‘The job scene in IT is bad,’ Sridhar Vembu says taking loans for US degrees is 'unwise'

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu said that Indian students are falling into a debt trap to gain U.S. degrees that may never pay off.

Vembu shared on X about a “distress call” from an Indian student who borrowed ₹70 lakh (around $80,000) at 12% interest to pursue a master’s degree at a small U.S. college.

Sridhar Vembu calls out the education system

“The job scene in IT is bad, especially so for foreign students,” he wrote. “Payments on the loan are starting soon.”

“I urge students and parents to be cautious in borrowing heavily to pursue degrees abroad,” Vembu said, adding that even borrowing for degrees in India is “unwise.”

As the U.S. IT job market is slowing down and companies are restricting hiring, especially for international candidates on H-1B visas, thousands of Indian students are falling trapped in massive loans.

Job scene is not good in IT sector

The situation is getting intense due to a global tech transition driven by AI.

“We have not been hiring much as we transform ourselves for the AI era,” Vembu said of Zoho, citing his company’s policy against layoffs as a reason for the hiring freeze.

“I strongly believe we should not trap young people in debt in the name of education,” he said.

“The only smart course is for prospective employers to fund training programs and for the industry to broadly accept such alternative credentials rather than ask for formal degrees,” he added.

With U.S. tech giants cutting jobs and immigration pathways narrowing, the ROI on an expensive foreign degree has never been more uncertain. The promise of a better future is, for many, turning into a debt spiral.

“The best investment we make as a company is in training and skill development,” Vembu concluded. “I hope companies do this widely so we don’t strand young people in debt.”

A recent distress call: a student has taken about ₹70L ($80K) debt at 12% to get a master's degree in a small college in the US.

The problem: the job scene in IT is bad, especially so for foreign students and payments on the loan are starting soon.

I don't know what we could…

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) August 4, 2025

Also read: Harsh Goenka slams Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia for ‘lecturing’ a billion Indians from California (startuppedia.in)