Warning to job applicants: My Mayerfeld Consulting application turned into a fee-waived practicum, an affiliate VPS purchase, and then a €139 payment request

I want to document my experience with Mayerfeld Consulting because I found other Reddit posts useful when I was researching them, and future applicants should know what happened in my case.

I originally applied for a Junior AI Implementation Specialist position associated with Pixel Systems. Recruitment communication was handled by Mayerfeld Consulting.

I was asked to answer written technical/application questions. I did so, and several days later I was rejected for the position because another candidate had supposedly been selected.

About six days later, Mayerfeld contacted me again and invited me to their four-week AI Operations Specialist Practicum.

The normal participation fee was €139, but I was explicitly told in writing that the fee would be fully waived for me.

Because of that waiver, I accepted.

I was then told that the final onboarding step was to set up a VPS with n8n. Mayerfeld gave me a specific Network Solutions link and explicitly disclosed that:

the link was an affiliate link and Mayerfeld would receive a commission if I purchased the hosting through it.

I was instructed to select the cheapest monthly n8n/VPS package, costing roughly $4.

I purchased it.

The setup was not actually ready-to-use, so I spent time configuring the VPS myself: AlmaLinux, updates, Docker, DNS, HTTPS, Caddy, n8n, and the n8n owner account.

Mayerfeld had asked me to send them the working instance URL once everything was ready.

I completed the setup and sent them:

https://n8n-practicum.velnic-automation.de

After I had already purchased the affiliate-referred VPS and completed the required technical environment, I received this email:

“We’re sorry to inform you that our partner has decided to end the partnership. As a result, the fee waiver is no longer available.”

I was then told that I could still join the practicum by paying the €139 participation fee.

So, in my case, the sequence was:

Job application → rejection → practicum offer → €139 fee explicitly waived → required affiliate hosting purchase → environment completed → fee waiver withdrawn → €139 requested.

I cannot prove that the original vacancy was fake, and I cannot prove criminal fraud or what Mayerfeld’s intentions were from the beginning.

What I can prove is the sequence above. I have the emails showing the fee waiver, the affiliate disclosure, the requirement to purchase the VPS, my purchase, my completed environment, and the subsequent withdrawal of the waiver.

I personally consider this a serious red flag and would not pay the €139.

I have also found other applicants online describing a very similar pattern in which they applied for a job, were rejected, and were subsequently offered a paid Mayerfeld practicum.

I am posting this so that anyone considering applying or paying can make an informed decision.

My advice: keep all correspondence, research the company before paying anything, and be especially cautious when a normal job application turns into a paid training product.

Regarding Network Solutions: they were the hosting provider whose affiliate link Mayerfeld instructed me to use. I have no evidence that Network Solutions knew about or participated in Mayerfeld’s recruitment process, so I am not accusing them of that. I have, however, reported the circumstances of the affiliate referral to Network Solutions and asked them to review it.