Varun Modgill
Managing Director, Cognavi India
Varun Modgill is Managing Director of Cognavi India, where he leads the skills-first hiring platform connecting engineering graduates, universities and enterprises across India and Japan. He writes on campus hiring, skills-based assessment and the graduate talent market.
How to Choose Graduate Recruitment Software: Six Questions That Separate Fair Hiring from Fast Hiring
India admitted 12.53 lakh BTech students in 2024–25, an eight-year high, according to AICTE. Yet centrally funded institutes like IITs, NITs, and IIITs offered roughly 67,000 seats in 2026. More than nine in ten engineering students study somewhere else.
Your ATS Still Works. Its Screening Layer Doesn't.
Your ATS isn't broken, but the screening layer above it is. For thirty years those filters measured the effort behind a resume, not the ability behind the candidate. Generative AI made that effort free, and the proxy collapsed with it.
Everyone Looks Qualified Now. That's the Problem.
A resume used to be hard to write, and that effort was its core value. AI removed the effort, the document survived, and the signal died. Only evidence generated inside your hiring process still separates talent.
Japan Needs Engineers. India Has Them. The Corridor Is Opening.
Japan's population aged 65 or older hit 29% in 2023 and its Tankan employment index sits at minus 35, while India graduates more than a million engineers a year. One country has the roles and not the people; the other has the people and not enough roles.
Where the Paper Trail Ends and Proof Begins
A resume is a claim, not evidence. It lists where candidates sat and what they say they did, forcing recruiters to infer true capability from a page of self-reported text. Skills-based evaluation inverts that model by measuring what candidates can demonstrate.
Your ATS Is Hiding Your Best Engineers
India graduates 1.5 million engineers a year, yet 82% of employers struggle to find the right talent. Ironically, only 1 in 6 engineering graduates gets hired, even though most test as job-ready. This is a matching failure, not a talent shortage, and conventional hiring tools are the cause.
The Future of Campus Hiring: What’s Next for Recruiters & Universities?
Imagine campus hiring as a thrilling movie series. Each sequel gets more intriguing, driven by unexpected plot twists, innovative characters, and advanced technologies. The current chapter of campus recruitment is exactly that—exciting, unpredictable, and full of possibilities. Recruiters and universities need to buckle up, adapt quickly, and embrace this journey to stay ahead.
How Smart Screening Can Save Recruiters Time and Effort
Recruitment, at its core, is about finding the right talent at the right time. But as any recruiter will tell you, the process of getting there is anything but straightforward. Particularly in the context of fresher hiring, where a single job posting can attract hundreds—if not thousands—of applications, the burden of screening becomes one of the most time-consuming and resource-draining aspects of the entire process.
The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Recruitment: Why EQ Matters for Freshers and Recruiters
Each year, India's universities produce millions of graduates ready to enter the workforce—armed with degrees, technical certifications, and an eagerness to prove themselves. For recruiters, the challenge isn’t a lack of talent. It’s that, more often than not, everyone looks equally qualified on paper.
Fresh Talent, Proven Potential: A Smarter Hiring Formula
In today’s dynamic job market, hiring fresh graduates can be a challenging task for recruiters. The traditional hiring process often falls short in evaluating a candidate’s true potential, leading to high attrition rates and mismatched expectations. The Internship-to-Full-Time (I2FT) model is emerging as a game-changer, allowing companies to assess candidates in a real-world environment before making a full-time offer.
Upskilling and Reskilling: How Freshers Can Stay Ahead in a Fast-Changing Job Market
The job market is evolving faster than ever. Technology, automation, and shifting industry needs mean that what was relevant yesterday might not be enough tomorrow. For fresh graduates, stepping into this landscape can feel overwhelming.
Why Is Attrition Higher Among Freshers? Unveiling the Real Reason Behind Early Exits
The fresh wave of talent entering the workforce brings enthusiasm, innovation, and a hunger to learn. However, this excitement often fades quickly, leading to a high attrition rate among freshers. Studies suggest that the attrition rate for freshers in various industries can range from 30% to 50% within the first year.
US Trade Policies, Tariff Wars & Their Impact on Global Economies, Freshers & Recruiters
US trade policies play a crucial role in shaping global markets, affecting businesses, economies, and job seekers alike. Recent tariff wars on commodities like steel, aluminum, and semiconductors have created ripples across industries, influencing recruitment trends and job prospects for freshers.
RBI’s Inflation Policy: Impact on the Corporate Sector and Job Creation
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) controls inflation through monetary policy, primarily adjusting the repo rate—the rate at which it...
The New Education Policy & Mandatory Internships: A Game-Changer for Industry & Fresh Talent
The integration of internships is expected to significantly improve the employability of graduates. According to the India Skill Report...
Benefits of Hiring Freshers: Insights from Japan and Navigating...
Japanese firms treat fresh graduate intake as a long-term capability strategy rather than a cheap way to fill entry-level seats. What Indian companies can borrow from that model, and what it changes about how freshers are assessed, onboarded and retained.
Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring: Building a Stronger Workforce
Companies with diverse management teams generate 19% higher revenue from innovation, BCG found. The distance between believing that and hiring that way is process: where bias enters a shortlist, and what skills-first screening changes about it.