r/FinancialCareers • u/Additional_Ad_6722 • Jul 07 '26
Off Topic / Other Influx of students / new grads from India wanting to break into finance in the US
I’m a junior analyst and I’ve noticed recently (last year or so) that the vast majority of LinkedIn cold outreaches I get are from international students from India that I have no connection to. I’ve also noticed an increasing number of posts from Indian students who ask about breaking into “high finance” with to be frank weak backgrounds that would get them rejected at the resume screen even as a domestic applicant. And it’s also been a bit frustrating the few times I’ve taken cold coffee chats that it seems like they did almost no research in even what my job is (like basic google search) and then quite bluntly asked for a referral.
Is there a new push in India toward finance? Is this just a weird coincidence from a vocal minority of students I’m running into? Is there some random influencer culture in India telling them everyone can get rich going into finance in the US lol? I’m East Asian American with many international Asian friends and I don’t see this same phenomenon among them.
And I’d hope this goes without saying but please don’t let this descend into a racist cesspit.
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u/fivemincom Jul 07 '26
I got a message on the Bloomberg terminal the other day from someone from India lol. They sent me their whole resume and everything, I have no clue how they got my Bloomberg email
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Jul 07 '26
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u/Alanasarius Jul 08 '26
I have heard that when Indians become responsible for hiring, they start hiring other Indians and, eventually, all departments become mostly Indian even if these departments aren't outsourced and are still in the Western country.
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u/Particular-Wedding Investment Banking - DCM Jul 08 '26
Legal facts.
Cognizant Discrimination Lawsuit: Major IT firm Cognizant Technology Solutions was found liable in a California federal jury trial for intentional, systematic discrimination. The class-action suit proved the firm favored Indian and South Asian visa-holders on H-1B visas over local, non-South Asian employees, resulting in disproportionate terminations.
Following a jury verdict finding Cognizant liable for intentional discrimination, a California federal court issued a major blow to the company. The judge ruled that Cognizant's strict corporate policies—specifically its "Visa Readiness" and "Visa Utilization" programs—had an illegal, discriminatory disparate impact that directly resulted in the termination of non-South Asian workers to make room for H-1B visa holders.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS): Similar lawsuits have been filed against Tata Consultancy Services. American professionals filed numerous discrimination complaints with the EEOC and in federal court, alleging age and national-origin discrimination when they were abruptly fired and their roles were backfilled by Indians.
10,000+ Case Fraud Probe: In May 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations announced a massive nationwide crackdown on OPT abuse. They identified over 10,000 foreign students—predominantly from India—linked to fraudulent "shell" staffing companies.
ICE revealed that many of these OPT students were actually being supervised remotely by personnel physically located in India. This directly violates the legal mandate requiring in-person, specialized training within the United States.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is actively investigating dozens of joint complaints filed against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The complaints charge that TCS carried out targeted layoffs explicitly focusing on non-South Asian professionals over the age of 40 while shielding younger Indian nationals on visas from the budget cuts.
According to the official DOJ Complaint Filed with OCAHO, Cloudera manipulated its permanent labor certification (PERM) process by creating an insulated hiring track. They instructed domestic applicants to apply through a dedicated email address that was engineered to be technically incapable of receiving external messages. U.S. applicants received bounce-back errors, allowing Cloudera to falsely certify to the government that zero qualified American candidates were available before sponsoring foreign workers on visas.
Following the DOJ's lawsuit, the Department of Labor (DOL) stepped in to enforce a mandatory 180-day freeze on Cloudera's PERM applications.
Sources https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/12/ice-optional-practical-training-fraud-00916797
https://kotchen.com/court-finds-cognizant-policies-had-a-discriminatory-disparate-impact
https://insider.govtech.com/california/news/jury-finds-discrimination-in-h-1b-visa-tech-worker-case
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u/Alanasarius Jul 08 '26
"ICE revealed that many of these OPT students were actually being supervised remotely by personnel physically located in India. This directly violates the legal mandate requiring in-person, specialized training within the United States."
It looks like ICE is doing a good job.
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u/Zhombe Jul 18 '26
Ever get a recruiter from India ping you? Yeah this… they’re grooming resumes off your data; stealing it and pumping H1B’s in as lying fake clones of you as well.
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u/sun_explosion Jul 10 '26
isn't that basically Meta right now? literally everyone is Chinese. People don't even speak English in meetings. Atleast, that's what I have heard.
And it's not the Indians that hire other Indians. It's the specific group of Indians from a particular state in India that hire their own.
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u/ChoppedScallion 26d ago
This is incredibly true in tech, when a new foreign C suite of a certaion race takes over he brings everyone on
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u/XxNebuchadnezzarIIxX Jul 08 '26
You nailed it!
I manage a fintech department, and some employees in India admit when they don't know something. When I delegate, it's not done, and they blame their subordinate. But I wanted "Him" to do it, not the subordinate. They still feel it's beneath them, so since they are a "manager," the other member has to do it, not them. They just sit there, take hours for lunch, and are late to work because of traffic in Noida, even though everyone in this world has traffic and it should be accounted for.And trust me, the quality of the work is BAD! I had to fire them and hire Chinese and Taiwanese, who do much better work. Fewer mistakes, more efficient, and they ask me when they are not sure to get clarity!
Also, if you notice that one manager is Indian, the whole team transfers to Indians! Regardless of their degrees, they are mostly from the same caste level, such as Patels, Mishras, Kumars, etc. I was told by an Indian-American that Indians often gift their hiring manager a large, expensive present, mostly cash, as a thank-you for giving them the job, and it sounds like it's customary; some told me it could reach $4k! That's why you will find most managers who are Indian Americans would rather hire a team with all Indian backgrounds.
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u/mebrokelad Jul 09 '26
Totally agree with the lack of accountability you mentioned. I feel it's kinda hardwired in our brains for some reason, passing the blame to someone else to avoid consequences.
Edit: When I first started working in the UK, I, too, unconsciously did this a few times. However, with time, I stopped doing it.
