<p>Not necessarily. In the technical parts of computer companies, summer interns (who are paid), new graduates, and other new hires are productive in a lot less time than three months.</p>
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<p>Yes, and that may also be an indicator of what the entry level pay for certain types of jobs would be in the absence of minimum wage laws (a good hint that perhaps that career direction may not be too promising).</p>
<p>It also means that such career directions where unpaid internships are the norm at the entry level are only accessible to those from wealthy families, since those from non-wealthy families need to find paid jobs instead.</p>
<p>I apologize as I haven’t read thru whole thread if this has all been discussed or refuted already. </p>
<p>Having interns around is more work for the employer. The time that it takes to explain how to do a task, show how to do it, check to make sure that is done, and throw in a bit of teaching or “what’s going through my mind” or wisdom all takes time away from the person working with the intern. And all this extra time does not accrue to increased future productivity since the intern will usually leave in 3 months or so. It’s like an apprenticeship, and it’s the way that skills have been taught from trades to medicine. If a company were to pay for this service, it would be easier to hire a per diem employee, part time employee, rather than investing time and energy training someone who leaves in 3 months.</p>
<p>And yes, if the intern is filing, making coffee or whatever, they are still seeing the inside of a business and have access to people on the inside who they can either watch, pick their brains, or just experience. </p>
<p>In medicine, we train med students, residents, fellows. It’s more work for us. In exchange, they make our lives easier by doing grunt work and paperwork and seeing patients in the middle of the night. But if you add up the time savings vs the time spent, it FAR falls on more time spent by the teaching physician than time saved.</p>
<p>Maybe unlike the tech/programming world jobs in financial services tend to be very industry specific and it takes time to know where to get data, what to do with it, etc etc. 3 months barely scratches the surface. Our new FT hires take at least 1 year to become somewhat productive. Three to actually know what they are talking about.</p>
<p>I totally agree with this. Any company who “hires” unpaid interns for 3 months in the summer, rather than pay them the measly $3,800 or whatever to be there, is probably not a place anyone should aspire to work for.</p>
<p>I got advanced notice that I was going to get an intern, so I set up a training package and a work package for him ahead of time. It took some time up front, but not NEAR the time it would have taken later to walk him through what I needed him to do without the aids I had prepared. NOW I KNOW. So I’ll be thinking prior to summer about an intern opportunity and how to prepare a slot for someone that will truly teach them something and be good for us too. We pay ours - so I guess it’s okay for them to have MEANINGFUL projects. What good is it to go somewhere and do something that doesn’t benefit anyone?! That seems dumb to me. What does that teach?</p>
<p>But apprentices in the trades and medical residents are paid. Not as much as those who have completed the apprenticeship or residency, but paid nonetheless.</p>
<p>A couple of you have mentioned that you believe that interns are too much work. I do agree that there will be increased work for the mentor to train the intern. However, it gives the employer a chance to determine if the intern may be a desirable future employee. For any of you who hire or train interns, have you ever hired one upon graduation?</p>
<p>Yes. Hired ours from a few years ago and he’s now getting to be a good producer working on his own. That is the one major advantage for the employer but the benefit does not usually flow directly to the trainer. He just has to take one for the team.</p>
<p>What areas of financial services require a year or more for a new employee to become productive? Even if there is licensing involved, couldn’t a new employee be put in a role where a license is not necessary until s/he becomes licensed?</p>
<p>Interns are definitely changing the game. D2 is a recent grad who did a high profile internship as a student but is now working at a job she’d like to leave…but since we are not wealthy and we expect our college graduates to support themselves with as little help as possible from parents, she has been unable to take advantage of various internships that sound promising. She’s highly competent and a hard worker, but she can’t get her foot in the door because she can’t afford to work for free for 6 months.</p>
<p>For a while, during a hiring freeze, the US Attorney’s offices in some districts were hiring UNPAID licensed attorneys to staff vacancies for a year or more. I don’t know how they got away with that.</p>
<p>There have been thousands of class actions in recent years over wage-and-hour violations. I don’t know if unpaid internships have been the focus of any, but employers would be smart to pay their interns the minimum wage to avoid the risk, IMHO.</p>
<p>“For a while, during a hiring freeze, the US Attorney’s offices in some districts were hiring UNPAID licensed attorneys to staff vacancies for a year or more. I don’t know how they got away with that.”</p>
<p>I believe Government is exempt from these rules or it may be non-profits?</p>
<p>Barron’s. Yes I have hired from summer interns. At the end of the summer if all works out I will make an offer for full time employment upon graduation. That is the benefit I get. My point is they are a lot of work but IMO unpaid interns are even more work.</p>
<p>I hire summer interns in the finance industry. At the end of the summer if all works out I make an offer for full time employment after graduation. The interns are not very productive but it gives me a trial period to understand their attitudes, work ethic, and problem solving. </p>
<p>In my experience you get what you pay for. I pay interns well IMO. I have had unpaid before. Never again. Better they know they are earning a paycheck.</p>
<p>Nellieh,
I think that it may depend on the individual kid and their work ethic.
D had an unpaid internship 2 years ago. She was under 18, so hers was unpaid, while all of the other (many) interns over 18 were paid. Even though she was unpaid, she is a hard worker and self motivated. Thus, she was productive, learned lots, asked lots of questions, and was given lots of assignments, when many of the other PAID interns sat around and surfed the internet all day and waited to be handed an assignment and thus did not do many assignments.</p>
<p>UVa started a program where a limited number of undergrad students can get their summer costs paid while they work at an unpaid internship. It is particularly designed for students who have to move to another city for the summer to get a great internship in their chosen field.</p>
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<p>This summer, my son is doing an unpaid internship for 3 weeks before his full time paid job starts for the rest of the summer. He may be able to continue that unpaid internship in the mornings before his paid job starts each day.</p>