The Hiring Funnel in India, By the Numbers: What "Good" Actually Looks Like

I've been running TopHire for over 7 years, and we've placed 2,500+ engineers across 800+ companies. This is the post I wish had existed when I started recruiting. Every stage of the funnel, real conversion rates, and where things often break.

The funnel overview

Sourcing → Screening → First round → Second round → Final round → Offer → Acceptance → Joining. At each stage, you lose people. The question is how many, and why.

Stage 1: Sourcing

Job postings (Naukri, LinkedIn, AngelList)

High volume, low quality. A LinkedIn post for a senior backend engineer might get 200–400 applications. Of those, maybe 10–15% are actually qualified.

Employee referrals

Lower volume, higher quality. Typically yields 5–15 candidates per role, with 40–60% worth screening. The best hire-to-referral ratio I've seen: about 1 hire per 4 referrals.

Recruitment agencies

We typically share 8–15 candidates per role. Our pass-through rate to the first interview is 60–70%. The advantage is that someone has already screened them before they reach your pipeline.

Direct sourcing (headhunting)

Response rates are abysmal — 5–15% for cold outreach, 20–30% if the message is personalised. You might need to message 100 people to get 10–15 conversations.

Stage 2: Screening

• 20–30% filtered out for skills mismatch

• 10–15% filtered out for salary mismatch

• 5–10% drop out because they've already accepted another offer

• 50–60% pass screening and move to the first interview

Stage 3: First round (technical screen)

Pass rate: 30–50% of candidates who attempt. Drop-off: 15–25% don't show up or don't complete. Of 100 candidates who enter this stage, roughly 25–40 move forward.

Stage 4: Second round (system design)

Pass rate: 40–60%. Drop-off: 5–10% don't show. This is where title inflation from service companies becomes apparent.

Stage 5: Final round

Pass rate: 60–80%. Rejections here are usually about communication style or leadership alignment. Drop-off: 5–10%.

Stage 6: Offer

Offer acceptance rate: 60–75%. Companies that make offers within 48 hours of the final round have a 10–15% higher acceptance rate than those that take a week or more.

Stage 7: Joining

Join rate: 80–90%. The 10–20% who don't join are the counteroffers, the cold feet, and the better-late-than-never offers from other companies.

To make 1 hire, you typically need

• 1.4–1.7 offers made

• 2–3 final round candidates

• 4–6 second round candidates

• 8–15 first-round candidates

• 15–25 screened candidates

• 50–200 sourced candidates (depending on channel)

The benchmark numbers

• Time from first interview to offer: under 10 business days

• First round pass rate: 35–50%

• Overall funnel conversion (screened to joined): 8–12%

• Offer acceptance rate: 70%+

• Join rate (post-acceptance): 85%+