When I was in college, I worked two really amazing, awesome unpaid internships. And then I hit my junior year and decided not to do that anymore. That year I applied for four summer jobs in four different industries, and by my own decision, not one of these positions was unpaid.
There were a lot of reasons I decided against applying for another unpaid internship. I believed then - and believe now - that ethical organizations should be prepared to pay for talent. Most organizations are, at least when it comes to actual hires. It's not that the organizers of unpaid internships didn't think I was talented - it's just that they had no financial incentive to care, or to encourage me to monitor and increase my productivity. Working for money is a valuable lesson, because at the end of the day you're measured against a hard line. (Of course, unpaid interns still consume resources, which is why organizations want to breakeven on interns - productive enough to cover the costs of a chair and Internet access, at least, and then anything else is gravy.)
Then there's the fact that I'd chosen to major in journalism. Historically, journalism always paid more in glory than in cash, but in these days of shrinking circulation, it doesn't pay much in either (there are exceptions). I already had a few doubts about the value of spending a huge chunk of money on a college education in a field that wouldn't pay me back for months, if not years. Up until fifty years ago, journalism was a field that people largely fell into by chance. Some of the greatest journalists in history learned all their skills in the field. (This is not to say that my education didn't yield value. It did, and continues to do so. But still.)
At the end of the day, part of it also came down to background. My parents are immigrants, and although they never begrudged me the checks they wrote - and in fact were proud to write them - I felt a sense of guilt about working for free, because, after all, nothing is free. Somebody paid for it, and that somebody, I believed, should be my emplower.
This isn't a reflection on every unpaid internship, or every unpaid intern. Far from it. I'm just presenting the various arguments that went through my mind at the time. And the crazy thing is - my paid summer internship gave me a ton of responsibility and introduced me to the challenges of a real job as well. The idea that artistic freedom and personal growth are restricted to unpaid internships is silly.
Anyone who works in the media industry knows that the phenomenon of unpaid internships has spiralled out of control. Students flock to these internships in the vague hope that if they do a really crack job, they will eventually get hired, if not at their current organization then somewhere equally glamorous or competitive. This expectation, tacitly encouraged by many people in the industry, is not always met. The bleaker reality is that the expansion in unpaid internships over the past years disguises the decline in traditional paid jobs (particularly in the media industry).
This isn't to say that there isn't real value for a student in doing an unpaid internship. My two unpaid internships were fantastic - my employers were exacting but not brutal, respectful of my quality of life (to the point that they encouraged me to leave the office on time), and many of them are people I'm in touch with today. This is what unpaid internships are supposed to deliver. But they are also supposed to lead, eventually, to paid work, and that particular link in the causal chain is what is increasingly broken, and why workers are (justifiably) upset. The idea that a student like Wang (interviewed in the story below), has worked eight high-profile unpaid internships without scoring a real job is ludicrous, as is the suggestion that she is not talented or a hard worker. That her employers expect her to live off her savings to work for them is, also, disrespectful, and not (in my opinion) what an internship should require.
Considering all this, it was a matter of time before interns started suing the organizations where they worked as unpaid interns. The article highlights several of the deeply troubling aspects of many of these internships, particularly in media, as they are structured today.
The author writes, "But that was before a couple of interns sued Fox Searchlight in September after they were tasked with the responsibilities of production assistants, bookkeepers, secretaries and janitors without wages. This wasn’t mindless coffee-fetching, they argued. These were entry-level positions that were being filled by unpaid hands."
It's a weird and distorted internship program in which the participants actually wish for "mindless coffee-fetching" responsibilities, isn't it?
But on a more philosophical level, I object to the criteria laid out by Congress in order to define a "fair" unpaid internship, particularly this requirement: "The employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern."
Are they kidding? Are for-profit organizations expected to nurture interns out of the kindness of their hearts? As a corporate social responsibility initiative? The idea that corporations, nonprofit organizations or even government would derive "no immediate advantage" from unpaid interns - but that the interns would still gain exposure to real-world work responsibilities (which is what internships, as opposed to classroom courses, are supposed to provide) - is just bizarre. The two aims don't reasonably reconcile.
Like I said, I loved my two unpaid internships. Both of them offered exposure to new fields and exciting opportunities, and gave me a taste of environments I might want to work in later down the line. My learning and personal growth were paramount - but that was also true of the two internships I got paid for.
The fact that one of the places I worked for no longer exists - the magazine folded - is a sad reminder of the bind that many organizations are now in. The unpaid internship system seems to have morphed dramatically from what it was even when I was in school.
Having discussed this situation with a friend who managed, through rigorous application, to secure outside funding for two unpaid internships, I think there is a difference between quality internships that offer no renumeration at least through the employer, and what seems to be happening with some unpaid internships now.
But in general I would probably say that except in cases that seriously merit it - social work, certain types of public interest work - internships should be paid (perhaps at a lower rate than an entry-level job, but still paid) and resemble real jobs in their opportunities and expectations. Although the hours demanded may be longer - especially if interns want to pursue passion projects on the side - that seems to be the best way to ensure neither party feels cheated.
