<p>What I can't figure out is how these companies get away with it. My accountant and the State of Connecticut insist that if a person is performing work beneficial to the company, then they have to be on the payroll and (more importantly for us small guys) on the workman's comp policy. In other words, I have kids begging to work in the pet shop as <em>volunteers</em> but I don't dare have them there for the above reasons.</p>
<p>I googled on IB "unpaid interns" and came up with an interesting cc discussion among financial-services interns, some paid and some unpaid, on the pros and cons of their situations:</p>
<p>It should be noted that not all internships at Citigroup are in IB. They also have interns in retail banking, wealth and asset management according to the WSJ article below:</p>
<p>The above-cited WSJ article has an interesting list of large intern programs with employers in a number of different sectors, including remarks about perks, paid or unpaid, etc.</p>
<p>One interesting quote in the WSJ link from Microsoft (which pays their interns very well--$15K for the summer plus they'll either buy them a nice bike of their choice to keep or, alternately, lease them a car to use for the summer commute): they see the program as a "12-week interview."</p>
<p>Another interesting anecdote: the intake process costs the CIA $30K per summer intern applicant, including four months of interviews, psychological evaluations, polygraph exam, and security checks.</p>
<p>CNP - who is going to complain? Unless someone rats them out to the state/federal AG or whatever, I don't see any action being taken. </p>
<p>Blossom -
1. My comment was not directed at you - calm down. It was directed at the basic premise that it's utterly absurd to hypothesize about Fortune 500 companies having unpaid interns when no one says anything specific.
2. I'll completely disagree with your statement that undergrads lack direction. Journalism majors. Engineers. Accounting majors. Business majors (in many schools). Archaelogists/classicists. Pre-meds. Pre-vets. Pre-dental. Pre-law. International relations. Yeah, all of those people have a pretty specific plan. They'll want to intern in newspapers, engineering firms, PWC, i-banks, on digs, in hospitals, law frims, and on the Hill. Many of them may end up working for free; many of them (engineers and accountants) will likely be paid. </p>
<p>The fact that their plans may change at age 25 doesn't mean that they don't have to figure out what to do in the intervening five years. </p>
<p>Furthermore, internships look good on many grad school applications, when relevant. My summer work at an engineering firm was tremendously beneficial in that I made a lot of contacts in the field, had a lot of good work to put on my resume, and even met professors who wanted me in their labs for graduate work.</p>
<p>This must highly depend on field. This year I'm doing an internship at NASA, and I don't know of anyone who's unpaid. But it's probably mostly an engineering thing as far as that goes.</p>
<p>ER,</p>
<p>good to hear from you. Sounds like all is still going well for you down at Vandy.</p>
<p>The i-banks do pay handsomely for summer interns, most of whom are rising seniors, although they do work them very long hours and weekends. There is lots of funding at Princeton for summer internships, but it tends to go to students who want to work in public policy, scientific research, social services and other nonprofits, and journalism, and there is some preference by some of the funders for financial aid students. I am not aware of any funding for people who want to work in i-banks. I wonder whether a former Seven Sisters school might be offering funding for an i-bank internship in order to put its students on a par with those from the formerly all-male Ivies, where the i-banks recruit heavily for paid summer interns.</p>
<p>In general, internships are not only easier for well-off students but for anyone who lives near a major metro area that offers stimulating workplaces where one might want to spend the summer learning. Then the student can live at home. </p>
<p>Fields where the pay is low tend to offer the opportunity to dress more "creatively" (i.e., cheaply). I-bankers and consultants do spend big bucks on tailored clothing, but they consider it a good investment. ;) </p>
<p>When I was in college I had a Federal work-study summer internship that helped me launch my career. Even then (30 years ago) the idea was to put us finaid kids on a par with the wealthy and well-connected, so we didn't have to spend the summer waitressing. I did waitress as well, though, and learned a lot about people, which has also helped me professionally. ;)</p>
<p>Jyber, I suspect that some places have paid interns only, some unpaid only, and with large companies such as CitiGroup I wouldn't be surprised if they had both paid and unpaid internships depending upon department, managerial attitude, budget, or even <cough!> the college being recruited.</cough!></p>
<p>AriesAthena, good post #43, both points #1 and #2.</p>
<p>ER, good to see your phosphors. I'll add my voice to those hoping things are going well for you at Vandy. I'd guess that there are a lot of paid positions in engineering just due to Econ 1, Supply & Demand. A friend of D's who's majoring in Engineering at Yale has got a hot position for the summer with a local aerospace company.</p>
<p>Hi, Evil Robot! :) Hope all is well in the South. :)</p>
<p>Thanks, TheDad. How goes it?</p>
<p>I agree that engineering is usually paid. I don't know of anyone who does it for free. Perhaps some of it is because, at least in my experience, firms can actually make some money off of paid interns. My time was billed out at a premium; the company couldn't charge its customers for my work unless it was paying me.</p>