Live data from Hacker News

Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

news.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 110 posts

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#81
post #46

Lyft engineer here. I agree that this is an unfortunate turn of events — and I would be sad to be in your position. To add a bit more context: • we just parted ways with 23% of our staff (layoff + furlough) this week. • remaining team members are taking a 3 month 10% cut in base salary. • unlike many companies, we're still conducting our internship program — so it's good that you at least have the option to continue…

Wow amazing, $9600 per month is even more than I am getting a senior developer. My internship stipend when I was studying was $600 per month and that was when I was studying abroad (NZ).

Personally, nothing to complain about, you get practical experience and getting paid amazingly well.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#82
post #37

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 Fintech firms I am talking to all stopped hiring or having pay cuts. They offered lower salaries compared to last year when I wasn't looking (upto 30% lower)

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#83
post #5

You handle it by being happy that you still have an internship right now. There is a lot going on in the world, now is not the time to feel entitled to anything.

Agreed. Though I will say, it's still shocking to see. Not that cascading layoffs, furloughs, internship cancellations, and wage/salary reductions are unexpected right now. Shocking in how surreal it all feels. My gf and I have a number of friends in MBA/grad programs, and most have had their internships or job offers rescinded.

Yes, I have had three job offers rescinded since March. Meaning got job offer, accepting it, rescinded, interviews, got a new job offer, rescinded, more interviews, got a job offer and got rescinded. All due economic situation or COVID-19.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#84
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

9600 per month for an internship? Is that pure cash? Jesus Christ no wonder new companies are basing their development somewhere else.

After taxes, rent, bills and food that's 3000. And 4800 turns into 500. That's like a coffee budget.

some places give additional housing stipend or corporate housing.

And a lot of these companies have free food.

let's not pretend it is merely a coffee budget. many people survive in Bay Area on less.

Also, internship is probably gonna be remote.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#85
post #2

How to handle it is either you take the internship, or you don't.

I was depending on this internship to support me financially. At the current rate, it doesn't work out

Just a perspective, your half cut rate is higher than what other SWE interns get.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#87

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…

It's probably gonna be remote. So housing is not gonna be a problem.

And OP having that internship experience is definitely gonna help them for the future. Considering it is unlikely to get another internship (not even similar pay), OP should do it. Additionally, their half cut rate is higher than what a lot of SWE interns get too (not even considering other profession interns)>

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#88
post #46

Lyft engineer here. I agree that this is an unfortunate turn of events — and I would be sad to be in your position. To add a bit more context: • we just parted ways with 23% of our staff (layoff + furlough) this week. • remaining team members are taking a 3 month 10% cut in base salary. • unlike many companies, we're still conducting our internship program — so it's good that you at least have the option to continue…

If you're talking about software jobs, 9600 for an internship is way above average and now that its 4800 its below average so that's not a good chunk of change.

The gal of some people. How many places do you think are even running internships right now let alone paying interns over 30/hr.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about software jobs, 9600 for an internship is way above average and now that its 4800 its below average so that's not a good chunk of change.

The gal of some people. How many places do you think are even running internships right now let alone paying interns over 30/hr.

Its about more than the raw numbers too. If you make 9600 a month as an intern and you get offered a job you are certainly going to be offered more than you made as an intern. However, if you make 4800 as an intern there probably isn't a large company in the world that wouldn't use that as leverage to offer you full time employment at a salary far below 9600.

Re: Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%

#90

Levels.fyi shows the rate to be $60/hour for a software internship. If this is accurate, and it's cut to $30/hour, that's actually pretty good money. Many people are living on $15/hour. https://www.levels.fyi/internships/?search=lyft

For comparisons sake also: Internships in germany had been around 700Eur per month 10 years ago. Maybe it's 800 now. I think even half of an internship salary at one of the US companies is far above that - if not even still above the salaries of full-time employees in other countries. So it doesn't sound that terrible.

In Germany you get at least minimum pay (~1500 Euro). For tech roles, you can get more (2,5k - 4k). Which is not that of a bad deal considering that all other costs are lower.
Post reply on HN