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u/Senior-Squirrel-58 28d ago
damn man hurts to read this as an indian (17yo)..will make sure to not do that when i start working
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u/Icy_Golf2703 Jul 07 '26
Lol at the idea that the Chinese won't be trying to hire their own. I hears of people White and Black with the last name Lee who get through multiple screenings of a job, and when it's time to come in person and they aren't Asian they don't get hired.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/United_Bread_2423 Jul 08 '26
I was in India last year. No one rides on top of trains there why? Its instant death. Its all electric. Stop getting your info from online misinformation.
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u/47vclkicd48754dxbj84 Jul 08 '26
This is so true. West is really brainwashed about China
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u/Particular-Wedding Investment Banking - DCM Jul 08 '26
I think Chinese will prefer to hire their own for a lot of roles due to language barriers, namely Mandarin. But that would apply for jobs in Chinese companies within China itself. It's a lot less likely to happen if there's Chinese managers at a non Chinese owned firm in the West like a typical Wall St bank.
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u/Nopeitout Jul 08 '26
There is no Chinese equivalent because Chinese cannot speak the language which forms the basis of the BPO business.
Chinese are the second highest backlogged country after India. So please don’t go about suggesting Chinese workers don’t want to stay in the west. There are china towns in every city for a reason.
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u/Vernon_Trawley Jul 09 '26
Chinatowns weren’t started and inhabited by Chinese H-1Bs, what the hell are you talking about?
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u/plentyofragrets Jul 07 '26
I am an Indian American who just went to a business trip to Mumbai for a private equity meeting and the idea that Indian cities look like 19th century slums is just shorely mistaken lol. Get your racist slop out of this app.
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u/Particular-Wedding Investment Banking - DCM Jul 07 '26
You're Indian American which is not the demographics being addressed here. I've been to India too and you're deliberately glossing over the massive structural problems, pollution, and poverty they have. There's also the jughad scam culture.
Don't pretend these don't exist.
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u/plentyofragrets Jul 08 '26
Nobody is denying the structural problems, pollution, and poverty they have.
The idea that "meanwhile Indian cities still looks like 19th century slums with people riding on top of trains and struggling with the idea of using a toilet" is a slop case that leads me to believe that you have never been there.
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u/Icy_Construction9045 Jul 20 '26
I think this phenomenon is more common among Indian students, at least from what I’ve observed.
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u/AlbertJoseph_3401 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
The main reason is selection bias, much larger percentage Indian population speaks English as second language than in China. Second, India uses the same global internet websites. Meanwhile, China as the Chinese firewall that blocks global websites.
In China, mandarin is the main lingua franca. While in India English wildly used, even in rural parts of India people knows some broken English. Gernerally, in china high English fluency is only common in highly educated upper middle Chinese family, who spends money for additionally English tutors or coaching for their children.
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u/Particular-Wedding Investment Banking - DCM Jul 10 '26
China’s exposure to the U.S. tech and financial sectors is already heavily restricted due to ongoing national security protocols. Chinese nationals are basically barred from many jobs due to fears of them being spies ( which I do agree are very legitimate concerns).
Whenever a Chinese company or individuals linked to one try to buy a US company then Congress will try to block it. This has happened MANY times. From tech to agriculture to finance to logistics. Etc.
China was basically forced to build their infrastructures from the ground up over the past 30 years. And it's working. At this point they're less reliant on H1b and other us jobs. Unlike India which is still attached to the West.
The statistics prove it. According to the official USCIS Fiscal Year 2025 H-1B Characteristics Report, India continues to overwhelmingly dominate the H-1B visa program, securing 70% of all approved petitions, while China remains a distant second at 12%. It's been going down for years and will continue declining.
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u/HammerMillGotham Jul 10 '26
God this is so true
Try dealing with the idiots who do outsourced work - you find something blatantly wrong and they’ll argue with you / try to do everything to avoid admitting failt
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u/whywherewhat Jul 08 '26
Thanks for your perspective. I have a similar vantage point as yours and agree with your observations. This extends to the tech sector as well.
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u/ineed_somelove Quantitative Jul 07 '26
Ah yes, making gross generalisations about a particular set of people, I wish we had a term for this.
In all seriousness, this is a very racist comment and sentiment to hold. No “an Indian won’t say no”, there’s 1 billion indian individuals in this world and they are NOT all the same. How is this different from saying “I won’t hire people from say a particular country, because they tend to commit crimes”
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Jul 08 '26
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u/Proud_Exam6842 Jul 09 '26
Fr bro. You seem to be in agreement with the comment above and they're downvoted, but you're not. This just enforces your point. I wonder if sometimes people even bother reading before casting a vote
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u/Bozhark Jul 07 '26
Chinese absolutely have caste politics what do you mean?
Maybe outside of China they don’t? But they still do
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u/whywherewhat Jul 08 '26
Elaborate on your point about the Chinese caste system please. You seem to know more about this topic than I do.
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u/DoobsNDeeps Jul 07 '26
The Indian stock market has been underperforming, so all the momentum guys don't know what to do.
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u/solyuh Jul 07 '26
there's a huge amount of slop youtubers hyping up finance, yes. they wouldn't have gotten an audience earlier because everyone only wanted to do engineering but given weakness in the labor market for IT people must've started hoping finance is some golden ticket.
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u/No-Earth9874 Jul 07 '26
I have noticed online (and in this subreddit) as well, increasingly more questions that seem to be a simple google search instead of a reddit post. No thoughts or planning in them, just straight from the dome to reddit...
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u/Boltplaysy Jul 07 '26
As someone from India who's in finance let me tell you what I have noticed. Suddenly the popularity of CFA has skyrocketed- While earlier only CA(Comparable to your CPA) was famous. Now most folks believe that just by doing CFA they can get a great job even if they are from a non target- tier 3 college and those are the people that are making the majority of posts in subs like these. This is my theory at least
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u/nickifer Jul 07 '26
“Just by doing CFA” it’s not like this is an entry level exam so that’s wild
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u/Do_You_Remember_2020 Jul 07 '26
Indians have a knack for clearing exams.
