So I’m currently working as an intern at an MNC, and something happened today that genuinely caught me off guard.
Another intern approached my L1 manager asking if he could refer a couple of his friends for open roles. That part is pretty normal, but what happened next wasn’t.
My manager straight up asked for ₹25k per candidate. He even mentioned that he usually charges ₹35–40k for “outsiders,” but since this guy already works here, he’d “do it cheaper.” He also confidently said that if they paid, their selection would be guaranteed, no matter what.
Out of curiosity, I later found out about the kind of questions these referred candidates were being asked in interviews: Rotate a string, Two Sum, Basic OOP stuff (like literally “Is C++ an OOP language?”)
Meanwhile my interview process was: 2D DP, Graph optimization using DSU, Modified LCA in a binary tree, Deep grilling on OS and OOP concepts
The difference just feels… absurd.
Now I am wondering is this normal? Does this happen everywhere or I just happen to stumble upon new money making scheme in corporate?