What happened
Internship or “Pay First, Opportunity Later”? Seriously? Today I received an internship email that genuinely made me question where the line between providing an opportunity and exploiting students is. I was offered a 3-month Remote + Unpaid Internship. Sounds good for a fresher, right? Not so fast. 👀 To complete the onboarding, students are being asked to pay ₹100/₹200 and even more for an ID Card. And the most concerning part? 👇 ❌ No payment → Onboarding will not be processed ❌ No payment → No access to internship tasks/projects ❌ No payment → Exclusion from the official internship batch ❌ No payment → Ineligibility for the internship certificate Seriously? Are you offering an internship or selling a membership plan? 💀 Freshers are already struggling to get their first opportunity. No experience → No job No job → No experience And now, in the name of internships, students are expected to pay first to prove that they deserve the opportunity? Let’s be clear: ₹100 or ₹200 may look like a small amount. But collecting even ₹100 from thousands of desperate students is NOT a small matter. The bigger question is: 👉 If the internship is genuinely about learning, experience and professional growth, why should a student be pressured to make a payment just to complete onboarding? Companies should understand that students are building their careers, not funding a business model. 📢 To companies: Please don't turn the desperation of freshers into a source of revenue. 📢 To students: Before paying for any internship, carefully verify the company, offer letter, payment requirement, official website, employees, reviews and the actual purpose of the fee. An internship should be about LEARNING & EXPERIENCE — not “PAY TO PROVE YOU DESERVE THE OPPORTUNITY.” I'm sharing this because I highly doubt I'm the only student receiving such an offer.
Why it seemed suspicious
Payment requests