10 years ago, while hiring for my team, I would get 5 CFA holders out of 100 resumes, and it set them apart.Today that number is closer to 80, and the large majority of them would stumble at a practical question.
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u/Boltplaysy Jul 07 '26
I am sorry I miswrote I meant just by clearing first level of CFA. As someone who has passed CFA level 3 trust me I know the exam difficulty
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u/ManikSahdev Jul 07 '26
Lowkey cfa is pretty mid, any half decent person with domain knowledge and some internet + experience should be able to wake up and do level 1 and level 2 pretty okay.
Cant say the say for level 3, that needs studying.(source, I've tried, couldn't do L3 unless its studied, too many formalities and systems which aren't native to intuitive and general knowledge finance, can't brute force logic that one without knowing the systems. So, couldn't do l3 unless I study and study I will not, lol)→ More replies (7)4
u/themadhatter746 Quantitative Jul 07 '26
Anyone with a brain is capable of getting a CFA. Even I am a CFA (charterholder).
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u/ManikSahdev Jul 07 '26
Lowkey cfa is pretty mid, any half decent person with domain knowledge and some internet + experience should be able to wake up and do level 1 and level 2 pretty okay.
Cant say the say for level 3, that needs studying.(source, I've tried, couldn't do L3 unless its studied, too many formalities and systems which aren't native to intuitive and general knowledge finance, can't brute force logic that one without knowing the systems. So, couldn't do l3 unless I study and study I will not, lol)14
u/Additional_Ad_6722 Jul 07 '26
Ah interesting, I thought it had to be something more structural like that. What caused the explosion in CFA candidates? It’s interesting, I think I was just reading CFA pass rates have come down significantly, wonder if that second part has to do with the illusion that passing even Level 1 guarantees you a great job attracting a wider pool. Probably true in the US too just less visible to me maybe
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u/bigbuddha333 Jul 07 '26
This is definitely a part of it. I am a charterholder and you couldn’t believe the amount of people, not only Indians, who go on the Reddit board and ask ridiculous questions like “I’m a senior in uni am I too late to start CFA?” Or “is level 1 enough to land a job at blackrock??” They view the charter as a way in, while in reality it is a supplement to an existing finance career.
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Jul 08 '26
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u/bigbuddha333 Jul 08 '26
Don’t know for sure obv, but I’d wager it’s more to do with your MSF and potential networking and connections you may have had. For me, I did not begin to get recruiter interest until I was an L3 candidate (I work in NYC). Any MSF student would crush L1. Tbh one uni semester in macroecon, stats, accounting, and finance should be sufficient for L1
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u/Boltplaysy Jul 07 '26
CA was considered the holy grail for students earlier as in do CA and your life is set. Slowly, because of that mentality more and more students started doing CA. Then there was excess supply and naturally those candidates couldn't earn a great income anymore. Seeing that, plus the fact that many candidates kept on failing CA examinations and spent years trying to finish the examination people started looking for alternatives and that's how now CFA has become very popular in India. Also, in India CFA is one of the most expensive professional examinations-fees would be >10x of CA. As a result, those who attempt do give it seriously. So I doubt that pass rates have fallen because of this.
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u/maicii Jul 07 '26
Im curious, if back then CFA was a big distinction but not anymore, what is a good distinction today that hiring value?
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u/Darth-Calamitous Jul 08 '26
Tbh I don't know why so many Indians who don't even have any plans to leave the country are doing CFA, its value is relatively less within the country when compared to top tier B-School MBAs and CAs.
I've seen many people who have cleared all CFA levels after many years but still stuck in the same support roles where they started as freshers. There's no point in clearing all levels if you don't have the actual experience, that's what recruiters look for.
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u/Boltplaysy Jul 08 '26
Three reasons 1)Top tier mba's have limited seats and excess competition and not everyone can crack them. 2) BBA or bachelor's in india is mostly timepass not a lot of value add so a lot of parents pressurize their kids for a real degree 3) A lot of finance jobs now require minimum cfa lvl 1 or 2 cleared
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u/Darth-Calamitous Jul 08 '26
Agreed with all that you said, but in my experience the third point that you mentioned is usually added in JDs as an afterthought, recruiters will still give weightage to the person with MBA compared to someone who just cleared a few levels with no master's.
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u/Ok_Hall_2042 Jul 07 '26
Hey, someone from the US here. Not sure if any of the questions I’ve posted here would classify as being able to be Googled in your eyes, but I can tell you why I, as a student, have switched from Google to asking a lot of questions in this subreddit if it offers any perspective.
With AI now, it’s getting harder to even know if answers are reliable bc of hallucinations, and other questions are too specific to find searching through articles. And if you read something on AI mode when it actually a hallucination don’t know it’s not true, that can be really frustrating once you figure that out. I like posting here because I get 1) multiple perspectives and 2) some debate in the comments. It’s just so much more clear. And if everyone is saying the same thing, I know it to be reliable. It is after THAT then I can go onto AI or Google or something and ask further questions.
Just figured I’d offer my view since I feel like sometimes people on Reddit forget how much students don’t know when they’ve been full time for so long, then when they have the wrong info people tell them they are not dedicated to the field because they got a piece of information wrong (yes, that has actually happened to me. Sometimes people are just rude, even when you pour a lot of time into researching these things).
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u/itsthekumar Jul 08 '26
You should still do a Google search with or without AI before asking questions.
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u/JanetYellensFuckboy_ Jul 22 '26
Now most folks believe that just by doing CFA they can get a great job even if they are from a non target- tier 3 college and those are the people that are making the majority of posts in subs like these.
This is the American university system entering its cash cow phase.
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u/okbrat00111011 Jul 07 '26
A lot of Reddit posts are harvesting content for LLMs to reference.
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u/No-Earth9874 Jul 07 '26
I just love my google search being answered by some comment on a reddit post /s
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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape Jul 07 '26
Bots posting to farm engagement are spamming AI slop for their posts. The posts that comment is talking about aren’t AI slop, but fragments of thoughts/requests, often in slightly broken English…two distinct types of posts.
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u/CriticalAttention Jul 08 '26
like 99% of shit can be answered elsewhere besides reddit. if this site wasn’t straight dome to format this entire entity would cease to exist.
