Yeah, Silicon Valley can be like that. Like a lot of things, it can be fun if you know how to spot the bad stuff (people who want you to work for free and always talk about how big it's going to get) and stick wih the better stuff (make sure you get everything in writing, if someone feels untrustworthy they probably are, etc)

Sorry you had a bad experience.

It's not just Silicon Valley, it is the entire IT industry. There is so much money sloshing about now (plus all the social status of "IT") that I can hardly believe it sometimes, given what I remember it was like before there was a World Wide Web. That money etc, is turning the IT industry into something like the finance industry - attracting the sociopathic SOBs aka "capitalists". I put that in quotes because there is nothing inherently wrong with capitalism (the same goes for Marxism) - they are only models of reality, or ways of "interpreting" reality.

Instead, it is the actions and values of people that matter - and capitalism works by leveraging the worst part of human nature. It says something about fundamental about humanity when capitalism seems to be trouncing socialism so effectively.

I have mentioned elsewhere how I got professionally raped by a full blown sociopath as part of my quest of catching some digital White Whale, so I won't go into that - this was in London. Silicon Valley is only the epicenter of this ...corruption... of the IT industry. I say 'corruption' because as an engineer, I am finding this hype and excessive money and "we'll change the world, we're all John Galts and Promethesus" attitude sickening because for a lot of people, they're really just hypocrites and do not care about the work or the profession. Analogous would be all the people in IT who joined during the first bubble strictly for the money and hype.

Was I a Luddite in a previous life? No, as an engineer, I can see the point of making things more efficient. But there are always social costs. At this point in my life, it is so clear what is wrong with the IT industry, and with humanity in general, but it has always been this way... all I can do is shake my head and resort to Buddhism to keep my sanity

I wish I'd been as wise as I am now 4 years ago. At least you have learned a very valuable lesson without much cost.

If you want to go to silicon valley for a real internship and you're pursuing a math + CS degree you can get it, maybe on a more established company (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter) but there are several of the bigger startups (Airbnb, Github) that do offer good internship deals.

Check out the 'Who's hiring posts' here at HN at the beginning of each month and you'll see the huge amount of intern positions (even remote) available.

Good luck mate :)

I agree with the rest of the people here about you having dodged a bullet.

You dodged one hell of a bullet. Either they were entirely incompetent or about to exploit you. Wanna bet which one?

Pastbin makes this very impersonal. This reads like a good first draft.

People make me sick.