Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50%
Lyft just updated all interns with an e-mail; they are cutting the internship to just 8 weeks, and slashing the hourly rate (variable amount depending on function). Not sure how to handle this...
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 with your internship, unlike many others whose internships were canceled.
At $9600 per month, Lyft had one of the highest salaries for an internship; $4800 per month is still a decent chunk of change, particularly as you don't have to be in Seattle, NYC, or San Francisco anymore.
If you have other options, I think everyone would understand if you chose to pursue those instead. If not or if you choose to join us anyway, having an internship at Lyft can lead to a full-time offer and/or make you more competitive when applying for full-time jobs in the future.
The real value of an internship is more-so in giving you practical experience rather than the compensation.
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.
Even remote interns need to live somewhere and rent isn't cheap. On the other hand, interns might be ok with sharing a 2bd apt with 3 roommates and paying only 600 for rent and bills. That would leave them almost 2000 a month. Not bad for a 20 yo seeking independence, but humiliating for a 25 yo and a complete failure for a 30 yo.
If Lyft is open to hiring interns from abroad (unlikely) and pay them the same 4800 (very unlikely), then just 500 would get them a very decent 2bd apt. In countries like India, they would be borderline rich with this kind of money.
I was truly taken aback by how out of touch this comment is. A 50% cut to a $9600 monthly salary is $4800, or $57,600 annually. This is above median US household income, and close to double median personal income. It's not "humiliating" or "a complete failure" by any stretch of the imagination.
Personally, nothing to complain about, you get practical experience and getting paid amazingly well.
> unlike many others whose internships were canceled
4800 is indeed a good chunk of change compared to 0
You have a job, you have a paycheck and it sounds like you are remote so you get to work from hopefully a lower cost of living area. Save your money, sign up for You Need A Budget and learn where and how you can cut costs.
This probably won't be the last time something like this happens. So instead of throwing a pity party, do the things needed to make this a non event. Things like living in a lower cost of living area, cutting your expenses, having a robust and resilient emergency fund and be grateful you still have a job while millions have no idea when they will go back to work or how they are going to pay their bills.
Instacart has been trying to add several hundred thousand new contract workers ("full service shoppers" as Instacart calls them).
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/10/instacarts-hiring-spree-co...
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.
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.
I had an internship cancelled a few years ago, in 2017. Etsy replaced their CEO and laid off a large portion of their employees, and cancelled our internships along the way. The message to us was along the lines of, "It's not about the money; it's going to be chaotic around here for a little while, and it wouldn't be a good or useful experience as an intern." And they backed it up by paying out a stipend of a significant fraction of what the entire summer's pay would have been, which they really didn't have to do. At that time there was a bit of a scramble, but within a couple weeks all of us would-be interns got picked up by other companies, and looking back, this unlucky turn of events completely changed the course of my career, as I ended up interning with the SRE team at Squarespace and discovering a new world.
I really respect Etsy in making the tough call at the time to cancel outright (and pay a stipend) instead of dragging things on. But of course, in today's environment where all companies are affected instead of just one, it seems much less likely that Lyft's interns would be able to find other internships. So maybe this halfway measure will work out better.
Best of luck to the Lyft interns and their mentors - hopefully you can make the best of an unfortunate situation.
On the other hand, this is absolutely terrible optics and feels like desperation. I know Lyft already started furloughing and cut executive pay, but this is a bigger % than the 30% executive cut.
And both my internships paid below yours (after paycut). The important piece of the internship is the experience, not the money.
I think it's the duration cut that's really rough. I would have taken a shot at proving myself for rent+food alone.
From a purely business point of view, the economical thing would have been to just cancel the internships. These interns will probably learn very little and they will be a burden to people who have to manage them since the employees workload will increase with the layoffs that have just occurred and all the uncertainty.
I think Lyft should be commended for this move. Yes it sucks to the interns but things are not normal now.
This is particularly true for non-programming roles which pay less. It's possible Lyft covers housing separate from salaries.
I had 4 internships, never below the median pay for my degree, and I would have certainly thought twice about doing some of them if my pay was cut in half.
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)>
It's an internship, it's something you do for experience and to get on your resume.
Unless you think you can't survive on the resulting internship income, or unless you have a better offer... it would still seem to be in your best interest to do it.
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.
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.
It sucks for interns to be affected, but all things considered it's the lesser amongst many evils.
If you were negotiating a job offer, and right as it came time to sign the paperwork, would you take a 50% salary cut? You'd move on to the next company.
Finding a summer internship right now is going to be really difficult.
Must one work for peanuts, or free, before being seriously considered for entry-level work?
Edit, found it: https://www.levels.fyi/2019/
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21241351/lyft-layoff-furl...
source: news + work at Lyft
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 result.
I guess sites such as Levels.fyi like to report total compensation numbers without context because most of their viewers come there to gawk tabloid-style rather than for actual information.
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).
Back in my day, after the Tech bubble burst, I was a coder with little experience, and I worked for any start up that would let me, just so i could get more experience. One place, I got paid 0$, with just a thank you and a slice of pizza (1 slice, not 2).
Additionally, the job market is already insanely skewed toward employers with extremely weak unionizing laws throughout most of the US - while the software market is more balanced than most other markets the value extracted form employees still far outweighs their compensation.
Employees should value their time and labour and I'm sorry you decided to work for no money since, either your labour was worthless or someone made free money off your back.
i think a lot of young people haven't ever experienced that, and assume that the "more balanced than most other markets" conditions will continue in the tech industry forever. But, there's nothing that says it needs to continue. There's no regulations in place that prevent more and more workers from entering the software industry (unlike say doctors who have regulations in place to prevent more medical students than a certain number each year). So, in SE, over the next decade, the supply of workers can continue to increase more and more
I'm not sure if Lyft is a big enough name, but I know having Google or Facebook on your resume as an intern is enough to have your choice in full time jobs as long as you can pass interviews.
Lyft will get hurt big time from this when these interns go to find full time jobs.
There’s not a massive pool of unemployed software engineers out there quite yet.
So not just pennies.
I am sorry to hear that, -50% is a lot of money but not the end of the world. Take the job and keep looking for the next one, you will definitely find something better knowing you are smart enough to pass Lyft’s interviews. The majority of interns in the tech industry do not do much in the first couple of months after joining the company anyway, so technically speaking you will get two months of free money and maybe a signing bonus, this is a much better scenario compared to people who have been laid off, furloughed or rejected from their internship program.
Also, you should check lyfts company page where they have offices. It's not just California.
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.
They probably want to retain some reptutation.