IIM student earns ₹3.5 lakh per month as internship stipend: ‘Degrees hold weight’

The Mumbai-based founder of a branding agency has started a debate on degrees and the value they hold after revealing that a friend studying at IIM Calcutta bagged an internship paying ₹3.5 lakh per month. Sakshi Jain, founder of Viralyze Media, shared a thoughtful post on education and degrees by giving the example of her friend, who is currently a student at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Jain said that her friend had bagged an internship in Mumbai that pays her ₹3.5 lakh per month. “Earning 3.5L/month in an internship? Yeah, my jaw dropped too,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

Her friend’s case made Jain realise that degrees may not matter everywhere, but they can still open powerful doors. While it's true that success can be achieved through many paths, formal education and prestigious degrees can sometimes offer unique opportunities, like high-paying internships.

“Degrees do hold some weight”

“Met a friend from IIM yesterday. She’s in Mumbai for her summer internship. And she’s getting paid 3.5 lakhs per month,” Jain wrote on LinkedIn. “And it kinda hit me- 7 lakhs in 2 months? Maybe degrees do hold some weight after all,” she added on X.

The personal brand strategist elaborated on the value of formal education from prestigious institutes in her LinkedIn post. She claimed that while social media loves to say that degrees don’t matter, that may not be entirely true.

“We love to say ‘degrees don’t matter’ online. And honestly, I’ve believed that too. But sometimes, you come across these moments that make you pause,” she said. “Maybe degrees don’t matter everywhere. But sometimes, they open doors you never knew existed.”

She concluded her LinkedIn post by saying that there are many paths to success, and each one is valid.

Internet reacts

On X, her post has gone viral with 1.5 million views and hundreds of comments. Many people shared their own stories of friends from prestigious universities bagging high-paying jobs.

“Met some IIT students recently. One of them got a 2 month internship for 25 lacs. INR 12.5 lac per month for an internship,” X user Arjun Tandon claimed.

“This is the truth at the end of the day, people can make noise and be part of the ‘MBA doesn’t matter’ bandwagon but IIM A/B/C are in a league of their own and that tag stays with you for life - gives you a serious headstart,” another said.

“It’s a matter of pride that the IIT/IIM league exists in India ,and stands among the world’s best!” an X user added.

IIM Calcutta is one of the country’s top B-schools which counts Indra Nooyi and Ramachandra Guha among its alumni.