Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50% • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#51

Post by johntiger1 » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:53 AM UTC

throwaway139481 wrote: post #45

throwaway139481 wrote: post #38

Lyft employee here: I think part of the motivation for this is that internships are being conducted remotely, so interns do not have Bay Area living expenses. Another part of it obviously is that we're cutting costs due to the downturn (the layoffs and salary reductions for full-time employees were also part of that). This is not ideal, just explaining some of the rationale.

That said, I'm sympathetic to your situation and wish we as a company could have done more for you. We're all going through a tough time right now.

Thanks for the sympathy, I don't blame Lyft. They always seem to try and do right by the employees (at least compared to their major competitor). But the financial hit is hard. And if they are squeezing the intern program like this, it really worries me about the future of the company (esp. full time and new grad roles).

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#52

Post by paulryanrogers » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:54 AM UTC

formercoder wrote: post #50

echelon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be smarter to not have an internship program right now. Very little of the work from internships contributes to active product roadmap, and you'd better be served by retention than new hiring. Especially of junior engineers. Although it's a generalization, interns are as a group probably better equipped to handle sudden loss of salary. Those with children, mortgages, and healthcare needs are less so.…

People need internship experience to get fulltime jobs. Cancelling internships is a terrible move for the future workforce.

How true is this outside SoCal?

Must one work for peanuts, or free, before being seriously considered for entry-level work?

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#53

Post by justinchan » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:55 AM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #24

cracker_jacks wrote: post #11

Picking up pennies in front of a steamroller... Does it make sense to cut the salaries of the lowest-paid, zero equity groups? The same group of people you'll be competing to hire from when they graduate.

I seem to recall that Lyft had some of the most insanely overpaid listings in the SF area in terms of raw compensation - maybe shave 3% off those salaries above 200k instead of half what the interns make. Edit, found it: https://www.levels.fyi/2019/

10% cut across the board, 20% for VP+ and 30% for executives. No cut on equity. Lyft has left no stone unturned to save money where it makes sense.

source: news + work at Lyft

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#54

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:56 AM UTC

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #28

paulcole wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think it’s going to be tough to support yourself on 50% of what Lyft was offering, wait until you run the numbers on a $0 income.

I'm not sure what internships at Lyft pay, but their headquarters is in the bay area. After a 50% cut, they may come out ahead having $0 income compared to paying rent in their college town and the bay area, higher cost of living, and moving expenses (if not already covered). This is particularly true for non-programming roles which pay less. It's possible Lyft covers housing separate from salaries. I had 4 internshi…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#55

Post by rckoepke » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:57 AM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #37

forgotmylogin2 wrote: post #8

I would guess the chance of finding any other summer work right now, let alone another technical internship, is below 50%. The way you handle this is to take the internship and be happy it didn't get cancelled entirely.

There are several sectors of the economy that haven't been effected by this - med-tech/fin-tech firms in particular should (mostly) be doing fine.

Elective medical procedures have been canceled, so medical spending is down across the board. Most plans that are ACA-compliant will probably be reimbursing customers some of the premiums this year, similar to auto insurance.

I've heard Fin-tech firms have been cutting lots of fat in the last 4 weeks, although I've also seen some large banks still hiring contractors.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#56

Post by fred_is_fred » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:58 AM UTC

cracker_jacks wrote: post #11

Picking up pennies in front of a steamroller... Does it make sense to cut the salaries of the lowest-paid, zero equity groups? The same group of people you'll be competing to hire from when they graduate.

Nobody will be hiring when they graduate.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#57

Post by emit_time » Sat, May 02, 2020, 12:58 AM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #44

Oh boy, that's rough. So that's a cut to 1/3rd of the total comp you would have made otherwise. Well, almost a decade ago when I interned in San Francisco I made less than 4000 dollars a month and stayed in a shared room with other kids. Haha, good times. Hard to remember those days. I bet with the hours I put in, I was actually close to SF's minimum wage. I think it's the duration cut that's really rough. I would ha…

The internships are remote now, it sounds like.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#58

Post by polyomino » Sat, May 02, 2020, 1:00 AM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #37

forgotmylogin2 wrote: post #8

I would guess the chance of finding any other summer work right now, let alone another technical internship, is below 50%. The way you handle this is to take the internship and be happy it didn't get cancelled entirely.

There are several sectors of the economy that haven't been effected by this - med-tech/fin-tech firms in particular should (mostly) be doing fine.

The only reason that many companies are able to operate at all today is because of the technology they use. Tech should be less affected overall compared to the rest of the economy.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#59

Post by renewiltord » Sat, May 02, 2020, 1:05 AM UTC

emit_time wrote: post #57

renewiltord wrote: post #44

Oh boy, that's rough. So that's a cut to 1/3rd of the total comp you would have made otherwise. Well, almost a decade ago when I interned in San Francisco I made less than 4000 dollars a month and stayed in a shared room with other kids. Haha, good times. Hard to remember those days. I bet with the hours I put in, I was actually close to SF's minimum wage. I think it's the duration cut that's really rough. I would ha…

The internships are remote now, it sounds like.

Oh that's even more painful. Damn, that's unfortunate for the kids going in now.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#60

Post by justinchan » Sat, May 02, 2020, 1:06 AM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #49

munk-a wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall that Lyft had some of the most insanely overpaid listings in the SF area in terms of raw compensation - maybe shave 3% off those salaries above 200k instead of half what the interns make. Edit, found it: https://www.levels.fyi/2019/

I find these “total compensation” member-measurement rankings very misleading because much of these reported sums is actually in stock. Someone who was hired by Lyft in 2019 got RSUs at double today’s stock price. A quarter or more of their total compensation has vanished. Going the other way, someone who joined Amazon in 2017 got stock at 1/3rd of today’s price. Their total compensation has probably doubled as a res…

It's an imperfect measurement but I'm not sure there's a better alternative. Some people like to include stock appreciation when discussing compensation, which seems even more misleading since that isn't what was written on the offer.

Recipients have to play investor to price in the risk and volatility of the stock (ie. if Lyft and Google both gave the same offer, Google's is far less risky but with potentially lower returns).