i agree with the others: this sounds like a sand trap. stay away.
for me, the biggest red flag is that they are setting a deadline unilaterally and willing to hire someone with zero mobile experience to meet that deadline. makes no sense. they have no idea how long it will take, and neither do you. a professional, experienced engineer with a solid set of requirements in hand might be able to make an accurate estimate. but here, they're just picking a date out of thin air. honestly, what's their rush? i hardly know anything about them but they already sound like the proverbial 'bad client'.
a note about pay: if you are going to be a salaried employee, then whatever you've finished at the end of the summer is what they get. (i'm assuming you work in an at-will employment jurisdiction like much of the U.S. is.) maybe that's a complete app, maybe it's just 20% of an app. but if this is really a situation where you're signing a contract and committing to some deliverable, then ... no. stay away.
> "my employment record is filled with a few holes"
no one cares about your work experience while you're still getting your bachelor's.
do yourself a favour: you need to get on the ball and hustle and at least attempt to secure a proper (paid) internship at a software company, or a bank, etc. you need to be around people you can learn from, for one thing. and if you're not working somehwere, pick up some books on topics you're not familiar and work through them. go work in your university's library, don't just stay at home. can you implement Raft in C++? there's your first project. no fast food.
for me, the biggest red flag is that they are setting a deadline unilaterally and willing to hire someone with zero mobile experience to meet that deadline. makes no sense. they have no idea how long it will take, and neither do you. a professional, experienced engineer with a solid set of requirements in hand might be able to make an accurate estimate. but here, they're just picking a date out of thin air. honestly, what's their rush? i hardly know anything about them but they already sound like the proverbial 'bad client'.
a note about pay: if you are going to be a salaried employee, then whatever you've finished at the end of the summer is what they get. (i'm assuming you work in an at-will employment jurisdiction like much of the U.S. is.) maybe that's a complete app, maybe it's just 20% of an app. but if this is really a situation where you're signing a contract and committing to some deliverable, then ... no. stay away.
> "my employment record is filled with a few holes"
no one cares about your work experience while you're still getting your bachelor's.
do yourself a favour: you need to get on the ball and hustle and at least attempt to secure a proper (paid) internship at a software company, or a bank, etc. you need to be around people you can learn from, for one thing. and if you're not working somehwere, pick up some books on topics you're not familiar and work through them. go work in your university's library, don't just stay at home. can you implement Raft in C++? there's your first project. no fast food.