jezebel.com: Interns are a hot topic right now: At Bank of America in London, an intern died after working 72 hours straight. Condé Nast recently decided to stop paying interns. Diddy's record label is being sued by a former intern, who claims she was never paid. And Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organization made waves when they announced they were hiring unpaid interns.
6 comments:
As someone who has done an internship before, I can honestly say that what was most memorable about my time with my community theatre was the experience. I wasn't paid at all but was still committed to my 7 week session and in turn learned how to sew and made a series of connections. Ultimately, internships are about the experience not the pay. (Pay is always nice though!)
I agree with Carolyn. I have done many things that would classify as "internships" but I have never been paid for it. I feel that the experience pays for itself. I have met a few Broadway directors from just volunteering as a techie at community theaters in my hometown. It is the same amount of work that an intern of that position would do, but without the title. The pay is nice, but internships are like apprenticeships; back in the old days you had to pay the master of your desired craft for you to work under him. Just be glad we don't have to pay for internships like we do for college.
I agree with both Carolyn and Kristen that there is a lot to be gained from the experience of interning, however; in a larger-scale situation I still feel there is no excuse for not compensating interns. Both of the internships mentioned above were in community theatre settings, where very few participants are getting paid to begin with, and those who are typically aren't making much. It is done for the enjoyment and camaraderie, and it's great that that can also foster a learning experience. However, when talking about bigger budget operations like Conde Nast or Bank of America, interns are working alongside salaried employees gaining the experience of being a professional in that situation. These companies are also often based in large cities, and interns may be asked to house themselves, which isn't cheap. Yes, it's true that you can't put a price tag on learning, but I think when it comes to professional interning, it's preposterous not to treat the interns as close as you can to employees, and part of that involves paying for the services they do.
There is an interesting argument to make about what can be considered a quantifiable compensation for labor. My internship this summer was fortunately paid and considering the long hours I put in and the position I was thrown into, I would have expected nothing less then a paid internship. I understand the why some internships are unpaid, at times the networking opportunity and the knowledge that can be gained from the active work experience can be considered enough compensation. It all comes down to who the intern is and what they are willing to make of the internship they have taken on. When ever I look for an internship I only considered non paid or Small stipend internships if the company providing the internship offers a means of room and board. But the point of an internship is the learning experience and arguably more valuable the networking opportunity.
Internships are important but the only reason companies make them unpaid is because they know they can get away with it. In this economy and with the job pool as big as it is anyone will take any job for fear of not having a job at all and missing out on important experience and contacts. Internships can be beneficial and important and I don't think we are ever going to get rid of interns but restrictions should be enforced more and people should actually try for paid positions before succumbing to an unpaid position.
Over the years I've had a number of internships and I was always lucky to be paid for my time, at least enough to survive on - and yes it's hard and yes it's a way for a company to profit from low-paid labor. But, at the same time I was always treated like all of the other employees and was presented with the opportunity to grow and on more than one occasion was given additional responsibilities. SO, maybe I was just lucky and snagged some good gigs and caught some good breaks and the companies I worked for good some work out of me and saved a few dollars... But honestly one of things that I've learned from those opportunities is that the main reason these companies hire interns is to train and search for the employees of the future. These companies are 90% more likely to hire a previous intern over someone off the street and I've seen that first hand on more than one occasion. I once worked as a intern for a theatre company for 9 months, and within that time out of the 10 other interns in my 'class' 6 of earned jobs as staff members in one way or another - some ending our internships early, some returning a year or so later and some transitioning straight from one to the other after a short vacation. It's a gamble you take in your career sometimes for a number of reasons, but more often than not it pays off. And for the rest of my life the best advice I can give anyone early in their career is 'be an intern, at least once'.
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