I joined CRED through a CodeChef test with an offer clearly mentioning 6 months + FTE.

Intern stipend : INR 1,00,000 /month
Package Offered : 24,00,000 base + 28,00,000 esops (trap lol)

Like any fresher, I was excited. But on Day 1 itself, the story changed to 6 months + PPO. From a confirmed job to just a gamble.

From the very next day:

• Put on-call in the first month itself (yes, an intern handling production calls).
• Expected to work till 2–3 AM regularly.
• Daily office presence was forced, no flexibility.
• No proper KT, just random tasks dumped.
• Open abuses in office. Treated interns like slaves, not learners.
• The company was running in losses, and you could see it — everyone was losing their temper on juniors.

I struggled through 5 months thinking it would be worth it. Then one random day, only 10–20% of interns received FTE mails. The rest of us? Silence.

When I asked HR for clarity, the response was casual and dismissive. No accountability, no empathy. This pain ended on 11th july. DUMBO HRs totally clueless often seen smoking on rooftop of company.

This experience was exhausting, but it taught me to trust red flags early. Hope this helps the next batch of students make better choices.

If you want to join Indian startup as an intern keep fulltime offer in hand through oncampus or offcampus, dont make mistake like me. I am from tier 3 college, my life is ruined, recently joined a service based company to survive.

Don’t fall for shiny ESOP traps and fake promises. Behind the cool office walls and marketing campaigns, some startups are just toxic sweatshops in disguise.

Thanks CRED, for teaching me exactly what a company should never be.

#CRED #internship #joke #indianstartup