• Tier III: other state or private universities, and overseas institutions.

Also Read: Startups are cautiously hiring again; 80,000 new tech jobs expected in FY26, data shows

On campus recruitment

The findings showed that a vast majority of tier II and III alumni attributed their success to the colleges conducting campus recruitment drives.

Also Read: IT firms pivot from mass fresher hires to specialised talent signups

Also Read: Big Tech continues to hire in India even as local majors downsize

A Salesforce professional said: “In general, people from IIT/IIIT/NIT do better in interviews… 50% of the screened candidates from IIT/IIIT/NITs usually end up getting an offer. For others (non-IIT, NIT, etc.), the success rate is around 20%.”

A Goldman Sachs employee stated that opportunity is not closed off to those not from tier I colleges: “Companies aren’t just looking at IITs anymore, they’re hunting grads from small towns and tier III colleges. They’re literally betting that with some training, anyone can become a tech rockstar.”

Also Read: Tech majors keep count up despite one outlier