Internships - your opinion?

[Hoofy]

Just idly thinking about what I'd do if I were a recent graduate. A quick google reveals that many interns are unpaid (which you'd expect) but people are complaining that they should get National Minimum Wage as they are effectively employees. Additionally, I notice that some graduates are paying to work for prestigious companies.

My thoughts:
1) I did a two week internship where I wrote a management reporting tool from scratch for the organisation when I had just graduated. I do recall the employees being surprised that I did that rather than just making teas and fetching lunches for two weeks. It landed me an IT role in a bank so it was time well-spent.
2) Graduates need an edge with today's "employer's market" so if they can land an internship position to gain work experience relevant to their desired career then that's a good thing.
3) Paying for an internship may sound ridiculous but if you could put that company/job on your CV then that is also a good thing. You don't have to pay for it if you don't want to work there but, again, it's about having an edge over other graduates.

Maybe I'm missing something? Hymen rights?

[GoneAnon]

Feels a bit like exploitation to me.

I won't work for free, I don't expect anyone to work for me for free, and I think a reasonable employer should pay a wage during the internship.

Also, is it fair that only kids with parents who can afford subsidise them, allowing them to work for free, get the career breaks, even if they aren't as smart or as well-suited to the role as the kid who can't afford to travel/stay over with no income?

[Hoofy]

That is true although you could argue that life isn't fair - there'll be smart but poor kids who can't afford to go to uni or even have the luck to get to a decent school to provide the right teaching.

[anonymous-user]

GoneAnon said:

Feels a bit like exploitation to me.

I won't work for free, I don't expect anyone to work for me for free, and I think a reasonable employer should pay a wage during the internship.

Also, is it fair that only kids with parents who can afford subsidise them, allowing them to work for free, get the career breaks, even if they aren't as smart or as well-suited to the role as the kid who can't afford to travel/stay over with no income?

I think this is the base of the objections.
Although you could say that the same applies to private schools and uni (to a certain degree).

P.S OP you may want to change the typo in the last line (unless it's deliberate).

[Hoofy]

cookie118 said:

P.S OP you may want to change the typo in the last line (unless it's deliberate).

[pokethepope]

Maybe if they were for two to four weeks with at least the possibility of a full time paid role at the end if you perform well, and if not at least you get some experience. However, an awful lot of internships on sites like Reed (OK maybe not the best place to be looking) expect 6 months plus of working for nothing but travel expenses. Unless living with your parents is an option that is just impossible when having to pay rent and other living costs.

[Lazygraduate]

As a recent graduate, I got my current job by doing a 2 month paid internship and I believe that over half of the current graduates working here were recruited from the internship programme.

So, definitely worth considering! Not sure about other industries where unpaid internships seem to be a rite of passage - fashion, publishing, etc.

[aizvara]

I thought unpaid internships were effectively against the law (minimum wage as mentioned), unless you are talking about a volunteer intern for a charity. I'm probably mistaken.

Anyway, the company I work for pays interns quite highly, and we get some good people (for a time, and some come back) as a result.

[Fittster]

An unpaid internship helps filter out those from poor backgrounds.

[Hoofy]

Fittster said:

An unpaid internship helps filter out those from poor backgrounds.

None of that riffraff lurking around the office eh?