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'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'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.
Levels.fyi shows Lyft internship salaries if anyone is interested to know [1].
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
as a graduate, you'd be extremely lucky to have any job at all, let alone a job at a tech company, let alone one as well known as Lyft. Let's face it, with the current vast oversupply of labor, employers have a lot more bargaining power.
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).
Once you have a big name on your resume, you'll get all the interviews you want when you go to look for a full time job.
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.
Most software companies aren't hurting - especially those still in the startup phase that may have 0 revenue today but also had 0 revenue before the pandemic.
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.
well, at the time, worthless labor was all there was, especially if you had less than 3 years experience. It was a different time. You had senior software engineers commiting suicide because they couldn't ever imagine getting work again. for people in tech, it was truely a hopeless time.
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 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.
It sucks for interns to be affected, but all things considered it's the lesser amongst many evils.
It seems as if they want to cancel, but put the onus on interns to make the proper decision.
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.
In our case, we already signed our offers (and most of us turned down many other Big N offers). It makes me wonder about the future of hiring; both sides (talent and employers) will certainly be more selective and wary going forward.
I’m not saying the internships need to be for free, but personally I think it’s reasonable to expect college students to have spent some time interning, paid, in the field they would like a full time job in during the summer
They’re not going to be competing to hire anybody in the near future. A more sensible move would probably be to lay them all off. Internships makes sense for companies when you have labor shortages. During an economic crisis, when unemployment is so high, they’re more of an unnecessary expense.
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.
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 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.
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).
Breakdowns are available on the rest of our site (check out http://levels.fyi/comp.html). We just used total packages for our end of the year report to deliver more focus to the totals since that's the main objective of using a median value (ie the median total package isn't guaranteed to reflect the middle stock package or median base salary. That said, total compensation is what candidates look at when switching companies and what recruiters have to match if they really want to attract a candidate. This along with the bull run stock market is what has led to such an increase in comp over last few years.
Thanks for the refreshing perspective. I don't think they made this pay cut decision lightly, meaning that the situation is most likely grave. Overall, it really brings doubt into my mind about the future of Lyft and whether it will survive
If you want a company that has more chances of "surviving", apply/work for a company that can generate positive cashflow from operations. Life will be more stable, your salary will reflect the company's ability to make a profit (aka "lower") but you won't get the possible upside of a "hot" startup - you can't have it both ways. Anecdotally, unless you are the first 10 in the startup, it is probably not going to be a lot of windfall for you. For pre-IPO companies, sometimes it even goes the other way (you pay taxes on earnings that may never happen)
I remember the answer to a drunk question I asked a friend. Which was how did she manage to get tenure. Her answer was you have to a) never take a non-tenure track job. b) keep applying till you get one. I think doesn't matter, startup, not startup you need to be careful about the job and what opportunities come with it.
I'd be curious to know if you signed a contract already? If you signed a contract pre-cut you could technically sue (not sure if it would help but it's always an option), but if you still haven't signed a contract then this is a lesson to always have a back up plan and make sure you don't take anything for granted until that contract is signed.
I remember reading my offer and there was a line that goes like this "only the CEO has the power to sign contract". and everybody else's offer are "at-will".
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 $15/hour.
For comparisons sake also: Internships in germany had been around 700Eur per month 10 years ago. Maybe it's 800 now.
I think even half of an internship salary at one of the US companies is far above that - if not even still above the salaries of full-time employees in other countries. So it doesn't sound that terrible.
In Germany you get at least minimum pay (~1500 Euro). For tech roles, you can get more (2,5k - 4k). Which is not that of a bad deal considering that all other costs are lower.
On one hand, this makes sense because interns (and junior engineers) are often terrible productivity/$. Internship programs tend to be more a marketing/recruitment tool which is a bit of a luxury right now.
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.
A lot of people here are being rather unsympathetic. Even if it's not the end of the world, it still sucks. Hopefully you can save some money from not having to move to the Bay Area.
