[firstfewshells]

Google enjoys a cult like status in people from a certain south asian country which idolizes "prestige" and also produces millions of software engineers a year. I don't think they will have any trouble recruiting people.

[b212]

But out of those millions how many are Google material or can be decent devs by western standards?

From my experience the working culture of India stays in direct opposition to the working culture of the US.

So even the best devs might be often not good enough due to cultural differences unless they’re naturalized or truly exceptional in one way or another (a few out of every 100k?).

[firstfewshells]

Google's "standard" till L4 is just leetcode. Average college students in that country are cramming 1000 leetcode questions. Even if 5% are decent, however you define decent to be, that's 50K engineers.

[bagacrap]

I agree the cultures are different and I think more Indian people are driven into the field of software who perhaps shouldn't be there based on natural inclinations, but I disagree strongly as to the degree to which this is an issue

[phendrenad2]

When people idolize things, they put that thing on a pedestal, and as soon as that thing slips up, they quickly abandon it. Google's first layoff probably isn't enough to damage its image, but if they don't keep that mystique and aura of prestige, they could find their fanbase drying up.

[John23832]

Unless they’re expecting to repatriate to that certain south asian country, they’re going to need to protect some reputation at home.