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From Jan to June, MCA/MCS students in Pune colleges are expected to do an internship with a company for getting industry experience. I am hoping to get a couple of student interns for my company, and I'm sure many others are in the same situation. I would like to get a feel from people who have done this before as to what is an appropriate stipend to pay the students during this period.

On the one hand, I would like to pay the student an amount that is commensurate with his education and efforts. There are some sad, sad companies that actually make the student pay for the privilege of doing an internship with them. That is descpicable. There are others who are upfront about saying that they'll not pay a stipend because the student is learning from them. I think that is fair in cases where the student is getting non-trivial training. And of course, there are companies that pay a handsome stipend.

On the other hand, I don't want to waste money. For the first month or two, (and in many cases, 3 months) the student is unproductive, since he really doesn't know anything well enough to be useful, and spends most of his time just learning the ropes. Only after that does he start being an asset to the company. Also, it is quite common for students to disappear after a couple of months - so if you were hoping that the stipend that was wasted in the first few months will pay off in the last few months - well, it is possible that will not happen.

And, finally, there's the issue that small startups cannot really afford to burn money. Even single-digit thousand rupees a month adds up, when it's for many months and many students.

What is your experience? What are your suggestions?

(Please note: this is not for B.E. students. This is specifically for MCA/MCS/MCM students who are still doing their degree, and are doing the internship in the last semester of their degree.)

asked 05 Jan '10, 05:15

Navin%20Kabra's gravatar image

Navin Kabra ♦♦
1.6k71421
accept rate: 12%


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I think student should at least get stipend to cope up with their exepenses for working with your company. If they wont get at least this much, they will not even put 50% of their efforts at work. Thus this is good for corporate people as well.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 17:27

Priya's gravatar image

Priya
111
accept rate: 0%

  1. Regarding running away of interns - To be frank I always and always blame this on the management. Either hiring process was not good or the orientation was not good. In startup not just for interns but for full timers as well, there has to be continous orientation if the person is not from startup background. This is one of the reasons why you see Experience with Startup is preferred on many startup careers page. But when you hire some one in what ever role, if cant introduce them to startup culture, orient them, show them the bigger picture then its your failure not that persons. Its your job as a startup founder to make sure every one in the team understands the vision, goal and career growth you are offering it to them.

  2. Pay - well there are many ways about how to handle this. WE had interns from IITs and local colleges and we always paid them equally. For IITians we took care of accommodation and lunch+dinner along with pay. Pay should always be performance centric. Flat pay structures are a big burden to carry. From CEO to office assistant everyones pay should be linked to objectives and these objectives should be continuously revised.

  3. Time - apart from pay and other things most important thing that you need to offer to interns or any junior developer for that matter, is time with quality people. If your team is too busy in implementing a version of product and cant interact much with the interns, thats not very good. If I was an intern at this point, I would not care much about pay and luxuries what I will care about is time I get to spend with (and hence learn) from people who have been there done that or who are doing that. Thats very important aspect.

Hope this helps. :)

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answered 08 Jan '10, 03:13

sushrut's gravatar image

sushrut
16717
accept rate: 12%

Answer I got from a Pune startup founder:

Earlier I had given a stipend of Rs. 5000. But in retrospect, that turned out to be a mistake. The intern definitely did not produce output worth that much and also left after a month and a half. So the money was wasted.

In the future, I'm definitely not paying more than 3000. I've heard elsewhere that even 1500-2000 might be enough.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 05:19

Navin%20Kabra's gravatar image

Navin Kabra ♦♦
1.6k71421
accept rate: 12%

Another answer I got from another Pune startup founder:

What we usually do is give them a small stipend for the first 3 months - Rs. 3000. They are told that this will increase after the 3 months, depending upon performance, to something in the range of Rs. 6000. At the end of 6-months, again depending upon performance, we can confirm them as full employees at market salaries.

In general, students often leave after a month or two. The ones that don't leave are not really productive in the initial months. This scheme is what we've found appropriate.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 05:22

Navin%20Kabra's gravatar image

Navin Kabra ♦♦
1.6k71421
accept rate: 12%

nothing...he should count himself lucky to be there, leave getting paid.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 05:23

jax's gravatar image

jax
1
accept rate: 0%

In our company we give something around 3000-4000 not more than that & its not worth as per our experience. There are two reasons 1. They are learning for 2-3 months, so they are not contributing much to the company. 2. After 6 months they will not continue as they will be appearing to their exam after that.

So, need to consider the performance, nature of work.

We will also be providing certificate after that so this much stipend is fair. If we liked the performance then after 3 months we can spend more.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 05:31

Pallavi's gravatar image

Pallavi
613
accept rate: 0%

edited 05 Jan '10, 05:37

My personal opinion is this:

Rs. 3000 per month - for first 3 months. Then, based on his/her performance (considering hard work, thirst to learn good things, dare to try learnt facts etc) one can increment the stipend by Rs. 1000 to 3000 (33.33% to 100% increment) for rest of the months.

... and of course, a decrement if performance is not up to minimum mark expected. :)

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answered 05 Jan '10, 05:52

Prabhas%20Gupte's gravatar image

Prabhas Gupte
11
accept rate: 0%

edited 05 Jan '10, 05:58

we are paying 2000 Rs stipend and 2000 Rs/month bonus at the end of the internship. Regards, Rajan www.hireplug.com

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answered 05 Jan '10, 08:58

Rajan's gravatar image

Rajan
1
accept rate: 0%

Because we invest time, infra & train the interns we should not pay them. Another thing is 'Productive' output at the end of internship is very less.

But to maintain goodwill & if the person is good then to retain him/her after IT, some payment must be given.

So currently we are following following policy:

  • Payment will be given at the end of 'Successful' completion of IT. ( This makes sure that the person does not run away in between & our efforts are not wasted )

  • Payment will vary per student. This is because previously i have observed interns are not serious towards work, they are still in 'College' mood like bunking lectures, chatting, orkuting, downloading songs/SMS etc stuff. So the payment varies on performance e.g. leaves taken in internship period, completing tasks in time, value addition to project, domain knowledge, team-work etc.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 10:36

Dnyanraj's gravatar image

Dnyanraj
1
accept rate: 0%

Sorry, but if interns still behave like they are in college, I will blame that more on management of intern rather on interns themselves. Giving reasonable money to some one is the first step in getting their commitment. If u dnt pay now, I wont work now. :)

(05 Jan '10, 10:41) sushrut

+1 for Sushrut's comment!

(07 Jan '10, 18:44) Arati Halbe

I have numbers from previous company, where we hired B.Tech interns from IIT Bombay. The stipend was roughly 30-35% of what a fresher would get as salary.

Somehow, I don't like the idea of making interns work for free.

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answered 05 Jan '10, 15:36

Shashi's gravatar image

Shashi
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accept rate: 0%

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Asked: 05 Jan '10, 05:15

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Last updated: 18 Dec '10, 17:22

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