In a candid Reddit post that's struck a chord with aspiring tech professionals, an Indian FinTech Product Manager has thrown in the towel on his quest for a role at Google India, lamenting the "impossible" odds despite a stellar resume and exhaustive efforts.
The anonymous poster, who boasts 4.5 years of experience as a Product Manager, a Tier 1 MBA, a Tier 2 engineering degree, and a thriving YouTube channel with 100,000 subscribers, detailed his frustrations in the r/developersIndia subreddit. Titled "It seems impossible to get into Google. Giving up!", the post, shared just days ago, has garnered hundreds of upvotes and ignited a flurry of responses ranging from empathy to tough-love advice.
Over the last 3-4 months, the Indian techie applied to at least eight Product Manager openings at Google, tailoring his ATS-optimised CV and crafting custom cover letters for each. He went further, creating role-specific mockups and strategy documents to demonstrate his initiative, and fired off around 40 outreach messages via email, LinkedIn, and even WhatsApp to hiring managers. Despite securing referrals from friends already inside the company, every attempt ended in silence or outright rejection.
"What else needs to be done to get into Google? What am I doing wrong? Or is the competition that bad?" the post concludes, capturing the exasperation of many in India's cutthroat tech job market.
The thread quickly divided opinions among Redditors, blending sympathy with stark realities of Big Tech hiring. One top comment, with over 1,000 upvotes, speculated that the poster's visible YouTube fame might backfire, "Google might think you're desperate to increase YouTube followers," potentially raising red flags about divided loyalties. Another highly upvoted reply injected humor, "As I started reading, the first words were over 3 to 4 months. I laughed... People keep trying for 3 to 4 years to get into Google."
More pragmatic takes highlighted structural barriers. One User pointed to Google's lopsided PM-to-engineer ratios, where some teams lack PMs altogether, and the flood of resumes from FAANG alumni like Microsoft and Meta overwhelming filters. Another noted a common requirement, "Need at least 5 years of experience to be considered. It's literally mentioned in all of their openings."
The post's viral traction underscores broader anxieties in India's tech sector, where layoffs, visa hurdles, and AI-driven hiring tools have intensified competition for elite roles.
