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A fiery Reddit post claiming that "90% of India's engineering graduates can't code" has ignited a heated debate about the country's tech talent, startup hiring practices, and the expectations placed on fresh recruits.

The anonymous startup founder behind the post sparked backlash after admitting to frequently firing new hires within weeks, despite offering them substantial salary hikes.

Posted on the r/StartUpIndia subreddit, the thread is titled "India has 90% engineering graduates who can't code." The original poster, a startup founder, vented frustration about the lack of job readiness among fresh engineering hires, especially when transitioning from MNCs to high-pressure startup environments.

"I mean seriously, before joining a startup, how hard is it to think about the amount of pressure and skills required versus working in an MNC where you can get away with anything?" the founder wrote.

He claimed that many new employees join his startup, lured by better pay, but fail to deliver when the real work begins.

"Whenever I hire anyone, I tell them how much work and skills are required here. They are very excited because obviously they are getting a serious hike. But then after a week or 19 days, I end up firing them."

The post continued with a disclaimer that the firing wasn't personal.

"I never feel good about firing someone after they left a job to join my startup. But at the same time I can't be blamed, they are just not a good fit for us here.

They need to understand we are not building a hire and fire culture but it's them who are expecting to be paid big bucks while just working on Excel or using ChatGPT."