Posted on 03/02/2021 2:58:16 AM PST by nickcarraway
A reporter for the NFL Network sparked a fierce Twitter debate on Monday after simply sharing an opening for an internship.
Jane Slater was met with online backlash shortly after she tweeted the position offered to broadcast journalism students.
“I posted an opportunity for an unpaid internship and I’m amazed at the comments I get,” she wrote. “It’s not even for me. It’s for someone else and I would have jumped at it in college. I had 3 unpaid internships in school, double majored and had a job. SMH,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Gotta admit, slavery is pretty awesome. I’m glad the NFL sees that so clearly.
There’s marginally enough NFL ‘stuff’ to report with paid-regular sports writers...so why go out and drag in various unpaid college-kid interns to write 1-star pieces on the Falcons, or Broncos, or Jets?
It’s the same problem I see with MLB. If you took apart the weekly affairs and action of the St Louis Cardinals....there’s probably three pages of material at best. It’s a joke when you have sixteen writers in St Louis trying to generate forty pages of material.
Not a fan of unpaid interns but most of them are making mid $20s an hour now, which is equally as nuts
It’s all about Presentation.
Is this something that is unique to the entertainment business? We have internships at my company. They’re all paid, minimum wage, I believe. I’m not even sure if our liability insurance would cover ‘unpaid employees.’ I suspect it would be a problem, but am not certain.
Two of my kids - both of whom graduated with science/engineering degrees - also had at least one internship during college. The oldest is now employed with the company that offered her that internship, which as I understand it is not uncommon. All of the internships that they applied for were paid. But, maybe it’s just different for j-school kids. IDK.
“It’s all about Presentation”
Yes.
Yes it is.
My son had an unpaid internship for a year and a half, writing a column with monthly articles for a city magazine while in high school.
He also had a four month summer unpaid internship at a local restaurant chain of 25 locations. He followed around the executive team with a focus on finance and accounting. And made a presentation to the Board at the end.
They were great resume builders for college.
They weren’t paid because they didn’t add too much real value to the companies. But in engineering, the internships add real value. They also may get a real, quality employee out of the deal.
Yeah, I should have excluded high school-aged kids. Unpaid internships there are very common, particularly when arranged though school orgs like Junior Achievement. I was thinking specifically about college-aged kids.
I get the feeling most of the journalism/entertainment internships exist to supply a steady stream of personal servants to on-air talent and producers where they spend the day getting coffee, picking up dry-cleaning and whatnot.
I had a poli sci class in college and had to work at the state capital 2 days per week. Unpaid.
I had to work for a lib State Rep.
Really taught me how things work. My boss was a Uber left tiny lesbian woman.
I thought that unpaid interships (except for government and non-profit organizations) were outlawed back in the Obama administration. I remember a big fight about it because only “rich kids” could afford an unpaid job to make contacts.
I don’t have a problem with unpaid internships.
One of the most valuable things is experience, and the benefits of getting the experience to be able to learn the ins-and-outs of an industry to me outweighs the negatives.
Is it abused? No doubt.
But I recall one of the giants of retail (may have been Frank Woolworth) offered to work for free to learn the retail trade. He did so well and learned so much that the rest is history.
My feeling is: If you think you should be paid, apply for a paid job and take your chances. If you are willing to invest your personal capital, take an unpaid internship, and leave or get promoted when the time is appropriate.
Otherwise, don’t whine about it. Do it or don’t. Your choice.
I believe that's how things were done in days of yore. Need to bring that system back - in a modernized fashion of course. Think about it, you could learn dentistry, become a lawyer, a master car mechanic, a master plumber, etc., with 7 years of working under a "master." Or a mentor if you'd rather that term.
Way better system than 4-6 years of college mush and spending the next twenty years or so paying back the student loans.
Agree 100%
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I’ve not worked much where interns were used. Only when I lived in Buffalo, Ny did i encounter UNPAID internships.
I was shocked to learn that a college student who worked her butt off was unpaid. That company got a benefit without paying even minimum wage.
Unpaid internships are slavery. Jmho
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