React Intern
Ah yes, another brilliant job posting straight out of Late-Stage Capitalism.
A company—let’s call them Wish to Exploit—has boldly redefined the concept of an "internship." Instead of offering a learning opportunity, they've set the bar so high that actual senior developers wouldn’t qualify for this unpaid gig.
Just look at their totally reasonable requirements:
✔ 3+ years of Front-end Engineering experience
✔ 3+ years of React Native experience
✔ 4+ years of React.js experience
All for the prestigious role of… React.js Development Intern (Unpaid, Remote).
The Corporate Delusion: "It’s a Learning Opportunity!"
In what twisted reality does an unpaid intern need four years of experience in React? If you’ve been working with React for that long, congratulations—you’re a mid-to-senior developer.
But no, dear Future Code Monkey, this is a unique opportunity to work for free while:
- Fixing their spaghetti code
- Building their entire front-end infrastructure
- Subsidizing their company with your own electricity, internet, and hardware
- Praying that they maybe throw you a paid position after three months (spoiler: they won’t)
This is not an internship.
This is free labor.
You Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Underpaying Tech Workers
There’s an old saying in IT: "You get what you pay for."
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
If you pay nothing, you get ghosted.
Let’s run the numbers:
- A React.js developer with 4+ years of experience in the US earns $100K+ per year.
- Even entry-level devs expect at least $50K.
- Meanwhile, this company offers $0 per year and "experience."
At that rate, their best bet is a time traveler who already has four years of experience before applying for an internship.
The Real Internship Model: Learning, Not Exploitation
A real internship:
✅ Provides mentorship, not unreasonable work expectations
✅ Trains you instead of demanding you already know everything
✅ Pays you at least something—even if it’s just a stipend
✅ Respects that junior developers are not senior developers
This, on the other hand? It’s an unpaid senior dev role wrapped in corporate gaslighting.
Final Thoughts: Pay Your Workers, or Keep Dreaming
The tech industry runs on talent. Not charity.
If you want:
💻 Senior devs, pay senior wages.
🛠️ Mid-level devs, pay mid-level wages.
👶 Interns, don’t expect them to be seniors.
Otherwise, your "internship" will have exactly zero applicants, because even fresh grads know that exposure won’t pay the rent.