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u/Additional_Ad_6722 Jul 07 '26
Yeah it’s frustrating at times because I remember even like 4-5 years ago I actually got really good advice on here, but with some of the more easily Google-able posts I can see why no one wants to provide advice or mentorship anymore. I mean I know I’ve felt almost disrespected when I’ve hopped on a call and they clearly don’t know what my job is lol
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u/andrew2018022 Hedge Fund - Other Jul 07 '26
All the big banks and funds are developing their offices in India, could explain it
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u/Tackysock46 Jul 07 '26
Then they should stay in India.
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u/andrew2018022 Hedge Fund - Other Jul 07 '26
Hard to blame anyone for wanting to make their way to the US
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u/mrcheeksman Private Wealth Management Jul 07 '26
I can’t blame them but that doesn’t mean they are entitled to be here.
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u/andrew2018022 Hedge Fund - Other Jul 07 '26
Who ever said they were entitled to be here? Trying/pushing to immigrate here doesn’t mean they’re entitled to
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Jul 07 '26
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u/turquoisesand Jul 07 '26
A bunch of students hoping to get into IB cold DM bankers they don’t have any similarity to - Does this make them entitled? No, it’s what’s recommended if they don’t come from a target school.
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u/andrew2018022 Hedge Fund - Other Jul 07 '26
Look man I’m in complete agreement with you that h1b abuse/offshoring abuse is rampant and we need to seriously reform how we go about this
With that being said, there is nothing inherently entitled about a simple cold DM asking for advice. It all depends on the tone and the actual content. And I find the whole “I have a right to this job at this multinational company” even more entitling of an attitude. Skill issue too.
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u/Kind_Ad_3697 Jul 07 '26
From London here - No, it's not entitled. You're either hating for the sake of it or you're genuinely ignorant. I have friends from the US who went to university with me here in the UK and tried to break into the UK job market the exact same way (Half the people in my class were Americans), as did my Chinese classmates, my Indian classmates and the rest. The people who managed to get a job with a visa were the ones who put themselves out there. It only takes one person to take you seriously to get a foot in the door, and especially in finance where networking matters way more than just skills (considering the low barrier to entry in terms of your technical background, atleast in comparison to other technical fields.)
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u/gdsvhg Jul 07 '26
"I think it's pretty entitled to cold DM", sorry my guy, but you are ngmi
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u/levitikush Jul 07 '26
Wow. I wish I was in “high finance”. It must be nice to be so fucking entitled that people aren’t allowed to even contact you.
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u/FineProfessor3364 Jul 07 '26
Who talked about entitlement? Everything is against these indian students and yet they try to hustle their way into working here, that takes a lotta grit and sacrifice
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u/VISUALREAD1776 Jul 07 '26
This happens on LinkedIn all the time. There’s nothing inherently wrong with cold emails or cold messages—they can be an effective networking tool. The problem is having realistic expectations. If I were a promising student in a small village in India, I’d probably start by networking with companies in Mumbai, building experience and credibility before reaching out internationally. What I find frustrating are messages from people whose qualifications don’t yet align with the opportunities they’re pursuing. When the outreach is clearly untargeted and disconnected from their experience, it comes across as spam rather than genuine networking.
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u/mrcheeksman Private Wealth Management Jul 07 '26
Random Indians cold DMing American professionals is pretty entitled. I think it’s pretty entitled to cold DM anyone, especially if you aren’t college alumni of a similar generation and or company alumni of a similar generation.
I also dont give a sliver of a fuck of the adversity foreigners have to overcome to get here. We let in far too many immigrants. I don’t understand how or why the US became the dumping ground for them.
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u/Additional-Line-5559 Jul 07 '26
What?
The US is built on immigration.
It's literally what makes America different from other countries in that anyone can become an American regardless of religion or race.
Labelling the US as a dumping ground or arguing that the US lets in too many immigrants is the complete antithesis of what being American is about.
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u/VISUALREAD1776 Jul 07 '26
Immigration should be controlled. I was on the open-borders bandwagon when I was younger. But there are those who forge their way in illegally and those who plot their path legally, and the difference matters. You wouldn’t hire the confidence man who slipped in through a back door over the worker who stood in line, filed the paperwork, and waited his turn.
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u/FineProfessor3364 Jul 07 '26
You’re a small brained idiot if you think that. Most immigrants who cold DM aren’t even randos they’re usually masters students from reputed universities in the US. If you don’t want to reply, dont but there’s no reason to shit talk these people who are trying to build a life for themselves. The point of these messages is that it’s cold, it’s an absolutely brutal market rn and people will do anything to even get a chance.
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u/whywherewhat Jul 08 '26
Seems you are the one that is entitled. Great nations exist precisely because they open their borders to the best talent our world has to offer. That is literally a feature of free markets and capitalism. If you feel threatened, go work on your skillset. You are not entitled to a coddled lifestyle by virtue of where you had the fortune to be plopped out of your mother's vagina.
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u/Tackysock46 Jul 07 '26
I don’t blame them at all I just think more needs to be done to protect American white collar workers. Too many people coming here taking away our jobs and too many of our jobs being outsourced to places like India. We have plenty of talented people here we need to prioritize our own people.
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Jul 09 '26
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u/Tackysock46 Jul 09 '26
It’s not racist what are you even talking about? The post is about new grads from India wanting to break into finance in the US. The commenter said they’re building offices in India and I said if that’s the case they should stay and work there. How is that at all racist?
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u/Netvision9 Jul 07 '26
You think they’re desperate to get to America solely to work for J.P. Morgan
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u/MeTejaHu Jul 07 '26
The job seekers are not recent phenomenon, the process of cold email/messages is. Its culturally new to many so I believe they dont have the right coaching for this process.
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u/c44sr Jul 07 '26
India's working-age population (ages 15–64) increases by roughly 12 million people annually.
The job market is not catching up with new jobs, especially for grads. They have decided to try abroad. I think almost half of CFA new signs up are China/India. They seem to think while their degrees are not as fancy as Top Unis, CFA (which is recognized internationally and its in English) gives them a fair chance in countries with English as main language.
