We Stopped Hiring Just for Skill. We Started Hiring for Mindset.
A few years ago, hiring engineers for AI work felt straightforward:
Check for coding skills. Look for math-heavy backgrounds. Maybe sprinkle in a few Kaggle competitions for flair. Done.
But somewhere along the way, it stopped being enough.
Today, building effective AI teams isn’t just about who can code a model.
It’s about who can shape it—with judgment, humility, and creativity.
And that shift hit us hardest in India—because that’s where we’re placing some of our boldest AI bets right now.
Why India, and Why Now?
The short answer: Grit meets scale.
India’s engineering ecosystem is built on solving real-world problems with limited resources.
That’s exactly the mindset AI needs right now.
We don’t need perfectionists who want every model to hit 99.99% accuracy before testing.
We need builders who can ship something rough, observe where it breaks, and iterate—fast.
The ones who understand that no model is “done”—only deployed, learned from, and improved.
And honestly, I see more of that builder DNA right now in Indian AI engineers than anywhere else.
What We Look for Now (That We Didn’t Before)
✅ Adaptability over credentials
Show me you built something messy but working.
Not just that you aced an ML certification.
✅ Understanding human problems, not just technical ones
If you can’t explain why your recommendation engine matters to a rural merchant—or to a stressed-out customer service rep—you’re building in a vacuum.
✅ Bias for experimentation
We don’t want a team that waits six months to ship “the perfect” solution.
We want a team that ships six experiments in six weeks—and learns from all of them.
✅ Value awareness
We’re not just optimizing metrics.
We’re shaping experiences that touch real people.
Ethics isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the architecture.
What’s Different About Hiring AI Teams in India?
In traditional hiring, you could screen for neatness—perfect resumes, perfect project plans.
In AI hiring today, we’re screening for people who are messy enough to move fast—but thoughtful enough to care about what they build.
India gives us access to people who learned to do more with less—and who know that in AI, the hard part isn’t building the model.
It’s building the right one—and fixing it when the world moves faster than the training set.
The Future Won’t Be Built by the “Top of Class.” It’ll Be Built by the Curious.
AI is moving too fast for traditional playbooks.
The future will belong to the people who ask better questions, not just write better code.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned:
Give a curious, gritty builder the right space—and you’ll get innovation you never thought to ask for.
That’s why we’re hiring differently.
Not just because AI demands it.
But because the future we want depends on it.
Regards,
Rupesh
P.S.
If you’re building, tinkering, questioning, experimenting—and not waiting for “perfect”—we want to hear from you. Titles can wait. Curiosity can’t.
Cloverbites By Rupesh Sanghavi 
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