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.
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).
The future for the company looked worrisome even before this. Like another commenter said internships are "terrible productivity/$". Companies look at it as an investment to be able to hire later on. If there's low chance of hiring later on then having interns doesn't make much sense anymore.
For the OP, if your are asking what you do as an intern, you do the internship for 8 weeks.
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.
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 have taken a shot at proving myself for rent+food alone.
This seems more like Lyft trying to actually do the right thing. Training junior engineers remotely is incredibly difficult not to mention interns.
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.
To clarify, I'm more sympathising with the interns than blaming anyone. Obviously, in these trying times I understand the constraints companies are under.
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.
Companies that cut half of the pay are unlikely to offer corporate housing or free food.
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.
> Not bad for a 20 yo seeking independence, but humiliating for a 25 yo and a complete failure for a 30 yo.
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.
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.
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.
Yo are you completely blind to what's happening? Like it's as close to "the sky is falling" as you can get in reality and you're out here complaining that you're inconvenienced. Unemployment is at 20%. The high during the great depression was 25%. GDP is projected to contract 37% percent this coming quarter. People are being evicted en masse. If you have any job let alone one that pays above median you should count yourself unbelievably lucky.
I don't want to defend a gig economy company, but you're failing to account for the fact that the "average" changed dramatically over the last two months - as the post you're replying to noted:
> unlike many others whose internships were canceled
4800 is indeed a good chunk of change compared to 0
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.
one thing, I don't understand about these companies is why base your locations in super expensive cities i.e NY, SF, Seattle. And be hurting for cash. if lyft had focused on recruiting in low cost of living cities for decent engineers. & have a good remote program. they wouldn't be hurting for cash atm.
They're based in expensive cities because it's where a lot of people want to live. Also they're relatively close to a lot of top colleges(Cal, Stanford, Columbia) , which makes it easy to recruit, and form partnerships with academic research groups
I don't think what you said is really defensible. Yes they might not be hurting _as much_ if they had majority of their operations based elsewhere. But I don't thi n you can say they wouldn't be hurting for cash at all.
Also, you should check lyfts company page where they have offices. It's not just California.
Look I'll be blunt: you handle this by being grateful. The alternative is that you could be without a job and a paycheck and struggling to figure out how to pay your bills. I live in Nashville. We got hit with a devastating tornado at the start of March that put a good number of people out of work followed by the safer at home order that increased the number of people out of work. Some of those people live in the same apartment I do and I see them struggling with how they will pay for things.
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.
For the sake of comparison, $4,800/month (mentioned by another commenter) is $57,600 extrapolated to a full year, or 1.7x the median US salary. That's the median for all US workers, so it includes mid-career professionals, not just college students. There are people as smart and capable as you making less than $15/hour all across the country - and, for that matter, people who got laid off from those $15/hour jobs and didn't send their rent checks today. Have some perspective, be grateful that you're in such a fortunate position to begin with, and recognize this setback as the minor speedbump that it is.
Sorry to hear that. That's an interesting choice to make on Lyft's part, to cut duration and salary rather than cancel entirely. For the interns, I hope there's enough structure and guidance to make it worthwhile.
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.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 168 ms ] threadThis 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)>
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.
[1] https://www.levels.fyi/internships/?search=lyft
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
There’s not a massive pool of unemployed software engineers out there quite yet.
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...
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).
source: news + work at Lyft
So not just pennies.
They probably want to retain some reptutation.
https://www.levels.fyi/internships/?search=lyft
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-29/u-s-econo...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/economy/unemployment-benefits...
https://whyy.org/articles/philly-council-wants-to-stop-an-av...
> unlike many others whose internships were canceled
4800 is indeed a good chunk of change compared to 0
Personally, nothing to complain about, you get practical experience and getting paid amazingly well.
Also, you should check lyfts company page where they have offices. It's not just California.
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.
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.
And both my internships paid below yours (after paycut). The important piece of the internship is the experience, not the money.