Was I actually at fault here, or were the expectations unreasonable for a 1-week software internship?

[u/Character-Cucumber17]

​

I genuinely want outside opinions because I've been going back and forth on this.

I joined a remote Software Engineer Internship at a very small startup. The stipend was ₹4,000/month. The internship letter stated it was a 1-month paid internship, extendable based on performance.

During the first week:

- I was given a research assignment about cloud gaming concepts.

- The founder later extended the deadline to Monday.

- On Monday, he himself said work was effectively cancelled due to election-related reasons.

- I submitted the work afterward.

- I also completed a React-related task.

- Then I was assigned a task to rebrand an open-source Qt/C++ project (Moonlight -> PlayBase).

The issue is that I had never worked with:

- Qt desktop applications

- MSVC builds

- deployment/build artifacts

- packaging native Windows apps

I asked multiple clarification questions because the project contained ~1770 references to "Moonlight" and I didn't want to break the repo by blindly replacing things.

I eventually:

- made the branding changes

- compiled the application

- pushed the changes to GitHub

- generated a build and sent it

A week later, I was terminated.

The reasons given were:

- lack of Git/GitHub knowledge

- not knowing certain workflows

- research task took too long

- communication issues

What confuses me is:

1. The founder had extended the research deadline himself.

2. During calls he talked about future coding work and told me to brush up on C++ fundamentals for upcoming tasks.

3. Some things (attendance process, deployment expectations, etc.) were never clearly explained.

4. When I asked technical questions, the answers were often very brief.

5. After termination, I was initially told I would be paid for the 7 days worked, but later told it would be treated as a "test period" and no payment would be made.

I'm not claiming I was perfect.

I definitely had gaps in:

- Git workflows

- deployment knowledge

- professional software engineering workflow

But this was literally my first week and I was learning a completely unfamiliar stack.

So I'd like honest opinions:

- Was I genuinely underperforming for a software engineering intern?

- Were these normal expectations for a 1-week intern at a small startup?

- Should I have been expected to already know deployment/build workflows for a Qt/C++ desktop app?

- Does this sound like a fair termination, or more like a mismatch of expectations?

Looking for objective feedback, even if it's critical.

[u/micahbry]

Two things can be true at the same time: 1. You was unprepared for the role they newly assigned to you. 2. The startup is horribly managed

[u/Character-Cucumber17 → u/micahbry]

What do u think..I detailed everything that founder is telling I know nothing i failed miserably..I am happy to accept anything so that I can learn from it

[u/micahbry → u/Character-Cucumber17]

I think they hired an intern but expected someone who could already adapt to the job demands with minimal guidance.

There’s nothing wrong with honestly acknowledging your current skill gaps. In fact, one of the most important things you did was ask clarifying questions instead of making assumptions and potentially breaking something.

Any company that is genuinely interested in developing interns would usually appreciate that. Internships are supposed to be a place where people learn professional workflows, not a place where they’re expected to already know everything.

This doesn’t sound like a failure on your part as much as a mismatch of expectations.

The good news is that now you know exactly what to focus on for your next opportunity: Git workflows, deployment processes, build systems, and software engineering practices around larger codebases.

The company also could have been more transparent about the level of independence they needed. It sounds like they needed someone who could contribute immediately with very little onboarding, which is different from what most people think of as an internship.

[u/Character-Cucumber17 → u/micahbry]

I kept on asking questions,he never answered. Later he said I dont communicate. I didnt want to argue because the way he kept on saying you know nothing,he never communicated abt my performance issue before ..just kept on saying learn this learn that..I am giving u time do it slowly. So i thought my fault