Until recently, India’s tech graduates knew the path: earn your CS degree, prep for interviews, land a Level-1 job and grow from there. That ladder is breaking and few are talking about it. As someone working closely with hiring teams and candidates at Intervue, I’ve seen this change unfold from the inside. Here’s what Indian grads need to understand and what they must start doing differently.

Campus hiring has slowed to a crawl. Entry-level tech roles which fresh graduates once banked on, are drying up not just in India but globally. According to SignalFire’s 2024 State of Talent Report, only 7% of Big Tech hires globally are now new graduates. In the US, new grad hiring at top firms has dropped by more than 50% since 2019.

India, long considered an outsourcing powerhouse, isn't insulated. Despite promises to hire over one lakh freshers this year, IT hiring is down 7% year-on-year. TCS added just 625 employees in Q4 FY25. Infosys postponed trainee assessments and laid off hundreds of newly onboarded engineers. Across the board, firms are rethinking their entry-level hiring models.

And for Indian graduates preparing to enter this landscape, that means one thing: the game has changed.

Let’s call it what it is. Entry-level tech jobs are disappearing—not overnight, not loudly, but steadily and structurally.

Internships, often a gateway for campus hires, are no longer reliable. Indeed’s hiring data shows internship listings have dipped below 2019 levels despite a pandemic-era peak.

Meanwhile, a growing number of junior roles once reserved for freshers like basic testing, debugging, routine scripting are now being automated or offloaded to AI systems. 

Companies still need these tasks done; they just don’t need new grads to do them anymore.

But AI isn’t the sole culprit. A recent Grammarly survey revealed that 61% of Gen Z say they can’t imagine getting work done without GenAI tools, compared to 56% of millennials, 53% of Gen X-ers, and only 41% of baby boomers. The implication? AI is becoming a shortcut for younger workers, often used before they've built strong fundamentals.

Even roles still labeled “entry-level” are being filled by candidates with two to three years of experience, or by engineers with proficiency with AI tools.

Simultaneously, major firms like Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM are laying off thousands under the banner of becoming “AI-first” companies. As reported by AIM, AI isn’t just changing how work is done—it’s reshaping who gets to do it. The message is clear: dependency without depth isn’t a viable strategy for future-proofing your career.

At Intervue, we work closely with hiring teams and candidates across the tech landscape, from fast-scaling startups to multinational IT service firms. And the shifts we’re seeing are increasingly evident. 

Modest Dip in Entry-Level Assessments

Over the past 12 months, there’s been approximately a 2% decrease in technical assessments for fresher or L1 roles on our platform. While not drastic, this indicates a cooling demand at the base level, prompting freshers to upscale faster or risk being edged out by automation or more specialized roles.

2.8X Spike in AI/ML Skills Testing

Companies are rapidly pivoting toward GenAI and LLMs, moving beyond traditional machine learning models. We’ve seen a 2.8X increase in assessments focused on prompt engineering, data-centric Python tasks, and AI-assisted development, especially within frontend and backend engineering workflows. 

Where Freshers Are Struggling

The most common gaps we see aren't just technical; they’re related to thinking and problem-solving. Over 35% of candidates struggle with:

• Interpreting real-world business scenarios
• Analyzing data and extracting insights
• Logical thinking and structuring problem-solving approaches
• Delivering optimized solutions to DSA problems

These are gaps in applying knowledge, not just in learning it.

Mock Interviews Work—When You Stick With Them

About 20% of candidates who’ve taken 3 or more mock interviews show a noticeable pattern:

From “Not Recommended” to “Borderline” to finally “Recommended”—this progression typically happens within 30–45 days. Structured thinking, time management, and communication skills all improve with deliberate practice.

There’s a misconception that tech jobs are disappearing. They aren’t. They’re transforming.

According to India Briefing, India’s tech sector added over 126,000 net new jobs in FY24, but nearly all came from Global Capability Centres (GCCs)—not IT service giants. These centers are hiring for roles that require applied skills, autonomy, and a readiness to contribute from Day 1.

Companies are now hiring engineers who can:

• Use AI tools efficiently but remain grounded in fundamentals
• Communicate their thought process clearly during interviews
• Contribute to production-quality work even in junior positions
• Understand data workflows and basic DevOps or CI/CD tools
• Collaborate across tools like GitHub, Jira, and Slack

In short, they’re looking for contributors, not just candidates.

Let’s not forget that the degree still matters, but it’s no longer the whole picture.

1. Show You Can Apply, Not Just Memorize

This is the age of the portfolio engineer. Whether it’s a live project, open-source contribution, or a robust GitHub repo, employers want tangible proof of skills. Certificates are good. Applications are better.

2. Treat Interviews Like a Performance

Practice matters. Interview performance is where many freshers fall short—not because they don’t know the answer, but because they don’t know how to explain it under time pressure. Simulated practice environments, like mock interviews, help build confidence and competence.

3. Learn to Use AI Without Leaning On It

Companies are hiring candidates who can do more with less, but only if they still understand what they’re doing. Candidates who feed a prompt into an AI tool and copy the output are easy to spot—and easier to reject. The ones who use AI to accelerate their thought process, not replace it, are the ones standing out.

There’s another quiet shift happening: location is becoming less relevant.

According to reports by Naukri, cities like Indore, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, and Udaipur have seen tech hiring grow between 14%–22%, even as hiring in Tier-1 cities slowed. This decentralization is giving rise to more affordable, distributed tech hubs and opening up new talent pipelines across the country.

For candidates outside metro regions, that’s an opening. But only if they’re prepared.

With the current hiring landscape, mock interviews are no longer optional. They are one of the few ways to simulate real-world interview pressure, understand gaps, and improve rapidly.

At Intervue, we’ve seen freshers who treat mock interviews seriously to improve their technical scores while also gaining the kind of structured confidence that interviewers remember. It’s never about perfection; it’s about preparation.

The difference between a prepared candidate and a panicked one is often just three practice interviews.

Tech hiring in India isn’t broken—it’s being recalibrated. For graduates entering the job market, this means adjusting expectations, upgrading preparation, and approaching the process with more clarity and urgency.

This is not an industry in retreat. But it is one with a rising bar and a shrinking margin for underprepared applicants.

There are still jobs. There is still demand. But the question now isn’t: Can you get hired? It’s: Are you ready the way companies need you to be?