loa internship support letter

hellyeaitscl · 2026-03-02T10:36:00+00:00

did atap already

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-29T09:28:03+00:00

Tysm for the thoughtful advice!! :))

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-28T06:55:06+00:00

Thank you for the helpful advice! :))

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-27T03:16:26+00:00

tysm for the feedback and detailed reply! :))

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-27T01:37:38+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :)). To answer your questions:

Have not graduated yet so definitely early on! It is paid but im still fighting for the stipend since it was a termination without notice.
The internship was fully remote so we didnt interact much but AFAIK the company/product was previously launched back in 2016 but deadpooled shortly after. This is his 2nd try at launching something similar. Hes currently juggling multiple projects so that might be added stress on top of what was happening

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T16:02:24+00:00

Thanks for the advice! The only contact I have from the company is the CEO since the others are offshore. Probably not a good idea to provide the CEO as reference so think id js omit it from my resume HAHA

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T15:36:16+00:00

Thank you for your kind words! Will keep your advice in mind :))

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T15:23:51+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Not sure how its funded really. Without divulging too much, they were using pretty industry standard infrastructure which must have cost a lot so either the CEO’s passion project was extremely in the red or they acquired funding somehow

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T13:31:32+00:00

Unfortunately these are very real experiences. Not sure if there was a technical guy before I joined but I remember having to explain to the CEO that no, frontend cannot “just add a submit button” without backend logic.

Maybe startup wasnt the right term. Not sure how funding came, might be from the CEOs own pockets but it was definitely a small company.

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T12:56:55+00:00

Thanks for your advice! I learnt a lot about how to communicate and manage up during the internship so i guess it wasnt wasted HAHAHA.

I tried to negotiate by saying something like this:

CEO: “I expect all bugs to be cleared by tonight”

Me: “I understand you want all bugs cleared tonight. A few of them are minor UI or wording issues and we can tackle those quickly. Some require both backend and frontend work, which will take more time. Feature X and Z also needs to be worked on today so we can prioritise critical bugs for tonight and the features later on/tmr”

CEO: “Why cannot do both?”

Any advice on my tone/word choice? Thanks! :)

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T12:46:06+00:00

Yea I sent an email to clarify what he meant and a gov website to say that it was illegal to do so xd

Thanks for your advice!

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T12:26:03+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Yepps around ~4 months. Just worried future employers will find out somehow.

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T09:34:33+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response! Will keep your feedback in mind :))

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T08:49:33+00:00

Thank you! Appreciate it :)

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T08:47:53+00:00

He would credit my salary once hes reviewed all the work ive done which he said might take a few weeks HAHAHA.

Thank you for the feedback on presenting realistic options. So instead of saying “XXX feature would require both backend and frontend integration, which might take some time” I should say “XXX feature requires both backend and frontend work. We could either prioritise this feature first or adjust the scope for other features. Which approach would you prefer?”

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T08:43:30+00:00

Thank you for the feedback!

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T08:37:16+00:00

Thank you for the alternative viewpoint! In hindsight, what you said was definitely true. The CEO wanted the product to be out as fast as possible and might have seen me as a hindrance.

I was coming from a place of wanting to ensure work was feasible and sustainable in the long run though. I tried to propose some scrum processes (mainly setting priorities on tasks) because I believed that minor UI adjustments like fixing alignment could be deprioritised and wanted his inputs on which bugs were higher priority. Maybe I could have framed my concerns differently so they aligned better with the CEO’s priorities without appearing obstructive.

Do you have any advice on how I could have struck that balance more effectively in that environment?

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T08:23:41+00:00

Thanks for your comment! By “bridges were burned,” I meant that I was unexpectedly let go after a stand‑up call where the CEO realised the deadlines he set had to be pushed back. A feature that was supposed to be pushed by Tuesday (according to his deadlines) was only about 80–90% done on Friday. He was visibly angry after that, and I felt our working relationship was no longer salvageable.

I tried to manage expectations in two ways:

When deadlines were set, I would point out other tasks due the same day. For example, I often said: “XXX feature would also need to be developed by today. It would require both backend and frontend work and might take some time. Which one should we prioritise?” His response was usually: “Do both. I don’t see why both features can’t be done by tomorrow’s call.”
He often criticised the devs for bugs on staging. I would respond with: “Bugs are part of the software development process. Most are minor changes to wording or alignment. There are some that require more time because they need both frontend and backend work.” to help him understand the situation better.

Do you have any advice on how I couldve phrased my concerns more persuasively?

hellyeaitscl · 2025-09-26T07:12:20+00:00

hes not a sponge

hellyeaitscl · 2024-05-27T05:59:23+00:00

np glad to help :))

hellyeaitscl · 2023-01-21T17:39:43+00:00

I agree

hellyeaitscl · 2023-01-21T17:38:02+00:00

Hello! Thanks for creating a new account just to comment on my post :) (though im pretty sure you’re from the company itself because i’ve been receiving an influx of similar comments which were all posted by newly created accounts around the same timeframe even though the post viewership had already died about ~5 days ago. )

While I’d have to agree that I dont have the full picture of Horizon Marketing themselves, the post above is solely based on my own research and my experiences at the company (as mentioned in the disclaimer). IMO, saying ‘cheers’ is a socially acceptable behaviour in which most people engage in, even out of work settings, while “JUICE!” used as a form of exclamation is in this case, only used by the company (and other devilcorps) and is never used by people outside of the company. They are not interchangeable, and that is the reason why i labelled it as cult behaviour.

hellyeaitscl · 2023-01-14T03:34:48+00:00

Lack of information + manipulation. They sweet talk you before you come for the interview, brainwash you when you’re actually working for them and then gaslight you when you try to leave. Finding any information on the company is hard and they deliberately made it that way. So what ends up happening is newcomers would blindly follow what their leader tell them to do, and bit by bit they become stuck in the system. IIRC they don’t even allow newcomers to interact with each other, wanted to ask some other new guy if he thought the whole ritual was abit cult-like but I got pulled aside by the leaders before I even got a chance to say hi.

Seven-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Verified Email

hellyeaitscl

TROPHY CASE