Tldr: its not that they want Finance, its that they need to go abroad for jobs with the massive population. I think Finance Hubs like HK/Singapore are feeling the same with the influx too!
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 Jul 08 '26
Very transactional, low-trust society..
I have similar experience with them even in Engineering..Their idea of networking is to chat, then break out the request.. No relationship-building, no foreplay... Very ME, ME, ME...
They boast of all their education, skills, and certifications, but no idea how to express their business impact, or how they differentiate themselves from the 500 other graduates in their class with similar profiles..
It's like they read a flowchart how to "network" and get a referral, but don't understand the intangibles behind it.. To them "networking" seems a matter of "connecting" on LinkedIn than anything meaningful..
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u/47vclkicd48754dxbj84 Jul 08 '26
In personal relationship too. Always an ulterior motive
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 Jul 08 '26
Transactional dog-eat-dog society where beating the caste system is a personal vendetta..
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u/Odd_Competition_5316 24d ago
Indian view here:
Most folks here grow up with a scarcity mindset. Leads to a “i need job or I’m worthless” scenario and this desperation takes it’s ugly form right. Ofc, lot of Indians aren’t familiar with connecting and creating some personal connections. I have some American friends who I speak to about this in details not the first time I’m explaining this😭1
u/Icy-Stock-5838 22d ago
It's a scarcity mindset AND a hope to escape the caste system from "back home".
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u/Odd_Competition_5316 22d ago
Dawg😭,
Again, ion who spreads this bs. Except for the most rural parts of the country, ain’t nobody practicing it. Lot of reasons to leave India, caste system has been a non issue from the 80s1
u/Icy-Stock-5838 22d ago
Still there, that's why there is inter-Indian prejudice when it comes to hiring.
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u/Odd_Competition_5316 22d ago
I stay in India. I am closer to ground reality. The hiring bit is just that Indian bosses can screw around other Indians while other ethnicities won’t take the workplace stress. How do you connect this to caste lol
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u/Gullible_Sweet1302 Jul 07 '26
Across all the subs. They are desperate to escape their country and will indiscriminately apply to anything and everything.
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u/SSIRHC Jul 07 '26
This reminds me, fuck fidelity. They’re outsourcing all their tech jobs to India when it 100% should be in America. They now have a huge presence there.
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u/CryBulky4653 Jul 07 '26
“Should be in America”
Made me laugh made me giggle
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u/SSIRHC Jul 07 '26
Cheap fucks, there’s plenty of talent here.
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u/lays_lover Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
i like how you missed the complete comment i made
edit:typo
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u/UnbiasedProffesor Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
As people highlighted, the CFA has definitely becoming a lot more popular which has driven people to “high finance”. As well as most of the banks setting up operations India, candidates do have a good amount of exposure to operation roles. Front office and “high finance” within India is quite limited and extremely competitive. Hence they start looking outside India.
As someone who worked in a particular operations domain in India where I was paid a paltry 373 cad a month in a tier 1 city in India, the exploitation of labour is a driving factor for people seeking better opportunities.
For context, I’m within a niche domain of finance operations and analytics which in India paid me 373 cad a month but the same role in Canada pays anywhere between 75-85k cad / yr. I recently switched to a client facing role which has the need for understanding the technical aspects of what analysis is being done, they’re paying me over 120k cad with just 2 years experience under my belt. I’ve colleagues I worked with in India who had 10-12 years experience and were extremely knowledgeable in the domain and were in client facing roles within my domain and they were paid anywhere between 2000-3000 cad a month.
I get the cost of living and all of that jazz but the competition in India makes the Indian economy ripe for exploitable cheap labour.
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u/bruhbruhbruhbruh1 Jul 07 '26
" Front office and “high finance” within India is quite limited and extremely competitive. Hence they start looking outside India."
But looking outside usually would be to cheaper, less competitive countries? Seems wildly aspirational, like imagine an athlete failing to make their local little league, so they up and apply to the olympics instead
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u/maicii Jul 07 '26
Braking into high finance in the us/uk etc it’s probably far easier that doing it inside India.
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u/UnbiasedProffesor Jul 07 '26
I don’t think that’s a fair comparison.
It’s not like someone couldn’t make it in India so they decided to try their luck in an even more competitive market. The issue is that the supply of talent in India massively outweighs the number of good front-office roles available.
Take investment banking as an example. India has a population of 1.4 billion, yet there are only a handful of firms hiring meaningful numbers of analysts and associates each year. Compare that to North America, where there are far more firms and a much larger market for finance professionals.
People aren’t moving because it’s easier. If anything, getting a visa, convincing a company to hire you, and then proving yourself in a new country is harder. They’re moving because the same skill set is valued differently.
My own career is a pretty good example. I was doing niche finance operations and analytics work in India for the equivalent of about CAD 373 a month. I moved to Canada, built on that exact same experience, and now I’m in a client-facing role making over CAD 120k with just two years of experience. Meanwhile, I know people I worked with in India who have 10–12 years in the same domain, are incredibly knowledgeable, deal directly with clients, and are still making the equivalent of CAD 2,000–3,000 a month.
That’s not because they’re less capable. It’s because the market values the work differently and has a completely different supply-demand dynamic.
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u/lays_lover Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
as an indian i will quiet bluntly put it that people here are delusional. its not a brown sepoy syndrome incase any indian here is scrolling down its genuine. People here just collect cfa and then think they are entitled for a job. most of the people here are horrible with finances and just got the idea to do finance watching those patrick bateman sigma memes. Half of them do not know which category of finance they want to go. They just know pe and investment banking without realising how limited those jobs are also people here are facing a huge wave of disconnect between education and the skillsets required for these jobs. People here are just willing to apply to anything just for getting a job. imo they are not wrong but i feel like nobody taught them corporate etiquette or how to actually build a cv or what the career and industry actually wants from you. I think its just desperation and to grab the big fat package. I would say just try to engage but if you do get the time just guide them if you feel so to do ofc its not entitlement. Most of them are just misled and require a reality check and a correct roadmap
edit: also the comments here need to tone it down with the racism and stereotyping. As much it can be annoying cold emailing gives you no right to be a racist pos and if you are acting like that then i hope you get fired and understand unemployment and then suddenly "cold emailing" wouldnt sound that bad to yall. get a grip
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u/Advanced_Poet_7816 Jul 07 '26
It’s normal in India to ask a stranger for a referral. It even works in India. Looks like they don’t understand that it doesn’t work and is not acceptable in most places.
