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To illustrate, imagine you, as a brand new developer, take a whole week to debug a problem, but a Sr. developer can debug the same thing in a hour or two. (which is a quite reasonable difference, given that new developer knows less about the system, is less familiar with the tools, and has less experience debugging these kinds of problem before, etc.). Was the work of the new developer "more demanding", was it "more valuable"? I don't so.

To illustrate, imagine you, as a brand new developer, take a whole week to debug a problem, but a Sr. developer can debug the same thing in a hour or two. (which is a quite reasonable difference, given that new developer knows less about the system, is less familiar with the tools, and has less experience debugging these kinds of problem before, etc.). Was the work of the new developer "more demanding", was it "more valuable"? Clearly not.

Or take another situation, where the brand new developer spends a week doing some stressful work implementing 7 new features, but the Sr. developer spends a relatively relaxed week writing up a plan for how to extend the architecture and make the product more valuable. Whose work was "more demanding" and "more valuable". In my mind, the Sr's, by many orders of magnitude.

Or take another situation, where the brand new developer spends a week doing some stressful work implementing 7 new features, but the Sr. developer spends a relatively relaxed week writing up a plan for how to extend the architecture and make the product more valuable. Whose work was "more demanding" and "more valuable"? In my mind, the Sr's, by many orders of magnitude.

Only you can evaluate what such a promise is worth. If the same managers have made promises to you in the past, or have made similar promises to other interns on the team, and have delivered on them, you might decide that there is a good chance that the thing being promised will come true (but it is still not guaranteed). One the other hand, if there is no history of promises coming to fruition, there is no reason to believe that this one will.

This firm either has the money to pay you, and is choosing not to, or doesn't have the money. In either case, this is a bad sign. In the second case, where they are so cash strapped that they can't promote a talented intern to a jr. developer, this is such a warning sign about the stability of the firm that you should be heading for the doors. In the first case, it shows a firm that is exploiting your efforts, extracting value from you with nothing in return, and will continue to do so as long as possible. Again, you should be heading for the doors.

First, you cannot compare yourself to others. There is always going to be someone who makes more money, has a better title, has an easier work load, etc., than you do. It is just the way it is. If this situation makes you upset, or lose motivation, you will need to work on this, because you will encounter this situation everywhere you go.

Second, "you don't know what you don't know". As a brand new developer, how do you know that what the others are doing is "less demanding" or bringing "less value" that what you are working on? Are you judging by hours spent, lines of code written, etc? because none of those are metrics of either the demanding nature of a job or the value brought.

Only you can evaluate what such a promise is worth. If the same managers have made promises to you in the past, or have made similar promises to other interns on the team, and have delivered on them, you might decide that there is a good chance that the thing being promised will come true (but it is still not guaranteed). On the other hand, if there is no history of promises coming to fruition, there is no reason to believe that this one will.

This firm either has the money to pay you, and is choosing not to, or doesn't have the money. In either case, this is a bad sign. In the second case, where they are so cash strapped that they can't promote a talented intern to a Jr. developer, this is such a warning sign about the stability of the firm that you should be heading for the doors. In the first case, it shows a firm that is exploiting your efforts, extracting value from you with nothing in return, and will continue to do so as long as possible. Again, you should be heading for the exit.

First, you cannot compare yourself to others. There is always going to be someone who makes more money, has a better title, has an easier work load, etc., than you do. It is just the way it is. If this situation makes you upset, or lose motivation, you will need learn how to manage those feelings, because you will encounter this situation everywhere you go, over and over again.

Second, "you don't know what you don't know". As a brand new developer, how do you know that what the others are doing is "less demanding" or bringing "less value" than what you are working on? Are you judging by hours spent, lines of code written, etc? because none of those are metrics of either the demanding nature of a job or the value produced.