<p>I'm curious about exactly what kind of things people think that inexperienced high school and college students can do on unpaid internships. Back when many of us were young, inexperienced staffers could do things like spend lots of time filing, answering phones, typing (and even those jobs required some training and skills). Now, however, most people -- including executives do their own word processing. Files often are kept in staffers' personal computers. Phones are answered by voicemail. Staffers can push a button on their own computers to print copies.</p>
<p>What are these "mundane tasks" that people think that unpaid interns could be doing? Even when it comes to mundane tasks, a staffer could do them in a fraction of the time it would take an intern to do it. For instance by the time a staff member explains where to find the copying machine, how to work the copying machine, where to deliver the copies, the staffer could have done the task themselves. </p>
<p>What you're not realizing is that it takes time and effort to train interns. A person may be perfectly happy to have an inexperienced student who's a family friend warm a chair in their office, but that doesn't mean the person or their staff has time to train that young person.</p>
<p>IF the intern gets do get a mundane task, many will take their time and do that mundane task and then sit waiting to be handed another. This is not because they are lazy, but because they don't understand how the work world works. They assume that just as they were handed an internship through family connections, they'll be handed more interesting work. </p>
<p>Another possibility is that they assume that all they have to do to be impressive is to show up on the internship, if that. They don't realize that people get better job offers, promotions, etc. by looking for more things to do, creating opportunities for themselves, not waiting for someone to notice them and give them more work.</p>
<p>Unless someone has worked a real job for money, it's normal to think the way that I describe. That's why most h.s. students think that being a volunteer is boring and easy. They are used to simply doing what they are told to as a volunteer, and when there's nothing to do, being able to sit idly, make personal phone calls, etc. They don't realize that volunteers get to do interesting things by creating such opportunities for themselves.</p>
<p>As for students' making slushies not having advancement possibilities: Not true. Some high school students have become assistant managers at places like McDonald's. Others have worked their way up from restaurant bus boy to being a waiter at the busiest times when the tips are best, and being waiters at more expensive restaurants. </p>
<p>Good workers also are more likely to keep their jobs when others are laid off, and they are more likely to be called in for overtime.</p>
<p>In addition to working for H-R for a Fortune 500 company, I also created and ran a 20 hour a week paid internship program for stellar high school students who were aspiring journalists. Even though half of the students' time was in class with me, and even though I gave them some writing assignments to fill up their time, it still was an imposition for their assigned mentors (professional journalists) to have an intern spending about 10 hours a week with them. Yet, journalism is an easier field to do something like this with than would be fields that require even more privacy. I doubt that, for instance, many people here would want a high school or college student sitting in when you have an appointment with your doctor, banker, insurance rep or accountant. Would you even want such a person to be making copies of your medical or financial files?</p>
<p>And if what the interns are doing is basically sitting in an office soaking up the atmosphere and observing things, how many posters would want some college or high school student spending 20-40 hours a week accompanying you on your job?</p>