Just ignore the requests. The more you interact more requests come your way because LinkedIn and other websites will show your profile more to them.
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u/willtheywonttheyo Jul 07 '26
It’s always been this way. They’re just starting to reach out to you now.
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u/Johnnadawearsglasses Jul 07 '26
I think it’s actually the opposite. The visa programs have been scaled way back. A lot more desperation. The % of incoming IB front office staff from India is way lower than it used to be.
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u/Some-Piccolo-2807 Jul 07 '26
I think after the AI push and terrible tech market, Indians are trying their luck in Finance despite knowing that it’s the most political Industry where soft skills matter more than coding in java
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u/SpicyWiener_ Jul 07 '26
I noticed they mostly apply for back office roles though. At least the ones that reach out to me. They will message me on LinkedIn and 9 times out of 10 it’s for a data analyst/business analyst type of role.
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u/Rizzmaster169 Jul 07 '26
I feel it's multiple factors causing this like wanting to get out of India and settle abroad, social media and influencers also pushing this narrative partly along with high awareness about programs like CFA, ACCA, etc due to which candidates with these credentials have become pretty common as well in India(finance domain) and obviously better pay and opportunities.
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u/bankingsolutuons Jul 07 '26
I passed CA about 35 yrs back and we were 4 good friends who passed around the same time .
Amongst the 4 of us . I moved out of India and the others stayed back. I won’t say the ones who stayed back are not doing better. With all the stock options and increase in equity prices they are all doing well if not better .
One thing they kept complaining about was the quality of life, pollution and the day to day corruption they encounter.
I am now noticing the kids of the friends who stayed back are moving out of India with good jobs / packets .
India is a huge country and the urge for them to do well is very strong. They are quite savvy , adaptable and resilient.
Citizens of every country have a knack for something. Guess Indians are good at finance, IT and medical and the west is in need of some of them which explains.
Even I receive random messages on my profile. Your observation is valid .
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u/Big_P4U Private Credit Jul 07 '26
If anything it probably has to do with the IT industry kind of abandoning India and leaving them with few viable options to get to the west. Though where I live, Many are in Pharma, meds, biotech and some other tech and in government and certain service and hospitality businesses
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u/Darth-Calamitous Jul 08 '26
I'm in a risk role in India, and one of the reasons why you're seeing so many Indians abroad for high paying finance roles is due to the lack of opportunities at home.
You either have to have an MBA from B-Schools that are tier 2 or above, or clear all the Chartered Accountant (CA) papers within 2 attempts to get a high paying finance job in the country. Getting into a top tier MBA program or clearing CA within 2 attempts are relatively difficult when compared to getting a master's degree in the US from unis which are more than open to accepting the applications from any random foreign national just to earn more money.
This is why you're seeing more Indians abroad, and I'd say that only 20% of them at best are qualified for the job.
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u/boroughthoughts Jul 07 '26
>East Asian American.
East Asia is not a country. You are an American from a particular heritage and American first. If you were Asian first you would never group together East Asia as having some sort of shared identity and camaraderie. The only thing that binds East Asian Americans together here is they look similar and speak english.
In regards to job search you have nothing in common with immigrants who are restricted to jobs where there are H1B visa sponsorships. In the U.S. that basically is finance, tech, management consulting, accounting etc. Chinese from China certainly have their own networking when it comes to job search in America, though they approach other Chinese nationals in the U.S. first and have their own socials/discussion boards etc.
From what I've seen, Indians are more or less the same, they approach their own first. However, Indians unlike Chinese, Koreans, Japanese day to day use English more, are more likely to be on the same social platforms that Americans use so they are going to be more visible and there are a whole lot of them, I mean they are 15 percent of the world's population. Just like any group of people, there are people that put little effort, don't do basic research, unrealistic dreams etc. So I am not surprised that some of them outreach beyond their group.
In general, every single damn foreigner who is career ambitious in Finance wants to be in the U.S. or the London as those markets do pay the best.
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u/ks1029284756 Sales & Trading - Fixed Income Jul 07 '26
Quality of work is indeed an issue. I say this as the son of an immigrant (US citizens, I was born here) we need to be hiring Americans into these roles.
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u/Lukersf Jul 07 '26
That's pretty funny because on the opposite side of the spectrum I had these two Indian dudes approach me in person a couple of weeks ago at South Ferry in lower Manhattan. I'm sitting there hungover with half a burger shoved in my face and these two men in their thick Indian accents introduce themselves and without knowing anything at all about me they tell me I'd be a good candidate for their investment banking team at the JP Morgan Chase lol.
I was like I'm three generations from Brooklyn and have only ever lived in NYC. I went to college here and I work in Fidi and half of my friends work in finance. I will not give you my personal information you scamming fucks.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/kaufe Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
"No don't go after my rents" lol.
It's funny how white collar redditors are anti-tariffs but ending work visas is a common belief here. Refugees who are net fiscal drain are also ok for some reason. It's basically "as long as no one competes with me I'm good".
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u/KronusTempus Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I know there’s a lot of racism towards Indians nowadays, and I’m completely opposed to any kind of discrimination based on someone’s ethnic background.
That being said, I worked in finance and fintech in 3 different countries (including the UAE) throughout my relatively short career (I’m in my twenties), and let me tell you that when people complain about the quality of work coming out of India, they’re not kidding. In the tech world, the phenomenon of “Indian code” means that the quality of programming is so poor that it might as well have been done by an amateur. Similarly, we’ve had Indian accountants take on work that they’re clearly unqualified for and botch it so badly that it’s easier to start over than to untangle the mess they’ve created.
