Unpaid Internships?
Columnist Richard Rys of Philadelphia Magazine recently wrote a piece arguing that unpaid internships are the new entry-level job.
Rys stated that:
It’s not enough to simply have a college degree. Companies know that students need internships for resume building. Why pay them when the demand is already so high?
As a student who has taken two unpaid internships in the past, I am partial to agree with Rys. In today's job market, internships can be more valuable than even a college education, and companies recognize this. In fact, they are so cognizant of this that they realize, in many cases, they don't even have to pay their interns anything.
Me, I'm fine with the idea of unpaid internships because I view internships as an extension of my education, and thankfully worked hard enough during high school to afford income-less summers.
However, for many this is not the case. Some can't afford to take an unpaid internship. And for students who don't view internships as an extension of their education, their argument against unpaid internships are vaild -it's free work.
What do you all think? For the older crowd, I understand that internships are a newer development and weren't as important when you all were in college. Today, however, if I was a soon-to-be college graduate without any internship experience, I would be very concerned about entering the job market.
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Dec '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
Dec '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
Oct '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
I have been employed or self-employed since age 18, and have never worked without compensation. I have never employed an intern nor used the services of any other person without paying them what I considered (and they accepted) as adequate compensation for their work.
That said, when I was learning the craft of software development, I would have happily worked for nothing at the side of the masters to absorb their wisdom, even if it meant a second job at the fast food outlet to pay the rent.
However, were a bright person to apply to work with me for nothing, I would turn them down. If they could genuinely pull their weight, I'd be happy to pay them for their service. Otherwise, it's me that's giving something without compensation to them, not the other way around.
If this seems ambiguous and conflicted, well, it is.
Feb '11
Re: Unpaid Internships?
Gosh. It sounds like the Thirteenth Amendment has been effectively repealed.
But that's OK, because corporations need labor.
Why pay for it, when so many are desperate for work?
Jun '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
Ha ha, Xennady!
Maybe not slavery, but collusion. I wonder if unpaid internships violate some RICO statute.
The colleges LOVE internships for several reasons. They can brag about the numbers offered through their offices. As college students and their families become more and more focused on the degree as pathway to professional employment, the internship track record of a given college is huge.
These colleges take huge piles of tuition dollars from students who work these internships, yet the colleges have to provide virtually no input/supervision/guidance from any of their faculty. They don't even have to provide a desk. It involves a few forms & some type of documentation of the hours worked & the project's relevance to the degree that the advisor signs off on. Meanwhile, the course called Accounting Internship (or whatever) is one the faculty member can claim as a section taught when moaning about workload.
The unpaid internship bonanza is like the mandatory women & gender studies courses that pop up in so many university core curricula. You hate the idea of them, you'd love to fight them, but you have only four years to get your kid that sheepskin.
May '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
The rise in unpaid internships looks like a new apprenticeship system. I surmise that it is growing in response to the inability of businesses to evaluate potential employees and the inability of the typical college graduate to do useful work. Apprenticeship solves both problems by allowing the new workers to be evaluated in a work environment for low cost and by training them on the job.
Jan '11
Re: Unpaid Internships?
I would advise against any degree seeker from working in an unpaid internship. You are paying handsomely for your education already and should not undervalue (give away) your services. You may not have experience but you do have value - I'd guess that value is substantially greater than nothing.
Again, I'd strongly advise against it - but if you feel you must, I'd insist from both the 'employer' and university/instructor that they work with you in producing a professional development plan or outline that covers what specific projects, departments and operations you will be involved with and how that relates to your degree - you don't want to end up taking a unpaid filing job or being in charge of office supplies.
Sep '11
Re: Unpaid Internships?
I agree with Dietlbomb--
Up until recently I worked as an engineering manager for a company that makes lighting control systems. The company emphasizes internships heavily as a core part of it's on-campus recruiting effort. The company actively recruits students to intern between their sophomore and junior years, and invites the most promising students back for a second summer between their junior and senior years. At the end of that second summer most (almost all) of the interns will go back to campus with a job offer in their hands.
(The company does this really well--there's an end-of-summer banquet, and the parents of the kids all come and see their child's presentation of what he or she worked on. The rising seniors get their offers the morning before the banquet, so it makes for a pretty festive occasion.)
But--this ain't free labor. You have to define specific educational goals for your intern's project; and the project cannot become "production" work. (This is high-voltage electricity--we can't let a student error cause a fatal accident.)
It's a really, really long job interview. And it's been very successful.
Jun '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
John .... Are your interns paid? That seems to be the case with most in the engineering field. If so, that's cool.
Even in the Middle Ages apprentices were fed and housed. Apprentices had it better than today's unpaid interns.
Re: Unpaid Internships?
John, that internship seems like a great opportunity. I wish more companies had as thoroughly developed internship programs as yours seems to have. A well developed internship program, I believe, can do wonderful things as far as production and labor value is concerned.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 3:21pmJun '10
Re: Unpaid Internships?
Nico Perrino: John, that internship seems like a great opportunity. I wish more companies had as thoroughly developed internship programs as yours seems to have. A well developed internship program, I believe, can do wonderful things as far as production and labor value is concerned. · Sep 15 at 9:40am
Edited on Sep 15 at 03:21 pm
But are the interns paid?
My husband is the Director of Engineering & Product Development at his firm and also offers fabulous intenships. Some of them are true industiral/academic partnerships with close mentoring by both professor and engineer. Some involve an engineer taking a student under her wing for a sememster and guiding the student's work on a particular project. He's hired kids who have started out as interns.
But he would never exploit these kids by expecting them to work (and it is valuable, essential work they do) for free. He wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
Re: Unpaid Internships?
I know this thread has long moved on but I had to share this (slightly) NSFW fake magazine cover.