Hi! I just finished my second year at a tier-1 college. I’ve been looking for internships to do this summer, and a startup offered me a backend role of 10k pm stipend that required 8 hours a day commitment. I’d have to travel to their 2-3 times a week to their office that’s 7-8 kms away.
I know a decent amount of web dev, have built a MERN clone of Reddit, and I’m pretty good at algorithms.
Upon asking one of my mentors about this, he that the guy who’s offering me this role is simply ripping me off. I just wanted a second opinion on this.
Am I being underpaid?
10k & you'd have to travel too? Definitely underpaid.
I’m actually unable to find any internships, let alone good remote internships, and this is the first offer that I’ve received. Do you have any idea where should I look for em? (aside from LinkedIn)
I’m not sure whether I’ll accept this or not. I’m thinking of building some projects instead and contributing to open source - at least that way I’ll have something to show. What do you think about this?
@nayuter Try angellist. I'd say don't accept this and start building a strong open-source profile & attend some hackathons.
I thought companies visited tier-1 colleges for internships?
Underpaid?? Bro you are hardly getting any pay. Either try to make it completely online otherwise find some decent place to intern.
He justified this by saying that since I’ve just completed my second year and do not know much, he’ll just be paying to learn, and he wants me to continue even when the semester starts albeit part time. I too feel like the compensation is low but given the market conditions I had my reservations as to whether my expectations are unreasonable or not.
Try to negotiate, tell him its not possible to work offline with such a low stipend. Either increase it or make this internship completely online.
UPDATE: I just sent the recruiter the following saying that I think 10k pm is a little low, given 8hrs/day commitment and hybrid mode, and that and said “I’m glad you considered me for this role, and but for the time being I’d have to decline on the offer. I hope you understand, thanks!”
This is what he had to say (verbatim, hope he’s not here lol): “its not 8 hours a day.. its about the task i give you.. And 10k is for learning.. your code wont be used for atleast next 1 month as you will be learning only..anyways All the best”
Thanks everyone for all your responses.
Looks like you dodged a bullet. I would've advised the same even if you were from Tier 3. Internships are mainly for learning only, he wasn't doing you a favor by paying. Good companies pay a lot for interns.
Also, iirc, Google & Microsoft has pre-internship programs like Explore? I'm not up-to-date with these stuff but worth checking out.
Thanks, hearing this really helps. I felt like I was asking for too much when he said he’ll only be paying me to learn—implicitly implying I should be subservient and not be asking for any kind of compensation whatsoever. I’ll checkout the Explore program, seems like a good place to start. And thanks a bunch again!
I'd not ask you to travel for that much money. That's what we offer content and social media people, not engineering interns 😂
Thanks a lot, I feel a lot better now. 😅 I’ll politely decline the offer most probably.
If the company is good, see if you can make them do 100% remote work
I was paid 30k a month as a stipend way back in 2013. They also gave Sodexo coupons and cab pick-up/drop from home.
is it like a skill issue for me that he’s offering me so less? (T-T)
No, most small firms are quite exploitative of unassuming students. Try for larger tech firms, I won my internship through a competitive programming contest.
I was paid 30k for a remote internship in my final year way back.
You have a bad deal at hand. If you have nothing lined up then get on with it. Get it on your resume and work your way up.
Although, it hardly matters. Maybe, a nice differentiator for when you go for a competitive internship and you already have one under your belt.
I’m thinking of building projects and contributing to open source instead. 8 hours a day committed for something like this - and to top things of, not being able to show your work to others since the company’s code is proprietary is kinda deal breaker. But thanks for your reply! :)
That also works tbh. It’s always a trade off, extra money as a college kid on the side is not bad if you ask me. 😂
As a side question, what would be a modest stipend expectation given that I want to work remotely?
15K-20K atleast
Thank you! :)
My first internship was 2k/mo, working hours were maybe part time but it took more time for me to get stuff done.
Then I did 12k(6k+6k) internships for two months with avg working hours 12 in a day continuously for 2 months. It was remote.
Damn, that’s so low.
Hi, been in this position in undergrad (top 3 iit) - take the intern and if you’re able to find something better, ditch it
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