<p>My son is interviewing for summer "internships." </p>
<p>His most recent interview was with a high end clothing designer/manufacturer in Manhattan. Every person reading this would recognize the name and trademark. He can commute via train. He applied through the HR department and was interviewed by HR and then passed on to the "Facilities" department. This is an unpaid "internship" which means that I (as the financially responsible person) get to pay for him to do this.</p>
<p>The job description is apparently -- mailroom, push mail cart around, set up for meetings and clean up after meetings (but cannot sit in on meetings), clean breakroom, restock breakroom. This is an "internship"????? To me, it sounds like an entry level job for a non-college kid that ought to pay minimum wage.</p>
<p>I feel that a true internship should involve shadowing an employee and learning from them about the business and taking on some peripheral tasks, small projects etc. Fetching coffee and doing some filing are fine -- but if the entire day is based around janitorial tasks -- IMnotsoHO the company should be paying him.</p>
<p>Since he does not have any summer offers yet, I am suggesting that he accept the offer if he gets it and keep looking for something that will pay him in valuable experience if not cold hard cash.</p>
<p>What are other people seeing out there? Legit internships or corporations looking for free labor?</p>
<p>It is technically not legal. Many firms now will no longer allow internship without pay because it is in violation of labor law. The only time an internship could be without pay is if an intern is getting course credit and not doing work a paid employee could be doing.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I would rather if my kid were to sit on her butt the whole summer than do grunt work without pay. Maybe take a class, paint my house, babysit, tutoring…why do free labor, that’s why we have minimum wage law.</p>
<p>Oldfort – I am right there with you. He does need “work experience” hours as a graduation requirement , although he won’t actually get “academic course credit” so that’s how they will skirt the Free Labor Act (minimum wage law and internships).</p>
<p>Seems to me that the job description I have heard is not an internship description. I’d rather he waited tables or worked as a bartender …</p>
<p>What year is he? What is his major? The description you wrote sounds too demeaning to be unpaid. Your son’s better off doing some kind of volunteer work somewhere than in a mailroom, pushing the mailcart and cleaning after meetings.</p>
<p>Do you have any friends with their own business that he could “intern” at to get work experience? I would rather do that than to do free labor for people I don’t know.</p>
<p>My S2 is required to do an unpaid internship (worth 9 credit hours that we pay $1500 for)
this summer in order to get his diploma. So far he has nothing lined up. We’re pretty stressed. He will have completed all coursework at the end of this sem. Just need that internship.</p>
<p>He’s a sophomore, and he’s in the Hotel School at Cornell. His interest is hospitality as applied in a retail environment – although any sort of hospitality related experience, including retail, will work. </p>
<p>I own a business (retail pet shop) and of course that’s why I am so annoyed. I have to pay large sums of money for teenage help and am precluded from using interns or other free labor to clean cages or do anything substantial. He, of course, has worked for me in the past but really needs to work for an unrelated enterprise at this point.</p>
<p>I would LOVE to make some sarcastic crack about these high end fashion companies not being satisfied with their sweatshops overseas; they want to exploit our college students in the US as well – but I am not quite sure how to phrase it for the best impact.</p>
<p>Packman: why does it have to be unpaid? My son did that pay-for-the-credits while you’re unpaid internship last summer. The experience was okay, but he felt like 2nd class.</p>
<p>Oh for goodness sake! He could work at a mall at The Gap and that should suffice! At least there, he’d learn some skills about customer service if nothing else.</p>
<p>Has he looked into working at a hotel, like as a bell hop? Valet? Back office? Anything like that would be better than a mailroom. OR, can he work at a restaurant, as the wait-staff? I saw lots of jobs today at our state college career office, titled “Hospitality” and they were for wait-staffers.</p>
<p>It’s not a legal “internship” unless it costs the employer more than the employer immediately gains in value. (And, frankly, I think the company should be reported to the Department of Labor).</p>
<p>A real ‘internship’ IMO should be directly related to their major and enhance the education of the kid in his field of study. Pushing a mail cart around and performing janitorial duties (not that there’s anything wrong with people doing those jobs) doesn’t meet that criteria for someone who’s at the level of your S in the hospitality area.</p>
<p>I assume he’s checked with the major hotel chains? Aren’t there companies who recruit in this area at Cornell? Manhattan is loaded with big hotels and retail outfits. Do you want me to get Donald Trump on the phone?</p>
<p>I’m on the side that interns should get paid unless it counts for course credit but even then it seems they should be paid. Mine always got paid but they were engineering.</p>
<p>eeegads. As a business owner I’d never even want to get away with such a thing. So an ivy leagues fabulous idea of great work experience is spending a summer in a janitorial position? Is that what 250k buys these days? </p>
<p>If I were your son I’d be sending the job description back to the Cornell interning department. I don’t see how it’s relevant and not something I’d expect to be an entry level position.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with doing any job. However this is supposed to be a learning experience. I’d have him take a pass and find something more relevant.</p>
<p>I’m on that side, too. But I also dislike (!) that many universities charge students for summer fees (up to $4000) for taking the summer course that gives them college credit for the internship. Basically, the kid isn’t pushing a mail cart for free, he’s paying big $$ to push that cart. I think universities should make this sort of internship shell class extremely affordable or free–after all the student is full time at the U. But that’s another can of worms.</p>
<p>Full disclosure: I started working at hotels when I was 15, and paid for my entire college education that way. By 19, I was captain of a dining room in the summer, and made the equivalent in today’s funds of around $12k in 9 weeks. I worked HARD - maybe 70-75 hours a week (and no days off - unless I paid for them, and could find my own replacement.) No one ever dreamed of calling it an internship. </p>
<p>If the college knows about this internship and is promoting it, they are colluding in illegal activity.</p>
<p>On the plus side, he’ll have access to people that he wouldn’t have otherwise. He could learn a lot talking to people…and learn how to clean up a room to boot.</p>