How to get hired
Internships in India fall into four kinds. Knowing which one you are applying to tells you what the selection looks like and what you should expect to be paid.
Short internships during college
Six to twelve weeks, usually in the summer or winter break, often needed for your course credit. Startups, small firms, CA and law firms, NGOs and marketing agencies take most of these students. Selection is light: a short call, sometimes a small assignment. The way to stand out is to attach a work sample to your application instead of a cover letter: three social media post ideas for a marketing role, a cleaned-up Excel sheet for a finance role, a two-page bug report for a testing role. Ask for a written offer that states the dates, the stipend (even if it is zero) and the name of your supervisor.
Long paid internships for final-year students and graduates
Many companies now run five-to-six-month internships with a stipend, and some convert interns into full-time hires. Titles you will see: "HR Intern", "Marketing Intern", "Business Development Intern", "Analyst Intern", "Loan Advisor Trainee". Treat the interview like a job interview, because the company is often hiring for a full-time seat at the end. Ask how many interns from the last batch were offered jobs. If a "sales intern" role is mostly cold calling against a target, ask whether the stipend is fixed or depends on the target.
PM Internship Scheme
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs' PM Internship Scheme places young people in paid internships with large companies. In April 2026 it was opened to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18 to 25, who must upload a no-objection certificate from their college (signed by the head of department, principal, dean or placement officer) confirming the internship won't clash with exams. Reports of the revised scheme put the stipend at a minimum of ₹9,000 a month. Applicants from families with a government employee or a family income above the limit, and graduates of IITs, IIMs and similar institutions or holders of professional qualifications such as CA, were excluded under the earlier rules. Read the current eligibility, duration and stipend on the PMIS portal before applying, because the pilot's rules have changed more than once.
Government and PSU internships
Oil companies, banks, research institutes and ministries take interns, some through PMIS and some through their own notices on their websites. These usually have fixed eligibility (course, year, marks), fixed windows and sometimes a short written application on why you want the posting. Stipends vary from nothing to a reasonable monthly amount; the notice states it.
Internship or apprenticeship?
After graduation, a NATS graduate apprenticeship is often the better deal: it runs for up to a year, the stipend has a legal minimum, and you get a national certificate. An internship's stipend is whatever the company offers. If you have already graduated and want a year of paid training, register on the NATS portal as well.
Red flags in internship offers
- You pay to intern. "Registration fee", "training kit", "certificate charge" or "refundable deposit". A real internship never charges you. Online "virtual internships" that are really paid courses with a certificate at the end are courses, and recruiters read them that way.
- No work, only recruitment. If your task is to sign up other students or sell the same programme you joined, it is a sales scheme.
- Unpaid and full-time for months. A short unpaid stint at an NGO or a small firm can be fair if you learn something real. Six months of full-time unpaid work for a profitable company is not.
- No written offer. Ask for a letter with the company's name, dates, stipend and supervisor. Paste anything doubtful into our job check tool.