[[self new] description]

I’m taking an Android development course at my college. Today, our teacher showed us an internship opportunity he’d been emailed about. The opportunity was to build an app for data collection in an ecological project. It sounded like the intern would be the sole developer on the project (it was indicated that scheduling was flexible), and commitment to the project and reliability were expected. They were offering $8 - $12 per hour.

According to a report from Bluewolf, Android developers start around $97,000 per year, or $1,940 per week. This breaks down to around $55 per hour. However, to be in the class, you’re probably already an experienced Java developer and learning Android is simply another framework, so you’re much closer to the advanced level.

The most seasoned developer can only produce a certain level of code per hour. I would hazard a guess that an Android intern will produce 1/4 the code of a professional. That intern will increase his/her value throughout the project, and at the end of the project, they’ll have visited every step of the process and be much closer to the professional’s value.

I was working as an iOS intern for $15 per hour as my first development job, and then moved to a salary job at $400 per week. I’ve been doing iOS development for about a year now, and I wouldn’t take a job for less than $30 an hour, and only if I were really interested in the project I were working on. To do so would be a disservice to my fellow coders, since if I’ll work for $20, they must also be willing to work for $20. I would discourage anyone for taking an internship for a penny less than $15, because a company will then expect others to do so.

To this, my teacher told me “Go get my job and then you can discourage students!”. My to-do list now has “teacher” on it.