Paid Internships. Do You Subsidize?

GTalum
Sun, 08 Dec 2013 10:30:02 +0000

It was mentioned upthread that a little bit of subsidizing led to a huge payoff. However, in this job market, I don’t think we can subsidize and expect such a payoff. We can subsidize summer internships, but there is a good chance it won’t lead to a job. We subsidize internships to give the kids a fighting chance. For S, we fully subsidized one, and partly subsidized another (really a graduation gift), but he had to work, claw, and have unflagging persistence to procure a recent career job. Of course, some luck was surely involved. For D, her internships were to explore possible career interests and work for the greater good. They certainly won’t lead to jobs, but they were paid beyond minimum wage (I paid for food leaving money in her pocket for the school year), and I certainly think part of her educational experience (maybe I should call them summer jobs?). The kids had different needs and required a different amount of subsidy. But, if I expected a payoff that led to a successful launch, I may be disappointed.

If, in my view, internships lead to kids having a fighting chance, what chance do lower income kids have in this job market?