Where you are. Where you'll be.
Most people who apply to the FlyRank AI Internship are at one of two places on the ladder below. The program is designed to take you to the third. Find yourself, then keep reading.
Find your rung before you apply.
The best answer is the one you can defend with examples. If two levels feel true, choose the lower one and let the internship move you up.
How does AI fit into your work today?
How often do you use AI tools in a workflow?
What have you shipped with AI involved?
How do you evaluate AI output?
Curious → Tinkerer → Builder → Shipper.
Each level is described across four dimensions: how you think about AI, what you do with it, what you've shipped, and how you evaluate quality. You can sit at different levels across dimensions — take the level you reach most often as your honest baseline.
Curious
“I want to build, but I don't know where to start.”
AI sounds useful, but you're not sure it's for someone like you. You might worry about hype, limits, or your own footing in this space.
You've used ChatGPT for a question or two. You haven't installed Cursor, Cline, or Claude Desktop. You don't yet have a workflow.
You haven't shipped anything where AI was a real tool. Maybe a one-off prompt for a homework assignment, but nothing public.
You can't yet tell when AI output is right and when it's wrong. You either trust everything or trust nothing.
Tinkerer
“I'm experimenting. I haven't shipped yet.”
You see AI as a useful tool. You're willing to experiment. You haven't found your stride yet.
You use one or two tools regularly — maybe ChatGPT for writing, Cursor for code. You've started side projects.
One or two unfinished projects. Nothing deployed publicly. Nothing in a portfolio yet.
You can spot obvious AI mistakes — hallucinations, broken code, missing context — but you don't yet have a habit of evaluating output before you accept it.
Builder
“I ship real work with AI as a partner.”
AI is a teammate. You bring it in where it helps and leave it out where it doesn't. You can articulate the why for both.
You use multiple AI tools fluently and switch between them. You can write a clear brief, prompt for code, debug AI output, and chain tools into a workflow.
At least one shipped project — deployed app, public repo, published case study — where AI was a core tool. You can talk about what worked and what didn't.
You evaluate AI output against quality bars you set. You catch and correct issues before they ship. You know when to push back on the model and when to accept its answer.
Shipper
“AI is how I work. Others learn from me.”
AI is part of how you think and work, not something bolted on. You think in systems, not single prompts.
You orchestrate multiple AI tools into pipelines, agents, and workflows that make you faster and more reliable. You design for failure modes and validation up front.
Multiple shipped projects. Some have users. Each project you ship makes the next one faster — your work compounds.
You set the quality standards that others adopt. You teach. You write about what works and why.
The internship is the bridge.
Most applicants enter as Curious or Tinkerer. The internship's promise is to take you to Builder — a deployed project, a public portfolio, the judgment to evaluate your own work. Builder → Shipper is the path the FlyRank community supports after you graduate.
What this looks like in your track.
The four levels are universal. The signals that get you to each level depend on what you're building. Pick your track to see the specific markers.
Business Development
Has heard of AI sales tools but doesn't use any. Manual research, no enrichment.
Uses ChatGPT to draft cold outreach. Drafts only — hand-edits everything.
Has shipped a workflow that combines lead enrichment, ICP scoring, and personalized outreach using AI as the engine. Can show measurable lift.
Runs a full pipeline of AI agents that source, enrich, prioritize, and personalize leads at scale. Other BDRs adopt their playbook.
Frontend Engineering
Has copied AI-generated React from a tutorial. Hasn't deployed anything.
Uses Cursor or Copilot day-to-day. Has a half-finished side project on localhost.
Has a deployed app — Vercel/Netlify URL — built with AI as a co-pilot. Can articulate which parts AI got right and which they had to rewrite.
Ships UI fast and confidently. Maintains a personal stack of patterns, components, and prompts that compound across projects.
Backend Engineering
Has asked ChatGPT to debug a SQL error. Hasn't built a service.
Has prototyped an API or worker, locally. Used AI for the bulk of the code.
Has shipped a deployed backend — API, queue, agent, integration — to production. Knows where AI helped and where it cost time.
Designs systems that include AI as a first-class component (eval, retry, observability). Their patterns are reusable.
ML / AI Engineering
Has run a notebook from a tutorial. Hasn't built an evaluation.
Has built a RAG demo or a single-agent workflow. No evals, no production.
Has shipped an AI feature — prompt + retrieval + evaluation — to production with measured quality. Can articulate failure modes.
Builds and maintains agentic systems with feedback loops, evaluations, observability, and a real quality bar. Teaches others how to.
UI / UX Design
Has used Midjourney for a moodboard. No AI in their actual design process.
Uses AI for inspiration and copy. Manual design tool work. No AI-driven research or prototyping.
Has shipped a designed product where AI played a real role in research, copy, prototyping, or iteration. Can show specific examples.
Designs AI-native products — interfaces that assume an LLM in the loop. Treats prompt design and UX design as one craft.
AI Marketing
Has used ChatGPT to brainstorm headlines. Hasn't launched anything.
Drafts content with AI, edits by hand. No measurement, no system.
Has shipped campaigns where AI drove production speed and personalization. Can show traffic, conversion, or engagement lift.
Runs an AI-powered marketing system: research, copy, distribution, measurement. Each campaign teaches the next.
Ready to move one rung?
The internship is free. Self-paced. Open right now.