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Comment by pmiller2 | Hacker News Reader

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

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 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.

It looks like Lyft is making the internship remote as well (from other posts on this thread), so cost-of-living in SF is not a factor.

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)>

While I do not pretend to know your financial situation, I do have a good friend of mine who interned in the bay area for $15/hr with no benefits (housing or otherwise) and managed to live relatively fine for 8 months. It's not close to ideal, but I know it is possible.

Then, it sounds like you need to either find additional sources of support, or turn down the internship.

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

What are your fixed expenses that you can't live on 4800$ as a intern?

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