The Domain Surge: Why India’s IT Giants Are Prioritizing Specialists Over Freshers in the 2025 Hiring Cycle
India’s top IT firms are shifting focus from campus hiring to domain-specific talent. This deep dive unpacks the trends driving the demand for specialists, education gaps, and the future of upskilling.
NewsSutra
India’s information technology sector, long celebrated for its mass hiring of engineering graduates fresh out of college, is undergoing a quiet but dramatic recalibration. In 2025, a telling trend has emerged across top IT firms: a visible slowdown in fresher recruitment, replaced instead by an aggressive hunt for domain-specific professionals.
This shift, powered by changes in global tech demands, AI-led transformations, and client expectations, is not merely cyclical. It signals a structural evolution in how India’s $245 billion IT industry will manage its talent pipeline in the coming decade.
The Numbers Behind the Pivot
Top-tier IT services firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech have all reported a marked reduction in campus intakes in FY24–25. While TCS hired over 40,000 freshers in 2022, the number has dropped below 10,000 in 2025, with a strategic focus on laterals and domain hires.
Similarly, Wipro has launched internal reallocation programs, while Infosys is increasingly turning to industry-certified professionals instead of greenhorn engineers. Even tech-focused multinationals such as Accenture India and Capgemini have reported a double-digit rise in hiring professionals with cybersecurity, ERP, AI/ML, and cloud migration experience.
“The age of hiring for bench strength is over. Clients today demand contextual understanding, not just coding ability,” said a senior VP at Infosys.
Source: NASSCOM Tech Hiring Outlook 2025
Why Domain Specialists Trump Freshers in 2025
1. Enterprise Clients Now Demand Deep Expertise
Indian IT services firms no longer serve as mere technology enablers—they are now strategic digital partners. With projects increasingly centered around verticalized digital transformation, companies are looking for talent that can speak both technology and business fluently.
A developer with banking domain experience, for instance, can implement fintech platforms faster and with fewer client iterations than a fresher who must first understand core banking logic.
2. Shift Toward Product and Platform Models
As IT giants move beyond services to build proprietary platforms—be it Infosys Cobalt, TCS MasterCraft, or LTIMindtree Canvas—they require talent skilled in full-stack development, DevSecOps, and cloud-native architectures, not entry-level coders.
View Infosys Cobalt’s growing platform ecosystem:
https://www.infosys.com/services/cloud/infosys-cobalt.html
3. AI, Cybersecurity, and Cloud: Skill Gaps Exposed
The accelerated adoption of AI tools, zero-trust cybersecurity models, and multi-cloud environments post-pandemic has widened the skills-to-need gap. According to a 2025 report by Gartner, over 67% of global tech managers cite “lack of skilled professionals” as the biggest roadblock to transformation projects.
Fresher engineers, despite academic familiarity, lack practical exposure to these rapidly evolving domains—driving firms to upskill internally or hire laterally.
The Education Gap: Where Academia Is Falling Short
India produces over 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, but fewer than 35% are employable in emerging tech, according to the India Skills Report 2025 by Wheebox.
Issues Plaguing Engineering Education:
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Outdated curriculum not aligned with industry needs
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Poor emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and domain knowledge
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Lack of hands-on project work, especially in real-world AI, cybersecurity, or IoT implementations
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Low engagement with industry certifications during college years
This has forced companies to reduce reliance on campus recruitment, shifting instead to finishing schools, bootcamps, and specialist networks.
"Hiring freshers and training them for six months is a cost we can’t justify when a certified cloud engineer is job-ready in 2 weeks," said a senior HR executive at HCLTech.
Upskilling and Reskilling: The New Corporate Imperative
Rather than wait for educational reforms, IT companies are taking training into their own hands.
Corporate Upskilling Initiatives:
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TCS Elevate: A platform to transform associates into domain consultants in BFSI, retail, healthcare
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Wipro’s TalentNext: Focuses on next-gen tech like blockchain, quantum computing
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Infosys Lex: Now hosts interactive sandboxes for real-time learning in cloud and AI use cases
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HCLTech’s TechBee: Offers job-linked training to 12th pass students for early deployment
These programs don’t just address skill gaps—they future-proof workforces, reduce attrition, and align talent with business goals.
Freshers Not Entirely Out of the Picture
While hiring emphasis is shifting, freshers are not being abandoned entirely. Instead, companies are raising the entry bar, expecting candidates to come with industry certifications, GitHub portfolios, or even startup internships.
Some top-tier engineering colleges are adapting quickly:
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IIT Hyderabad has launched a BS in AI and Data Science
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BITS Pilani collaborates with Coursera and IBM to offer certifications in cloud security
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Manipal Institute of Technology integrates case-study-based problem solving into computer science
Additionally, government programs like FutureSkills Prime, backed by MeitY and NASSCOM, are helping students build job-ready tech skills, with over 1 million enrollments in 2024–25.
Sector-Wise Snapshot: Where Domain Talent Is in Demand
| Sector | In-Demand Roles | Hiring Trend |
|---|---|---|
| BFSI | Cloud migration specialists, Data governance leads | Rising |
| Healthcare | AI imaging analysts, HL7 integrators | Stable |
| Retail | Omni-channel developers, personalization AI | Increasing |
| Manufacturing | Industrial IoT (IIoT) experts, digital twin modellers | Surging |
| Cybersecurity | Zero-trust architects, penetration testers | Soaring |
These are not entry-level roles, requiring 3–7 years of experience and, increasingly, domain certifications or cross-functional knowledge.
The Freelance and Gig Component
Another disruptor to fresher hiring is the rise of the gig tech economy. Platforms like Turing.com, Upwork, and Topcoder are enabling domain specialists to take on project-based contracts for global clients, often at better pay and flexibility than full-time fresher roles.
According to NITI Aayog's gig economy white paper, the tech gig workforce in India will reach 25 million by 2030, further shrinking the space for low-skilled, entry-level hires.
Conclusion: What This Means for India’s IT Ecosystem
India’s IT hiring landscape is entering a new maturity phase—one that rewards depth over breadth, and domain fluency over generic aptitude.
For jobseekers, it means building specialized portfolios and investing in certifications like AWS, Azure, CISSP, or TensorFlow.
For universities, it’s a call to bridge academia and industry with real-world exposure.
For companies, this shift ensures they remain globally competitive, future-ready, and client-focused.
The move from mass hiring to domain targeting is not a crisis—it’s a course correction, positioning India’s tech sector to lead, not follow, the next digital revolution.
