|
All the work; none of the pay |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by asap
|
|
Thursday, 29 June 2006 |
|
|
|
|
INTERNS WANTED: NO PAY, NO HOUSING. SUBWAY FARE NEGA EXPERIENCE GUARANTEED.
It may sound like a terrible offer, but thousands of college students this summer are jumping at want ads like this. They eat Ramen noodles, sleep on friends’ couches and run up their credit cards to afford to work internships where the only compensation is experience.
 “The only thing CNN has provided us is a free parking pass. It’s crazy to me for these companies to have students relocate for months and not give them anything,” says Na’m Hays, an unpaid intern with Headline News in Atlanta.
Hays, who aspires to host a television show, considers himself lucky to have a brother who lives 20 minutes from CNN’s studios, giving him a place to stay rent-free. And he has some cash coming in from subletting an apartment in Chicago where he attends Columbia College. But to offset a summer without income, he’ll need a job during the school year, and he has to limit his driving because of gas prices.
Most internships are paid, according to Vault.com, a career information Web site. But employers in the most competitive or glamorous fields — such as magazines, television, radio, record labels, law firms and political offices — often expect interns to work for free, says Tag Goulet, co-CEO of FabJob, which publishes guides to popular career fields.
She says it’s about supply and demand: Too many people vying for too few positions. So people are willing to work for free for the competitive edge and to show these companies they are committed. According to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, internship experience is one of the most important factors cited by employers hiring a student for his or her first full-time job.
As a result, most interns wouldn’t dream of complaining that their employer is making them fetch their coffee. They are just grateful for the opportunity to do so.
“Saying you don’t want to take an unpaid internship is about as socially acceptable as saying that you’d like to have some time away from your kids,” says Faith Maginley, 24, a freelance writer in Orlando who has worked unpaid internships. “The old heads expect you to not only do it, but do it while skippin’ and singin’ show tunes.”
EXPLOITING THE INTERN?
Many think the practice is unfair — and it’s not just the cash-strapped interns themselves. Michael Ball, author of “You’re Too Smart for This: Beating the 100 Big Lies About Your First Job,” says that while unpaid internships are manageable for students from wealthy families, others are missing out on valuable experience because they can’t afford to work for free, he said.
“It’s really a regrettable practice,” he says. “I think it’s stripping a lot of very deserving kids from opportunities. If you can find an internship in a city where you already have housing, that’s doable. But if you live in Idaho and here’s this internship in D.C., you’re going to have to hit up the bank of mom and dad to underwrite it.”
Ryan Gallagher, 27, of Hackensack, N.J. had to lean heavily on his parents to afford to work as an unpaid intern for a member of Congress from his state, despite working other jobs and saving money in the months before he went to Washington, D.C.
“I think the internship helped me,” says Gallagher, now a mortgage loan consultant. “But I still would have liked to get paid. Maybe pay my subway fare, buy me lunch.”
There is no law that says an intern has to be paid, according to labor attorney Michael Schmidt.
The Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage, overtime compensation, etc., says interns are considered “trainees” as long as they are performing services for their benefit and are not displacing regular employees. Schmidt says other criteria include the requirement that employers not receive any immediate advantage from the interns’ work and that interns not be guaranteed a job when the training period is over.
FabJob’s Goulet said companies don’t look at interns as an endless pool of slave labor. They can hire more interns -- thus creating more job opportunities -- since they don’t have to pay them the same as full-time staff members. Unfortunately, the cost associated with managing interns can cut into what a company is able to pay them.
“It takes work to have someone supervise interns, review their work,” says Goulet, whose company has 15 interns who are making $5 an hour. “If the intern messes up, their work has to be redone by someone. It isn’t something where employers are like, ’hey here’s free labor.”’
VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
Career coach Deborah Brown-Volkman says internships are just as important as a college education, an experience for which people are willing to go into debt. Besides, a summer is only a moment in time in a career that spans 40 years, she says.
“Save some money,” says Brown-Volkam, author of “Coach Yourself To A New Career: A Guide For Discovering Your Ultimate Profession.” “Work some extra hours, go to your parents. Do what you need to do, so you have that cushion. It’s going to look great on your resume. It can open doors. And remember, that employer is taking a chance on you by giving you exposure.”
Getting exposure is the key for DeShaun Harris, an intern at Upscale magazine in Atlanta. Harris, a rising junior at the University of Georgia, hit up mom to afford to live on Emory University’s campus for the summer. She says she’s already written a few articles.
“My family is like, ’You’re getting the experience and that’s what matters. We’re behind you 100 percent,”’ she says. “They tell us over and over again in journalism school that getting the experience is what’s really important. I would love to get paid. But if this is the only way I can get the experience right now, I will take it.”
Aside from saving money, students can prepare themselves for a summer without money by choosing work in cities where a relative can put them up for free. Bunmi Ishola, an intern for World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma, is living with her sister. The recent Texas A & M graduate is also planning to pick up some baby sitting jobs on the side to help pay her phone bill.
“When I was searching for internships, some of the others were in New York, California, and I don’t know anyone there,” says Ishola, 20, who is from Arlington, Texas. “There was no way I could pay for an apartment, relocate completely without any sort of income.”
———
asap reporter Megan Scott is based in New York.
———
Want to comment? Sound off at soundoffasapap.org. | Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
