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I worked at a non-FAANG company in a larger city earlier in my career where people were bad about hiding things like this. All the Chinese folks reporting up to a Chinese director, all the Indian folks reporting up to an Indian director. Did that happen on accident? Well, you're never in the room for those decisions, but when the same thing happens 20 times in a row, you start to form conclusions.
The point is, nobody will say anything out loud, but it happens, and it isn't just Indians.
I don't think they even make that effort to hide because no one sues -- if you sue you'll never work again. They simply say your not a good cultural fit....
And some companies or divisions within companies are more notorious for doing it more than others. I really wish the government would start to ask for distribution of ethnicities and sexes and then compare to available pool of resources in that area for that job.... they should fine companies who stray too far from distribution of available resource pools.
Chief
Some Indian "consulting firms" have been caught doctoring education and credentials for their contractors. Also, fake degrees are a big problem over there. They're trying to stay competitive.
At my firm, our Indian CTO has been bringing in dozens of offshore Indians. No one on the team is part of any interview process, he just brings them in at his discretion and they start popping up in Teams meetings out of nowhere. And it's obvious they all know each other from previous engagements. As you can imagine, morale is in the crapper.
This regional and linguistic favoritism—frequently driven by regional affinity bias and linguistic homophily—remains a deeply entrenched challenge across corporate India, even within global consulting giants like PwC. In major tech and corporate hubs like Bangalore, it is common to see senior managers and directors from regions like Kerala, Kolkata, or Chennai disproportionately hiring candidates from their own home states. What makes this dynamic particularly problematic in the modern corporate landscape is its persistence within permanently remote teams, where geographic constraints should theoretically level the playing field.Instead of leveraging remote work to build diverse, merit-based teams, some leaders use shared regional languages as an exclusive communication tool to feed managerial egos and create insular "inner circles." To protect themselves from scrutiny, these leaders engage in clear tokenism, hiring just one or two individuals from the rest of India to technically tick corporate diversity boxes. However, an objective look at the headcount ratios reveals that this diversity is a complete sham. This superficial representation is strategically used as a corporate shield to deflect allegations of favoritism, allowing a regional monoculture to thrive while leaving minority hires isolated as mere statistics.
Spot on. I've worked in tech for over a decade and this was the case until I started classified government work.
I think it's important to point out that the documentary which this article mentions was put out by a British media channel, which Wikipedia describes as "right-wing on political issues... As of 2025, polling suggested that GB News is the least trusted of the five main news broadcasters in Britain" and whose show hosts include people like Nigel Farage.
In my 30 years in this industry, I've seen all kinds of bias in the work place. Mostly I've seen a ton of cronyism or nepotism from the good ol' body networks of tech (did you go to Stanford? MIT? Are your parents on the board? Wink, wink, fist bump). I've also seen my fair share of discrimination against people of color, women, homophobia, regionalism, classism, ageism, etc. Yes. I've seen that in the liberal "woke" cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York because these are the places where I grew up and the only ones in which I've ever lived.
Most of my Indian co-workers over the years, no not all, they're definitely not a monolith, have been generous and, in fact, stuck their necks out to cover my ass or even reached out to me when they heard I was looking for work. I'm a self taught software developer and a middle-aged white (as in both sides fled England a long time ago) American man from a working class background, if that matters to anyone (and it shouldn't, but humanity is still struggling very badly with this one).
Times are certainly tough, right now. I think most of us can at least agree on this, unless we're totally delusional (even Claude isn't hallucinating about this when I complain to it).
I've been out of work for more than two years and it has taken a serious toll on my life. It's tempting to succumb to false narratives. There are so many of them. However, it's not some secret Indian network or other racist or other depraved conspiracy theory that is the problem.
Please. Let's try to be as rational about what's happening in the job market and especially the tech industry as we aspire to be as engineers or other thought workers. We're talking about our colleagues/fellow workers, our neighbors, our teachers, people who share this planet with us and, if we're lucky, our friends. Don't let divisive political garbage like this poison your hearts and minds. Now is the time to stand together.
Previous company I worked at had an open secret that certain VPs would only hire Indian workers, and only from their native state. Under on VP, all the hiring managers under him fit that mold and the process continued.
Most were contractors, so the hiring process was a bit more lax. Basically, if you weren't Indian, you were not moving up in his group.
When he left, the whole thing fell apart.
Yes, this is true. No it's not just silicon valley.
I don't doubt that the practice exists, but Google's process includes a hiring committee as the final step, which could serve as a way to mitigate such practices. Unless, of course the entire panel is Indian.
I recently interviewed for a sales role at Google and none of the three panelists or recruiter were indian, perhaps the dev and engineering landscape looks quite a bit different.
Definitely happens and not just indians.
I'd believe it. It's been a common nepotism tactic. They give impossibly difficult interviews with very specific, arcane technical questions, but give their preferred candidates the questions well before the interview. It's not just Indians doing it, though.
Where can I apply & start working in tech in Sarasota, Fl?
I might have something for you
100% true
Certainly true here in Australia - "we prefer to hire from out own culture" I got last week - which is whi I record ALL of my phone calls now.
Some of the questions are just available on website like glassdoor and people connect on blind to ask interview experience. Article is just exaggerated to add fuel to the fire.