<p>lol, I would NEVER do an unpaid internship… I’d rather relax on the beach all summer if the income would be the same 
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<p>Very short sighted.
My kids volunteered through high school-they were able to have their pick of summer jobs once in college.
It is interesting that people who will* pay* to receive training/education to increase their marketability may not consider getting the training & experience through interning - volunteering or working for a small stipend.</p>
<p>Middle class and poor class people can’t take unpaid internships (and probably shouldn’t accept them).</p>
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<p>That’s often the case. If you actually need an income in order to survive – and can’t rely on your parents to feed you, clothe you, or house you indefinitely while you work for free, working for free (despite all of the benefits of an internship) is really not an option. That’s not to say that unpaid internships are always a horrible idea or have no benefits compared to relaxing on the beach all day, but it’s not like there’s no opportunity cost for some people.</p>
<p>We have a young Udub grad working here in his second year. He came on as an unpaid intern through pestering the boss that he’d work hard for free. He did that and when a full-time job opened we did not even interview others–he had the job. That job pays around $50,000 easy first year and goes to over $100,000 in another year as production goes up. By working for free we found out he was a great guy and a hard worker.</p>
<p>“Middle class and poor class people can’t take unpaid internships (and probably shouldn’t accept them).”</p>
<p>They may be able to take unpaid internships if they work a paid job elsewhere. I had low income students who did this to work unpaid broadcast internships. Most broadcast internships are unpaid, and are the only way to get hired for paying jobs in that field.</p>
<p>As a high school student my daughter worked for a casting director for free as did kids who graduated college. She was amazed that these kids had to work an evening job for money after working all day for this firm. Yet, this is one of the most treasured opportunities for kids in any aspect of the theatre field and they were so happy to have it even if it meant working nights and weekends for money.</p>
<p>It is short sighted to automatically eliminate any unpaid intership, as Emeraldkitty and Northstarmom said.</p>
<p>I am seeing some part time and full time opening in Web development.</p>
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<p>My daughter’s current job is a result of an unpaid overseas internship that she essentially created and financed on her own, including travel and housing costs in Europe and India. She worked extra hours before and after to pay the expenses. The internship did not directly lead to a job, but it was the standout piece of her resume that led to her resume being pulled from a stack of 500, and ultimately to her hiring. </p>
<p>She has been on the job 3 days and called me to tell me how difficult and demanding the job is, because of the high level of responsibility that she is expected to meet from the outset. She is lucky that there is some overlap because the person she is replacing will be there for another 2 weeks to train her - but already she knows that she is in charge of some major areas (like financial stuff). There is no way that a new college grad would be given this sort of responsibility without a strong history of experience at similar work. (She’s happy about the work demands – she feels overwhelmed, but excited and used the word “dream job” to describe her experiences. Plus she has discovered that there are some perks that really make up for a moderate salary - travel, meals, expense account, etc.)</p>
<p>That being said, I think the time for unpaid internships is during high school and college – not post grad. Before accepting the current position, my d. applied for a paying position with a different agency, and they offered her an unpaid internship instead. It was actually a great internship – my d. had very mixed feelings about turning it down, but she was right to pass on it, since she is now ready to embark on a career (or career-building) position.</p>
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That’s probably true for the poor, but my kids are “middle class” and worked for pay all the way through school. My son opted for Americorp and another internship with a stipend; my d. lined up grant funding for one unpaid internship – and as noted, worked extra hours during the school year to finance the summer work. She could make relatively good money doing bartending, but other than honing some useful interpersonal skills, that experience isn’t much of a foundation for what she wants to do with the rest of her life.</p>
<p>I’d point out, however, it is better to be unemployed + gaining experience that may lead to employment, than unemployed + doing nothing to improve the situation.</p>
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No, they won’t.</p>
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<p>What’s “normal”? I have a feeling that on the low end, current starting salaries are depressed… but on the high end, the previous starting salaries might have been grossly inflated. And that actually might have been part of the problem that has fueled all sorts of economic woes (high student debt, etc.)</p>
<p>I mean… maybe it is just reasonable for a college grad going into an entry level position to expect a starting salary of between $30k-$60K, depending on their field – and what we are seeing could be fairly characterized as a market “correction.”</p>
<p>The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 took a lot of hard work to get passed. In general, its idea is that as long as an employee is engaging in activities that benefit the employer, regardless of when they’re performed, the employer has an obligation to pay the employee for his or her time.</p>
<p>I am not a labor lawyer or a labor economist (although my H is the latter), but I have a hard time accepting an unpaid internship. (I am a union member) I realize some young folks are desperate and will work just for the experience. But that is exactly why it seems like exploitation to me.</p>