There were a lot of reasons I decided against applying for another unpaid internship. I believed then - and believe now - that ethical organizations should be prepared to pay for talent. Most organizations are, at least when it comes to actual hires. It's not that the organizers of unpaid internships didn't think I was talented - it's just that they had no financial incentive to care, or to encourage me to monitor and increase my productivity. Working for money is a valuable lesson, because at the end of the day you're measured against a hard line. (Of course, unpaid interns still consume resources, which is why organizations want to breakeven on interns - productive enough to cover the costs of a chair and Internet access, at least, and then anything else is gravy.)
Then there's the fact that I'd chosen to major in journalism. Historically, journalism always paid more in glory than in cash, but in these days of shrinking circulation, it doesn't pay much in either (there are exceptions). I already had a few doubts about the value of spending a huge chunk of money on a college education in a field that wouldn't pay me back for months, if not years. Up until fifty years ago, journalism was a field that people largely fell into by chance. Some of the greatest journalists in history learned all their skills in the field. (This is not to say that my education didn't yield value. It did, and continues to do so. But still.)
At the end of the day, part of it also came down to background. My parents are immigrants, and although they never begrudged me the checks they wrote - and in fact were proud to write them - I felt a sense of guilt about working for free, because, after all, nothing is free. Somebody paid for it, and that somebody, I believed, should be my emplower.
This isn't a reflection on every unpaid internship, or every unpaid intern. Far from it. I'm just presenting the various arguments that went through my mind at the time. And the crazy thing is - my paid summer internship gave me a ton of responsibility and introduced me to the challenges of a real job as well. The idea that artistic freedom and personal growth are restricted to unpaid internships is silly.
Anyone who works in the media industry knows that the phenomenon of unpaid internships has spiralled out of control. Students flock to these internships in the vague hope that if they do a really crack job, they will eventually get hired, if not at their current organization then somewhere equally glamorous or competitive. This expectation, tacitly encouraged by many people in the industry, is not always met. The bleaker reality is that the expansion in unpaid internships over the past years disguises the decline in traditional paid jobs (particularly in the media industry).
This isn't to say that there isn't real value for a student in doing an unpaid internship. My two unpaid internships were fantastic - my employers were exacting but not brutal, respectful of my quality of life (to the point that they encouraged me to leave the office on time), and many of them are people I'm in touch with today. This is what unpaid internships are supposed to deliver. But they are also supposed to lead, eventually, to paid work, and that particular link in the causal chain is what is increasingly broken, and why workers are (justifiably) upset. The idea that a student like Wang (interviewed in the story below), has worked eight high-profile unpaid internships without scoring a real job is ludicrous, as is the suggestion that she is not talented or a hard worker. That her employers expect her to live off her savings to work for them is, also, disrespectful, and not (in my opinion) what an internship should require.
Considering all this, it was a matter of time before interns started suing the organizations where they worked as unpaid interns. The article highlights several of the deeply troubling aspects of many of these internships, particularly in media, as they are structured today.
The author writes, "But that was before a couple of interns sued Fox Searchlight in September after they were tasked with the responsibilities of production assistants, bookkeepers, secretaries and janitors without wages. This wasn’t mindless coffee-fetching, they argued. These were entry-level positions that were being filled by unpaid hands."
It's a weird and distorted internship program in which the participants actually wish for "mindless coffee-fetching" responsibilities, isn't it?
But on a more philosophical level, I object to the criteria laid out by Congress in order to define a "fair" unpaid internship, particularly this requirement: "The employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern."
Are they kidding? Are for-profit organizations expected to nurture interns out of the kindness of their hearts? As a corporate social responsibility initiative? The idea that corporations, nonprofit organizations or even government would derive "no immediate advantage" from unpaid interns - but that the interns would still gain exposure to real-world work responsibilities (which is what internships, as opposed to classroom courses, are supposed to provide) - is just bizarre. The two aims don't reasonably reconcile.
Like I said, I loved my two unpaid internships. Both of them offered exposure to new fields and exciting opportunities, and gave me a taste of environments I might want to work in later down the line. My learning and personal growth were paramount - but that was also true of the two internships I got paid for.
The fact that one of the places I worked for no longer exists - the magazine folded - is a sad reminder of the bind that many organizations are now in. The unpaid internship system seems to have morphed dramatically from what it was even when I was in school.
Having discussed this situation with a friend who managed, through rigorous application, to secure outside funding for two unpaid internships, I think there is a difference between quality internships that offer no renumeration at least through the employer, and what seems to be happening with some unpaid internships now.
But in general I would probably say that except in cases that seriously merit it - social work, certain types of public interest work - internships should be paid (perhaps at a lower rate than an entry-level job, but still paid) and resemble real jobs in their opportunities and expectations. Although the hours demanded may be longer - especially if interns want to pursue passion projects on the side - that seems to be the best way to ensure neither party feels cheated.
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