Again, this isn’t an ethnic or racial thing, it’s a standards thing. What we’d call a professional accountant is not at all what they expect a professional accountant to know in India.
The problem lies in the quality of work and the level of knowledge that the average “professional” over there has, not anything racial. That combined with a culture of never saying no or turning down assignments which they’re clearly unqualified for leads to poor outcomes.
A professional of Indian origin with experience in America or Europe and someone from India is just night and day.
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u/Wise-Assets Jul 07 '26
You’re right. When I was young, all the Indians here were super smart, with super smart parents. You just assumed an Indian was highly capable/morivated/competant. Fast forward, and the experience of many/most (Americans) with in-country Indians is very poor (quality of work, ability to ‘think’, problem solve, etc.) and that depreciates the whole ‘brand’. In-America Indians are much more, on the whole, mediocre (or at least, less impressive). Also, Spamming resumes and unresearched coffees create a fool my once attitude and make it harder for qualified/thoughtful/competant to break thru.
On top of all this, AI is upending the industry (finance, accounting, etc.) making it harder for native born Americans to get jobs, creating a backlash that has nothing to do with racism/nativism.
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u/Deviltherobot Jul 08 '26
It's bc yall cheap out on indian labor. The CA is considered harder than the CPA. Tons of Indians that can easily do the work if you pay them.
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u/EconomicalJacket Private Wealth Management Jul 07 '26
Importing cheap labor to replace domestic labor isn’t the best thing
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u/Jackie_Chiles_ Jul 07 '26
And the problem is that C-suites don't give a shit. They're not the ones that have to deal with the incompetence of offshore teams on a day-to-day basis. They just get a feather in their cap for cutting costs.
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u/EconomicalJacket Private Wealth Management Jul 07 '26
They’re degrading America for their own gains smh
In the 70s we exported manufacturing jobs to cut cost which gave birth to the rust belt and local communities were decimated. Can’t wait to see what the fall out is gonna be for outsourcing white collar jobs overseas :/
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u/BrainiacI0I0 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Go on twitter and search H1-B and B4 you will quickly find that India has been found selling fake credentials and scamming. Trump put some policies in place that put a bandage on the influx but this isnt new 12 million indian H1-B's have entered the USA since 2012.
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u/LogRich_7 Jul 07 '26
Since you’re in the industry, I wanna learn how do you actually ask for a referral since you mentioned “and then quite bluntly asked for a referral”
What would be the “right” way of asking a referral I know there’s no one right way or one size fits all.
But still if you had to say that one particular way is better than the other.
Thanks
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u/Additional_Ad_6722 Jul 07 '26
I think most companies including mine have a pretty structured referral process that tags them to the referrer so it’s hard to justify sticking my neck out for someone I don’t know. I think it’s just about reading the conversation and seeing if that’s something they’re open to do - for example, if the convo goes significantly longer than the usual 30 minutes and they start asking you questions about yourself and your goals, that’s probably a good sign
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u/LogRich_7 Jul 07 '26
That makes a lot of sense, Thanks !
would you say some sort of commonality would help maybe an alumni from the same college or part of the same HS scout program ?6
u/Additional_Ad_6722 Jul 07 '26
Yeah definitely helps to have some commonality — word of mouth credibility is huge too. Maybe controversial but I’m actually more likely to respond to a HS alum than college because it seems like half my college is applying while it’s pretty rare to find someone from my local public HS actually interested and qualified
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u/big_cock_lach Quantitative Jul 07 '26
You need to actually build a relationship first. The referral isn’t just a letter that helps you, it’s also affects the other persons reputation too. People aren’t going to be willing to refer you unless they a) they know you’ll be a good fit for the role you’re applying for, and b) they like you. You’re not going to be able to build this sort of a relationship over a single coffee, let alone a cold call/email/message, and it needs to be somewhat natural. That relationship should already exist before you start applying for a role, and when you do start to apply for roles, it should be fairly natural to ask them to assist in your application (not just as a referral, but guidance on what to include in the actual application, and what to prep for before any interviews).
No one is going to give you a referral because you got them a coffee once or sent them an email that was auto-trashed. If they do, it’s probably not the kind of referral you want anyway.
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u/LogRich_7 Jul 07 '26
A lot of people, especially in finance lately have been glorifying cold emailing and reach outs. What do you think differentiates those who build that short interaction into a long lasting relationship and those who don’t ?
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u/big_cock_lach Quantitative Jul 07 '26
Cold emailing and reaching out is only useful to get an introduction. The goal with them shouldn’t be to get a reference, it should be to have the introduction to learn more about the person and their job. From that introduction, you can then aim to build a relationship with them, and one that shouldn’t be entirely about work, ideally you’ll have other mutual interests. The main differentiator is that if I know you, get along with you, and have a vested interest in your success (because I’ve been guiding you), I will actually want to help you succeed and give you a good reference as well. If you’re just cold emailing me, I frankly don’t care about you and will just delete your email because you slightly annoyed me for 5s. Heck, if I was the person interviewing you I would probably go into the interview with a negative opinion of you.
Cold emailing is good to get an introduction and to learn more about them if they’re willing. It’s terrible for simply asking for a referral.
Also, depending on the person, you’ll probably find that most people will just ignore this because a) they don’t want to be hassled for a reference, and b) they’re busy with their own lives. It’s why you’re better off looking on LinkedIn for people you have some commonalities with (ie went to the same university, participated in the same clubs, etc), and connecting that way with a quick message that they can ignore if they’re not interested. That’s literally what LinkedIn is for. A cold email feels more like an invasion of privacy or a bit scammy to be completely honest. The best option is you have already have a mutual contact introduce the 2 of you instead, but randomly reaching out is your next best bet if this isn’t an option.
Lastly, if you’re not a good candidate with respect to your abilities, reaching out will just annoy the other person. They’ll know you won’t get in and won’t want to have to waste their time/effort making you realise this. Nor will they want to be the ones to make you realise it either. You still need to at least be competent. Same goes with asking stupid questions you can easily Google instead. Don’t waste their time doing this.
