My Experience with Coding4Youth

My name’s Diane, I’m a sophomore in college, and currently I’m working pretty hard to find an internship for this summer in computer science.

The past few weeks I have been mass-submitting my resume to all possible internship matches I come across on various job-posting websites. One position that caught my eye was Computer Science Intern for Coding4Youth. This “company” for lack of a better term was searching for computer science undergraduate students who would be able to teach computer science to high schoolers in online classrooms.

I’m very new to the internship-search process, so I did not check off some of the fundamental steps before applying. I assumed what I was looking at was legitimate after a brief scan of their website- Coding4Youth.org. I did not do any further digging. I did not know the importance of snooping.

I sent along my resume, and shortly after someone named Winston contacted me via email asking that I submit a sample lesson. I followed the steps, and the next day after I submitted I was invited to interview for the position via Google Hangout.

I interviewed with Winston on a Wednesday afternoon. During the interview, some red flags started popping up. For starters, I realized I did not know Winston’s last name. Secondly, he asked me some coding questions, and I definitely got one of them wrong, but he didn’t correct me! I had to wonder if he knew what he was talking about. Additionally, he started telling me how I will be able to move up to a “manager” position fairly quickly. At this point- I hadn’t even been offered the entry-level job!

However, the interview got much more uncomfortable when Winston asked if I could do a demo lesson with a student on Sunday (less than 4 days from when we were talking). I agreed, assuming it was part of the interview process (never mind the fact I was still being offered a manager position). However, he started talking about doing the lesson for future Sundays as well. At that point, I asked to clarify that I was still applying for a summer internship, as teaching a lesson every Sunday for the rest of the spring semester did not sound like much of a summer internship. He assured me the position was for the summer, but never clarified why he wanted me to start teaching a course immediately. (Unpaid labor??)

The interview ended fairly shortly after, and I was sent an offer letter as well as some next steps I needed to take. Two of those steps I went ahead and completed- reaching out to the parents of the student I would do the demo lesson with, and creating an instructor account on the website. However, I purposely stalled on signing the offer letter. I was still a little weary.

I read the offer letter more closely. The pay was described as $12/hour. For a computer science intern, it’s fine, but most internships definitely pay higher rates. However, the fine print stated interns would be paid $12/hour for hours spent instructing students, but I would not be paid for hours I spent doing other work, such as grading, prepping, evaluating, etc. In all, that would come to well below minimum wage (as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the computer science department at my university, I am well aware of the prep needed before helping students!).

All of this in mind, I decided that I did not want the internship with Coding4Youth. Mind you, I was offered the position Wednesday, and came to the conclusion to reject it on Friday, less than 48 hours after.

I reached out to this mysterious Winston (last name still unknown), drafted a very professional and succinct email stating my decision to decline the job offer. Well, the mysterious Winston ended up to be a big toddler who threw a temper tantrum the second he got my email!

Hello Winston,

Unfortunately, upon further reflect I have come to the conclusion to cancel my position as a Coding4Youth instructor. I will not be signing and accepting the job offer. I really appreciate the time you have spent with me, and I love the mission and concept of Coding4Youth. However, at this time I do not think it is the right fit for me this summer. As such, I will reach out to [name withheld] and his parents to cancel the class session for this Sunday afternoon.

I wish you and Coding4Youth all the best.

Sincerely,

Diane

Hi Diane,

Thank you for writing this email. That said, I am not sure you have handled this professionally. Technically, you have written an email confirming that you will be teaching this course and have requested to create an instructor account. I am pretty sure you have also read the terms and conditions. This is very unprofessional and we will escalate this to your school.

Coding4Youth.org

Winston,

To which terms and conditions are you referring? I have not filled out any paperwork. Also to which class are you referring? While I realize the strain me declining this position creates for you, I do not believe I am bound by any obligations. I am able to contact the legal services provided to University of [name-withheld] students if this becomes an issue, but I ask you to gracefully accept my decision to decline the offer.

-Diane

This is a terrible and very unprofessional behavior which we have rarely seen. But when this happens, we will escalate this to the school. You sent us an email confirming you will be teaching this Sunday. You have also sent an email to the parents within last 48 hours. We will discuss with your school about what we will do about this. But, to the least we will let your school be aware of this irresponsible and unprofessional misconduct.

Winston

Program Manager

Coding4youth.org

FYI, we will also report this instance to Internships.com (where you submitted your application).

Safe to say I was terrified! I spent the better half of the day crying anxiously. However, I had a good sense I was within my rights. To make sure and to ease my anxiety, I reached out to the legal services at my university for support. I also drafted my version of the story to Internships.com in hopes that Coding4Youth wouldn’t get me banned from the website or anything (I was still a desperate college student looking for summer work!).

Internships.com reached out and took my side. The legal services at my university helped me tremendously. However, Coding4Youth internship posts are STILL posted online with requests for job applicants. I was really shaken up by my experience applying, so I’m posting this in hopes that anyone thinking of applying might stumble across this article, and can use this information to help them make a decision (to run far away from Coding4Youth).