[lapcat]

> The important part is that started from zero and went through all the steps to production in 8 weeks.

Why is that important? That may be personally impressive, but it's unclear how the company benefits from the intern starting from zero.

> And I assume it is not the only thing he did, presumably he did that in addition to what he was hired for. When he found that bug, he probably did a good enough impression so that the company let him work on it.

That's a lot to assume with no evidence. None of this was stated by the OP.

[flappyeagle]

Trajectory matters far more than starting position.

I’ve personally hired people into their first dev jobs out of bootcamp, self-study, and other non-traditional backgrounds.

You can reliably pick winners by testing for mental acuity and observing how much they learn in a short period of time.

An internship is just a glorified interview process. They found a good future employee

[lapcat]

> An internship is just a glorified interview process. They found a good future employee

Why are you assuming that? The OP said nothing about the intern become an employee, much less a good employee. You'd think that would be mentioned if it were the case.

[flappyeagle]

It is the definition of an internship. They’ve de-risked this hire. Now they can do things like offer a more competitive offer or otherwise close the candidate with high confidence

[lapcat]

> It is the definition of an internship.

No, it's not.

[GuB-42]

Short-sighted companies with high turnover probably won't see the benefits, companies that actually give their employees careers definitely will. It is all about potential, what is 8 weeks of internship if you expect your employees to stay for a decade or more? It may not be the culture of Silicon Valley, but the Silicon Valley culture is more the exception than the norm (at least for decent companies).