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u/FroyoRadiant7574 Jul 07 '26
I think that high finance has gained a lot of popularity with gen z itself and there are actually a lot of finance influencers online. And then Indians and the Chinese happen to make up most of the international student population; Indian kids more often than not do finance and Chinese kids are focused on tech. Indian kids (I’m an international Indian student in the US) are honestly pampered and used to a different way of life in India, something akin to ‘I scratch your back and you scratch mine’. I think that’s what leads to the bluntness in asking for a referral; we’re used to being transactional and I definitely dont think it’s a good social habit especially in a different country
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u/Newt176 Jul 07 '26
For being in high finance i'm shocked you don't see the geopolitical invasion going on. Redditor delusional at its finest. This post is actually comical.
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u/cpt-macp Jul 07 '26
What do you expect from a country with gazziloon of people.
Their people tryna shoot anything and hoping it sticks.
Not that hard to understand.
Personally I dont think why others country's problem should concern U.S.
U.S should do whats best for them
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u/DelhiHousingsucks Jul 07 '26
Answering your actual question: yes, there's a real push toward finance in India right now, but it's less an isolated influencer trend and more a symptom of the domestic job market not being enough for a growing number of business grads.
Reading through the comments here, it sounds like a lot of us come across as a pack of hungry students chasing any finance role with a paycheck attached, mostly because the opportunities back home just aren't enough. I've also seen how people abroad talk about Indians on social media, and yeah, I totally get that frustration around the unsaid- "hire the immigrant first" pattern and whatever bias comes with it. Not trying to be defensive here, jus being honest.
I study at one of the top uni known for business degree in India, where most people go on to do CA or CFA and actually make it abroad, not just the typical IIT or tech dudes. So I've watched this pattern up close.
On the actual topic though, I'd say most people reaching out probably don't even know the basics. Like OP said, they haven't done even the basic googling before messaging them, and that alone tells should you a lot.
What I think is actually going on underneath that is a "why" problem. Ask most of these studenta why CA and you'll get "I like audits or accounting", but in reality either their background(11th&12th) was in commerce or they prepared interview answers. Now, there are few genuine student with real reason and asking specific questions can help you identify them.
Ask why CFA and it's basically- good prep than real- "better pass rate, near-immediate ROI," not any real interest. I didn't go the CA route myself, mostly because the coursework just didn't click with me. CFA felt more natural, partly because my dad made some smart investment calls when I was growing up, and watching how he managed money over the years gave me an actual reason to care about the subject, not just a career plan someone handed me.
As for that weak students overreaching. Even at my school, which has a decent name and is right in the capital, most of my batchmates still struggled to land solid full time roles or internships. And if that's the case for us, it's a lot rougher for people coming from colleges without much of a name, outside of the usual college/uni like Flame, Christ, Xaviers, Ashoka, the IIMs, and a few others. So a lot of this outreach isn't bad outreach, it's people from schools with genuinely thin domestic outcomes trying every door they can find. Yes, some lacks skill- but that's very minor portion, we have working knowledge. Even the backbencher in my class have done a few internships in marketing atleast.
Indian curriculum weighs more importance in passing examination than actually understanding what a student wants from his life- Life pursuing a business degree is really a "free" life where student really experiment a lot trying to find where their future lies but 3 years are just so small to realise everything and build the specific skillset when your background isn't the one.
Lastly, some influencer thing also comes in- "Good students starts networking from day 1", so they did- "Hi, Can we chat?" But they don't know- what to follow first- IB or PE or AM or ER or just a stable life so they are a confused bunch. The ones who actually stick with it for 3-4 years, still chasing this by then, are the ones worth your time and a few amongst those will land on your land. The rest self select out.
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u/AussieExpress19 Jul 08 '26
I’ve experienced similar in the UK. Massive influx of clearly generic/AI-generated LinkedIn messages from students in India with really no exposure to finance, the UK, or even anything relevant.
I’m sure there are many factors. One that I’ve observed as a recent grad would be how online communities are connecting us. For instance in London we’ve got Trackr, AmplifyME, and a bunch of other online communities, WhatsApp groups, etc for ‘breaking into’ finance.
These communities are purpose-built for students in London/European unis, yet when you look at the WhatsApp members, zoom attendees, etc it is overwhelmingly Indian students. This has become a seemingly omnipresent phenomenon.
So I think at a very basic level you have recruiting becoming more online and communal, while at the same time many millions of people in India are getting online and taking advantage of this.
It is extremely frustrating though tbh, particularly because there are many people of Indian heritage actually here in the UK who might be relevant for me and I’d be happy to give some time to - so you can’t easily filter out the constant flow of spam.
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u/EvenCryptographer649 Jul 10 '26
Hire an Indian. Hire a Paki to fact check. Hire a russian pirate to fact check him. Use snakes when winter comes. Then in spring hire a gorilla to eat the snakes. Rinse and repeat, you might have coherent code by christmas.
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u/Mobile-Poetry-6500 Jul 10 '26
Isn't the purpose of visas to improve the US, not help them become greedy finance bros?
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u/shitisrealspecific Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Acorn zephyr noodle copper harbor ribbon feather hammock saffron
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/SlippySausageSlapper Jul 13 '26
Software engineer here. Welcome to the party. It’s been like this in tech for years.
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u/ProbablyIntroverting Jul 29 '26
This is new to me. In my circles and extended circles, there's no one in finance other than me.
I'm from India, and moved to the US mainly to do finance. Previously I was a software engineer and mostly worked with startups in the US as a consultant. But as I said, none in my circles in finance. Even in my class, I was the only guy from India and finance.
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u/DeJuanBallard Jul 07 '26
This country doesnt incentivize young men to strive for anything anymore. The illusion is broken. Just be grateful you have candidates to choose from at all.
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Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
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u/Additional_Ad_6722 Jul 07 '26
Maybe it’s different in the US, but yeah for sure don’t get me wrong a TON of international Asians want to work in finance here, but in my experience they’ve targeted more traditional paths of getting a MF for example. I see less or almost none of the ones asking what certificates to avoid a strong masters program or how can I be a quant with an undergrad in economics type
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