'It's slave labour, but it teaches you a lot': The harsh realities of working as an intern

The Daily Mail ^ | Last updated at 8:00 PM on 26th March 2011 | By Jane Phillimore

[Niuhuru]

For increasing numbers of young college leavers, getting a foot on the career ladder means taking an unpaid internship, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end. Is this all about opportunity or exploitation? Five graduates tell Jane Phillimore their experiences

[Niuhuru]

Whine whine whine whine whine. Why not work at a samll job and intern instead of trying to get a job right out of school? Or build your skill set while in school to bulk up the resume?

[loungitude]

Hey, kids, you are not THAT valuable right when you finish college.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Not a real degree among the lot of them.

If you're not going to major in a hard science or technology, you're better off not making yourself an indentured slave to the student loan scam.

You can a damned internship without an expensive worthless degree.

[Niuhuru]

Try to convince the students of that; it’ll be like herding cats.

[CommieCutter]

You have a choice to be an intern or not. That’s not Slave labor.

[Niuhuru]

“You can a damned internship without an expensive worthless degree”

Put frankly they owuld have to work harder at getting an internship then, we can’t have that now can we? Spoiled brats the worthless lot of them. Our colleges are loaded with pointless courses and pointless students.

[DannyTN]

I think unpaid internships are exploitation.

If you receive work, you should pay at least minimum wage for it.

[CommieCutter]

Yet I see a lot of job postings that require a 4 year degree. I wish the job market would wake up and realize they might be better off diluting this requirement a little. That being said, I agree with you.

[92nina]

I too disagree w/ the article’s author. It’s at the most, the worst, indentured servitude for 6 months or so, not slavery. Would I be correct that medical school graduates have it the worst the first year of their Residency? (Those future physicians are interns w/ 36 hour days, but they do get paid, right?)

[Sacajaweau]

Consider it a private tutor. You should be paying them. It's an extraordinary education.

By these "slave labor" standards, kids should have been paying mom and dad for food, room, board, clothes, use of the car etc, etc

[AnotherUnixGeek]

For increasing numbers of young college leavers, getting a foot on the career ladder means taking an unpaid internship, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end.

Unpaid internships aren't slave labor - for that, you need to become a research assistant as a grad student.

[Sacajaweau]

If you’re not truly accomplishing anything, you should get paid because?? What they don’t teach in school, is how companies function. There’s a curve...

[GeronL]

It does not fit the definition of slavery any more than making 10-figures in the NFL does

[GeronL]

real degree?

You mean 21st century basket weaving and Psychology of 15th Century Romanian Feminism aren’t valuable courses of study??

[DannyTN]

"If you’re not truly accomplishing anything, you should get paid because??"

They are accomplishing stuff. Stuff that the company would pay someone to do if it wasn't for the availability of free interns.

[Milton Miteybad]

I think unpaid internships are exploitation.

If you receive work, you should pay at least minimum wage for it.


Unfortunately, few new employees are actually worth minimum wage, at least not on Day One. Many will require months of OJT to be able to manifest any kind of return to an employer. Some candidates may not require that long, and others will never show any potential for return, but an internship is a good way to find out in either case.

As it happens, most interns are aware that they are of extremely limited value to an employer. That's why they volunteer on an unpaid basis...they know they need to learn how the business works, and an unpaid internship reduces the risk for the employer while offering the experience the intern so desperately needs. If the intern collects no salary for the internship, at least the employer knows that in the short run, he's not having to pay out of pocket for the privilege of training someone who may become his competitor at some future point.

Unpaid internships are 100% voluntary agreements that serve a very useful purpose. If they did not exist, someone would have to invent them, and the person who would come up with the idea would be the intern himself.

[Tzimisce]

Baby Boomer ethics at work.

It’s all about me and what I can take from you.

I’m not going to work hard - that’s what subordinates are for.

And everybody wonders why Obama is president and people like Charlie Sheen is making millions of dollars - it’s cause only chumps work hard and follow the rules anymore.

[Frantzie]

The majority of young folks voted for Hope & Change. The parents who allow their kids to go to college or get degrees in useless subjects should go to jail. It is child abuse.

[HIDEK6]

They are accomplishing stuff. Stuff that the company would pay someone to do if it wasn't for the availability of free interns.

They're doing make-work because someone wants them around so he can feel important.

Any real work they do has to be checked by an actual employee.

[Sacajaweau]

We have an intern now. The benefit to him is tremendous. The teaching time by us is tremendous and fairly constant. I'm temporarily giving up one person to teach him.

We're not talking data input here. We're talking some very technical operations.