On the talkcast recorded June 10th, I talked about a story called, “Corporate America and the Intern Culture.” I didn’t give it justice on the show so I figured I would post about it here so I can get more opinions on the issue. Here is part of the article:
“In an Afterword Frederick writes, ‘Some students are now, indeed, paying thousands of dollars for summer internships, and some middle-aged career changers are competing in ever-greater numbers for the opportunity to answer phones and open the mail for free. Corporate America, of course, couldn’t be more thrilled that the great intern scam thunders on unhindered, while the underlying ethics and legality of the whole institution go completely unquestioned.’ Why has the corporate system become so unbalanced that workers are paying to work? Why are we being told by colleges and corporations that it is necessary? Why aren’t we refusing such deception?” –echoflip
Go read the article and then read the comments that followed. There is a lot of good dialog, and don’t miss the one from the commenter Kurt. He posted a well-thought out comment that supported the views I was trying to express on the show.
“I would also argue that many companies who offer non-paid internships are still LOSING money by providing this service. While you see not paying an intern as “free labor” you have failed to recognize that it takes a great deal of resources away from the company to provide the necessary training to teach an intern necessary skills.” – Kurt from echoflip
Also, I would like to thank everyone that called in and was in the chat room during the show. It makes the show better when there is active participation. If you would like to be a part of the show, just go to TalkShoe.com and sign up for an account. If you have any questions, just send me an email.
I see how someone in college, having to pay for an internship, would get discouraged by having to work unpaid (or having to pay, like I did) for their internship. So why do university’s demand that internships are unpaid? I believe that the University of Pittsburgh does just that in some subject areas (like journalism).
I think that the idea of unpaid internships somehow widening the gaps between classes can easily be shown as unfounded. An internship could cost as much as $4,000, which was stated in the original article. College, on the other hand, can cost $10,000-$20,000 a semester! A $4,000 internship, or an unpaid internship, can not put middle/lower class students at a disadvantage any more so that “college” as an institution already does. There are grants, scholarships, financial aid, etc for college to help these students attend school, just like internships that you don’t have to pay for are available.
There are many benefits to completing unpaid internships while in college that I feel are being ignored here. I’m not naive in thinking that people don’t work hard for the all mighty dollar, but having to begin in your field unpaid takes money out of the equation. If you don’t like doing your job unpaid, you are eventually going to hate to do it paid, too. I like how unpaid internships takes money out of the game and concentrates strictly on the actual JOB. Even if you are getting coffee and opening mail you can still observe what a person with your degree might be doing. I think it’s absolutely necessary to have this experience before jumping into a job market. A lot of college students have no idea what the “real world” is like in their field until they dive in after graduation. Sometimes it isn’t what they had hoped for!
As a poor graduate student who paid for her internship as an undergraduate (and then was HIRED afterwards) I understand how unpaid internships reek of the big bad man pinching every dollar he can out of you. I have come to believe, though, that this is not the case in the majority of fields and that there are a lot of benefits that are being ignored by the critics!!
I think people are making a big stink about unpaid internships to advance there Anti-Capitalism propaganda. They try to find anyway that can to manipulate information to make corporations look bad.