TLDR; “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” – The Joker
I was an intern at a company and knew I would not be receiving an offer letter. Why? I’m not sure.
Fast forward to the week before my internship ended: the company hosted an in-house hackathon. There were about 8 projects in total. I as an intern took home the grand prize (a trophy, but still felt really great to win against the Sr devs in the dept!)
Fast forward to ~2 weeks after my internship had ended, I got a phone call from my old boss. He wanted more information about the code I wrote. Because I was inexperienced, I answered some questions he had. I excitedly told my boyfriend about him calling me and he gave me some wisdom. He was excited for me, but was also clearly (and rightfully) pissed off:
“So he called you after you’re no longer working there to try and get more free labor from you?? For a project that you built that helps their business, and they still didn’t even give you an offer? If he calls again, tell him you can give him more info about your code after he sets up a pay schedule for every preceding call.”
The very next day, my old boss once again called and I did what I was encouraged to do. I asked for a pay schedule for my time on the phone and explained once that was set up, I’d love to help explain the code more.
I never heard from them again. I also got an I got an offer from a much better company.