How to hire freshers in India without running a campus drive

You can hire freshers in India without a campus drive by sending your opening straight to college placement cells, posting it on free government portals such as the National Career Service and AICTE's National Internship Portal, and asking your current junior staff for referrals. Many companies also take graduates as interns or as apprentices under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme first, then make offers to the ones who do well. Whichever route you use, a short work task and a structured interview will tell you more than the résumé.

A campus drive makes sense when you need dozens of people from one discipline at once. For a company hiring two or five freshers a year, the travel, dates and college rules often cost more time than the hire is worth. The routes below work for small batches and can run all year.

Where do I find freshers if I am not visiting campuses?

College placement cells, by email

Every college with a placement office has someone whose job is to get students interviews. Send the placement officer a one-page opening: role, location, pay range, eligibility (degree, branch, passing year), the selection steps and a closing date. Ask them to circulate it to final-year students and recent graduates. You can also ask the office to collect applications and send them to you as one list.

Pick colleges by what you need. A company hiring for accounts roles will do better with nearby commerce colleges than with a famous engineering institute two states away.

Free government portals

Two government platforms are worth a listing:

National Career Service (ncs.gov.in). Run by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Employers can register and post vacancies, and the portal states that NCS does not charge a fee at any stage of registration, job application or interview processing.
AICTE National Internship Portal (internship.aicte-india.org). Run by AICTE under the Ministry of Education. Employers can register to post internships, and students from AICTE-approved colleges apply there. Use it if you want to try interns before offering jobs.

Referrals from your own junior staff

Your employees who joined in the last two or three years still know their classmates and juniors. Ask them directly, tell them the role and the pay, and pay a referral bonus once the new hire has stayed a set period, for example 90 days. Tying the bonus to the new person staying keeps the referrals honest.

Job boards and professional networks

Paid and free job boards bring volume. Expect many applications that do not meet the basic requirements, so add two or three screening questions (passing year, location, notice period) that filter people out before you read a single résumé.

Placement services that send shortlists

If you have no one to screen hundreds of applications, placement services such as recruitment.gladloop.com review résumés and send a shortlist, and you run your own interviews from there.

Should I hire freshers as interns or apprentices first?

Both routes let you see someone work before making a permanent offer.

Internships. AICTE's internship policy makes internships mandatory for technical education students, so engineering and other technical students are actively looking for them. A paid internship of two to six months, with a clear project and a named supervisor, gives you real evidence of how someone works. Tell interns at the start whether a job offer is possible and what it depends on.

Apprenticeships under NATS. The National Apprenticeship Training Scheme runs under the Apprentices Act, 1961. It covers graduates, diploma holders and vocational certificate holders, and training lasts from six months to one year. The NATS portal lists 126 subject fields for graduate and diploma students. Establishments register on the NATS portal and pay a monthly stipend to the apprentice.

The government shares that cost. According to a Press Information Bureau release of 23 March 2026, the government's share under NATS is 50% of the prescribed minimum stipend, up to Rs 4,500 per apprentice per month, paid directly to the apprentice by Direct Benefit Transfer. In May 2025 the Central Apprenticeship Council recommended raising apprentice stipends by 36%, to a range of Rs 6,800 to Rs 12,300 a month across categories, and the March 2026 release says those decisions have been notified in the Gazette. Check the current rate for your category on the NATS portal before you budget.

Apprentices receive a Certificate of Proficiency at the end. The NATS portal says there is no guarantee of employment after the training, so you are free to offer jobs only to the apprentices you want to keep. The same PIB release cites an evaluation by NILERD finding 74% of NATS apprentices in full-time employment on completion of their training.

How should I screen freshers without campus interviews?

Freshers have thin résumés, so the résumé can only rule people out. It cannot show you who will be good. Put the weight on what they can do.

Write down what the job needs. Three to five things the person must be able to do in the first three months, for example "draft a clean reply to a customer complaint" or "reconcile a bank statement in Excel".
Set a short work task. One or two hours, based on real work, done at home or in the office. Pay for it if it is longer.
Run a structured interview. Ask every candidate the same questions and score each answer on a written scale. A 2022 re-analysis of hiring research by Sackett and colleagues, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, estimated the validity of structured interviews at .42 and unstructured interviews at .19. Work sample tests came in at .33 and job knowledge tests at .40.
Decide quickly. Freshers often have more than one process running. Aim to make an offer within a few days of the final interview.

What paperwork and pay rules apply when I hire a fresher?

India's four labour codes came into effect on 21 November 2025. According to the government's announcement, they make appointment letters mandatory for all workers, give all workers a statutory right to minimum wages, and require timely payment of wages. Issue a written appointment letter with the role, pay, probation period and working hours before the joining date.

Minimum wages are set by skill category and differ by state, so check the current notification from your state labour department before you fix pay. Delhi, for example, publishes its current rates on the Delhi Labour Department website. This is general information, not legal advice. Your accountant or an employment lawyer can confirm what applies to your company.

How do I keep freshers once they join?

The first few months decide most of it. Give each fresher a named supervisor, a written list of what they should be able to do by day 30, 60 and 90, and a short review at each point. Pay salaries on a fixed date. Freshers have no earlier job to compare with, so regular feedback from one person they report to does a lot of the work of keeping them.

Questions people also ask

Can a small number of freshers be hired from a college without a formal campus drive?

Yes. You can ask a placement officer to circulate a single opening and send you the applications. Agree the selection steps and the date results will be shared, so the college can tell its students what to expect.

Do I have to pay apprentices under NATS?

Yes. The establishment pays the stipend, and the government's share (50% of the prescribed minimum, up to Rs 4,500 a month) goes directly to the apprentice's bank account.

Is a paid work task fair to candidates?

Keep unpaid tasks to an hour or two and tell candidates how long it should take. For anything longer, pay the candidate for their time, and do not use the work they submit in your business.

When is the best time of year to hire freshers?

Any time works for recent graduates, who are looking all year. For final-year students, post during their last semester, before exams take over and while they are still weighing offers.