<p>Volunteering for a non-profit is a different thing. Americorp, although non-profit, is NOT unpaid. My S and D2 were Americorp “volunteers.” They got regular pay and a stipend for college.</p>
<p>The Americorps stipend is not really a living wage – my son saw coworkers in Americorps applying for (and getting) food stamps and medicaid, etc. I’m not trying to criticize Americorps – it is a wonderful program – but part of my son’s job with Americorps was recruiting unpaid volunteers to work in schools. So my son was paid a modest stipend to recruit and work alongside individuals who were not being paid. My son liked the work so much that after he finished his Americorps stint, he continued to volunteer with them. </p>
<p>My d’s unpaid internship overseas was with a UN agency that is also considered nonprofit. </p>
<p>I do agree with you that profit-making companies and government agencies ought to pay their employees fair value for the work provided. </p>
<p>I would note that sometimes interns are put in positions of much greater educational value and responsibility than they would have if hired as an entry level employee. And so it really isn’t exploitation IF the intern is actually involved in a way appropriate to the internship. When my d. did her first internship – the one she arranged independent grant funding for – she was given clerical tasks when she first arrived that she thought were inappropriate. I advised her to wait a couple of days to get a sense of the workplace, and then to speak up about the situation – she did and was given assignments much more interesting and appropriate to her goals. I mean - interns should not be used as coffee-fetchers and file clerks. </p>
<p>But I don’t know how students in many fields can get the on-the-job learning experience without opting for the unpaid internship. I mean, in my daughter’s field, most positions with any sort of responsibility require a master’s degree – she is very lucky to have been hired for her current position with only a bachelor’s degree. She never would have gotten that position without significant preparatory experience, and it would have been insane to expect anyone to hire her for a paid position giving the requisite experience when she was a college sophomore. So the internship really was the only way to lay the groundwork. </p>
<p>I’d also note that my daughter did most of her international internship in Delhi. She lived about an hour’s drive (by riskshaw) from her place of employment, and one day she was tired and decided to take a taxi home, which would cost her about $5. While she was waiting for her ride home, the doorman told her that the cost of the taxi was what he was paid (or maybe more than he was paid) for a full day’s work. So even working for free, I don’t think she could possibly have felt in any way “exploited” in that environment – every day was a constant reminder of how very privileged she was. I mean… she knew she would be coming home to an array of part time jobs paying $10-$20 an hour.</p>
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<p>Sos she needs a Masters or is a free servant?</p>
<p>No, she has a salaried position with more responsibility than is typically given to entrants with a bachelor’s degree, but competition for that position is very keen and she got hired because she had experience. There are very few positions like that. She was hired over people from within the same organization applying for a lateral transfer, and usually people hired for her position have 1-2 years of meaningful, post-college experience. </p>
<p>The next job category up the career ladder would require a master’s degree. </p>
<p>An appropriate career track for her might be to keep this job for a few years, then to continue her education for a MA or Ph.D.</p>
<p>@calmom:</p>
<p>I wish your daughter the best. In situations like those at least one person is resentful towards that new hire. Hopefully your daughter can navigate those waters skillfully.</p>
<p>As far as salaries coming back to “normal”, I’m certain the next bubble will pump salaries up again. After all, bubbles have existed since at least the 1600s and there’s no reason to expect they will disappear in the future.</p>
<p>Actually commodity “bubbles” have existed since prehistoric times.</p>
<p>Find and kill a mammoth, can’t find any mammoths. Commodity booms and busts have always been with us.They were probably more rooted in real supply and demand for primitive peoples.</p>
<p>Collusion to fix the barter value of mammoth blubber was probably very difficult. But I am sure a few individuals on “Cave Wall Street” managed.</p>
<p>You don’t even need “money” for a “bubble”. A barter economy experiences them also.</p>
<p>My son has a well-paying ($17/hr) internship after freshman year. I was thinking how “lucky” he is, but this thread makes me realize that the two summers in high school that he worked in a lab were actually “unpaid internships.” Those summers he learned so much, as he is a chatty kid, and asked people about the business, about grant proposals, about patents, about the technology. Sure he did a lot of scut work but it took time to supervise and teach him, so it seems like a fair deal. During the school year he also is unpaid as an EMT, and was going to find a paid position for the summer if the engineering job didn’t come through.</p>
<p>Also, DS learned to cook in high school. This year he saved at least 1/2 of what it would have cost to be on the meal plan by cooking for himself. A buck saved is a buck earned.</p>
<p>When I was 15 I spent the summer painting my parent’s house. That’s no job. If I had volunteered to paint the local elementary school, that would have been an unpaid internship. It someone had paid me to paint, it would have been a job. Work is work. As it turned out, I got something more valuable than pay out of the experience. I learned that I didn’t want to do manual labor for a living, if I could help it.</p>
<p>Yeah. Growing up on a farm taught me I really wanted to go to college and work in an office.</p>
<p>But with modern farming equipment , my friends who do farm say its pretty good now.</p>