Apply to the Merit Externship

The Merit Externship helps people get real-world experience before they get hired. Teams work on realistic projects in software, AI, and data, building a track record employers can use.

Application

Tell us who you are.

Name, track, a short note, and two written answers. Then, if you want, pick a task for one question.

Full nameEmail

Track

SoftwareOct–Nov 2026October–November 2026. The first cohort — a realistic software team.DataEarly applicationEarly application for January 2027. Investigate sources and deliver findings a team can use.Machine LearningEarly applicationEarly application for January 2027. Train, evaluate, and ship an ML workflow.Project ManagerEarly applicationEarly application for January 2027. Scope, coordinate, and keep a team shipping.Marketing & SalesApplications openApplications open. Find the audience, write the line, pick who to call, and get a real product in front of people.

City / timezoneGitHub or LinkedInWhere you are nowHours this month

What work do you want to do, and what have you already shipped?

Write these here. Paste is off.

After first contactWhat do you believe is true about you that is not obvious from first contact?When the week breaksYou committed to this month and the week blows up — illness, a job, exams, the brief is larger than you thought. What do you do in the first 24 hours, and what do you cut?

How did you find out about this?

LinkedInA person

Optional

Pick a task for one question, or skip.

You inherited a small web-GPT. It never shows a real page. It turns the window into a pile of HTML tags, asks a person what they want, and suggests the next click. A headed Chromium starts before anyone has said the objective. Clicks fire at the last seen box. Every suggestion waits for a human approve, with no replay and no score.

DataThe agent clicks tags. A person still does the same ten tasks on a real page.

How the agent did versus a person · last three weeks

Week	Agent click	Agent nav	Profile click	Profile nav	Notes
W1	61%	44%	79%	71%	Same ten tasks; tags only
W2	68%	39%	74%	70%	Page moved after crawl
W3	54%	51%	81%	73%	Quiet mode hid the tags

How would you measure a person versus this agent on click and navigation — and which week would you throw out?

Want more details? join@applymerit.com. Applications go through this form.