Amit Gupta, director of startup Factoryal, took to LinkedIn to challenge India’s hiring practices, calling them fundamentally flawed. “Hiring in India isn’t about finding the best person for the job — it’s about finding the right person for the comfort of the decision-maker,” he wrote. His post sparked a heated discussion, with professionals sharing their experiences and frustrations with biases that go far beyond evaluating skills and experience.
Gupta’s post dissected how hiring in India often prioritizes “culture fit,” which, according to him, leads to biases related to personal background, language, regional affiliation, and even surnames. “Skills? Secondary. Experience? Negotiable. But culture fit? That’s where the real bias creeps in,” he wrote.
Referrals dominate the process, entire industries are filled with people from the same communities, and diversity — whether in gender, thought, or problem-solving approach — suffers as a result, he added.
“When culture is a gatekeeper instead of an enabler, companies hire for comfort, not competence. And then they wonder why innovation is missing,” Gupta added.
Many LinkedIn users agreed with his observations. One commenter noted, “It’s about finding someone who can be controlled… to an extent where subservience becomes the norm or even worse, submission.”
Another user criticized how hiring pressures candidates to fake answers: “Why can’t they simply say they’re looking for a better fit or took a career break? Why is honesty mistaken for badmouthing?” They argued that companies underpay, withhold salary details, and force candidates to meet unrealistic expectations, leading to scripted interviews and exaggerated skill claims.
The issue isn’t limited to India. “Welcome to Europe, where the same biases prevail on a larger scale,” wrote one commenter, citing nationality, language, and regional preferences as frequent biases.
Others pointed to systemic flaws in the hiring process, emphasizing how cost-cutting often trumps talent. “Budget (lower salary) determines hiring chances. I haven’t seen people hired purely for skills,” commented one user.
Not everyone agreed. A dissenting voice confessed to prioritizing loyalty over ability: “I can teach skills to an average but loyal employee. It’s much harder to manage an intelligent guy who just uses the offer letter to get a better deal elsewhere. Loyalty trumps ability any day.”
