Everyone wants a GCC job now, but the people already working inside them aren't so sure about their future there.
A new survey released this October shows that multinational global capability centres, known as GCCs, have become the top career choice for tech talent across India. The survey, called What Talent Wants 2026, was done by Talent500 and covered 2,000 technology, product, and data professionals. It found that 69% of them want a GCC job next, but current GCC workers actually feel less clear about their career growth than people in IT services or startups.
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Why GCCs became the top career choice for tech talent
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The numbers tell a clear story. Sixty-nine percent of respondents picked a multinational GCC as their first choice for their next career move. That puts GCCs way ahead of Indian product companies, which got 37%. IT services and outsourcing firms came in at 28%, and local or regional employers trailed at just 21%.
This isn't a small shift. Talent500 is part of ANSR, a firm that has helped build more than 200 GCCs in India. These centres used to be known mostly for back-office work. Now they run software engineering, product development, data science, cybersecurity, and even AI projects for their global parent companies. That change in what GCCs actually do seems to be pulling in workers from every corner of the tech industry. The survey found that 64% of IT-services employees, 72% of product-company employees, and 70% of startup employees all said they'd prefer to move to a GCC next.
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The AI skills gap nobody saw coming
Here's where things get interesting. Seventy-one percent of professionals surveyed said they want hands-on AI experience, meaning they want to actually build and deploy AI systems, not just sit through training videos. But only 29% said their current employer gives them that chance. That's a huge gap between what workers want and what companies are offering.
This mismatch showed up as the single biggest complaint in the entire report. People don't want theory anymore. They want real AI work on their resume, and most companies just aren't delivering it yet. For a workforce that's watching AI reshape every corner of tech, that gap could easily push more people to look elsewhere for better opportunities.
Career clarity problem hiding inside GCCs
This is the twist in the story. While GCCs are the most wanted destination, only 36% of people already working at GCCs said their career path felt very clear. Compare that to 50% in IT services and 51% in startups. So the very companies everyone wants to join are the ones where current employees feel most unsure about where their career is headed.
Across all respondents, only 46% described their overall career path as very clear. And this matters a lot to job seekers. Eighty-seven percent said a clearly defined career path was very important when picking an employer. Even more telling, 79% said they would walk away from a job application or turn down an offer if the growth path wasn't obvious. That's a huge number of people willing to say no simply because a company can't explain how someone moves up.
What draws people to GCCs despite the clarity gap
When people were asked specifically what they look for in a GCC job, career growth topped the list at 48%. The global parent brand came next at 41%, followed by India-centre leadership and culture at 36%, and exposure to AI and new technology at 33%.
So people are drawn in by the brand name and the promise of global projects, but the survey suggests many expect more proof before fully believing a GCC will actually deliver on growth. The survey also found a strong appetite for movement among senior professionals. Ninety-one percent of people with more than 12 years of experience said they'd consider switching jobs, compared to 72% of those with less than three years on the job. Senior tech workers aren't sitting still, and that puts even more pressure on employers to show, not just tell, how careers actually progress.
What this means for the future of India's tech job market
The big picture here is pretty simple. GCCs have won the popularity contest for now, but popularity alone won't keep people around. Companies will likely need to publish real career frameworks, clear up confusion between technical and managerial promotion tracks, and give employees actual hands-on AI projects instead of passive training.
If GCCs fail to close that gap between what they promise during hiring and what employees experience once inside, they risk losing the very advantage this survey just handed them. The data suggests the next battle for talent in India's tech sector won't just be about offering the biggest brand name. It'll be about proving, with real evidence, that a job at a GCC actually leads somewhere.
