<p>Our S didn’t get paid the summer of his JR year when he volunteered to help out at a summer science program. He did get hired for the next 2 summers to do the same job. I guess it could be viewed as a 3 month job interview? That was his only “internship.” </p>
<p>D had a job that was supposedly “paid,” but she worked A LOT more hours than she claimed & found the job very difficult & tedious (transcribing interviews of folks who were mumbling about slack key guitar). Still, she felt it helped her gain more credibility and get an on-campus job in her chosen field, which was the same field as the prior job/volunteer gig. She also feels it may have boosted her getting into the field, cinema. She has no regrets.</p>
<p>Some of the internships described sound pretty awful.</p>
<p>I have had a few interns. They honestly caused me significantly MORE work than if I had just done everything myself, but I was trying to build bridges with the school of nursing. Their supervisor was challenging to work with and they had a hard time following through with details. They would not make the changes I requested and I had to re-edit and correct everything they did. It took me 2x as long to work with them then w/o. Thereafter, I stopped accepting more interns from that department, tho they offered. They and their supervisor talked about how much work it had been, which baffled me, as it took me 2x as long to find and correct the mistakes they kept making.</p>
<p>I know others who use “interns” to do much of their non-profit work and research. I have always been pretty cautious about using “interns.”</p>
Interesting you have no concern for the employees being pushed out of paying jobs by an endless supply of unpaid labor. As for the lawyers, without them these sorts of violations of the law would go unchallenged–more power to them!</p>
<p>I’m of two minds on this issue. My department requires an internship for all of our students, and our experience is that these experiences (about 10 hours a week for one semester) often result in employment at the internship site. Sometimes, it’s an eye opener for the student that they really don’t want to go into that specific field, which I think is a good investment of their time.</p>
<p>Just today I met with a senior who was offered a part time job from his summer internship at a local tv station, and now they want to bump him to full time. It’s such a fantastic opportunity that we’re doing everything we can to make it work out so that he can still graduate in May and take the job offer.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I cringe when my English lit/photo major senior daughter tells me she might want to “do an internship” for a year after graduation. We are NOT people who can afford to support a child in an unpaid position for a year. My huband keeps grunting “get a real job” and I have to say I don’t disagree with him. Her college doesn’t oppose real world experience, but they certainly don’t support it either - at parent orientation, we were told “we don’t really care if your child gets a job”…</p>
<p>The biggest tragedy of the current trend is that the unpaid intern needs to be subsidized by his parents to participate. This limits opportunities for those who do not come from well-off families, no matter how talented the individual is.</p>
<p>I recall reading, a few years back, about parents PAYING a service thousands of dollars to help their kids land trendy unpaid internships. Is that still going on?</p>
<p>“Interesting you have no concern for the employees being pushed out of paying jobs by an endless supply of unpaid labor. As for the lawyers, without them these sorts of violations of the law would go unchallenged–more power to them!”</p>
<p>MommaJ, this is a bold statement, do you have any evidence to back it up, particularly the “endless supply” stuff.</p>
<p>I would say the far greater problem for why there is a lack of jobs is because the cost of hiring someone is becoming prohibitively expensive. One of the costs (payroll taxes and unemployment/workers’ compensation expenses are others) is the expense of defending a company from employment discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits. A friend of mine who is a lawyer defends insurance companies and employers from these lawsuits. He tells me that there is a rash of these lawsuits, and the chances of a reasonably sized company having to deal with this phenomenon has skyrocketed in recent years. </p>
<p>Many of these claims are filed pursuant to the American Disabilities Act, a well-intentioned law, that is being abused by class-action attorneys to force insurance companies to settle these cases because of the considerable expense and time in dealing with them. As an employer, sometimes it is just easier to go without the additional employee rather than having to deal with the myriad of regulations and expenses with respect to hiring an employee.</p>
<p>So you’re suggesting that if not for these unpaid interns, the companies would hire no one at all to do the work because they fear ADA suits? Seriously? (And gee, I thought the reason for the high unemployment rate was the corporate tax rate, no, no, wait a minute, it’s uncertainty about Obamacare, scratch that, it’s excessive environmental regulation—heck, name your favorite political soundbite.) When the demand is there for their goods and services, employers will take on more employees–and if they can pay the nothing, they’ll do that, too. As for the “endless supply” of labor, there are hundreds of people applying for every job opening these days, so I think it’s self evident.</p>
<p>^^^^
Well, I don’t want to get into political argument with you, but all the reasons you cited and a few more I can think of have all contributed to the high unemployment rate. You misinterpreted me, I said I would like to see evidence for the huge number of employees being pushed out of jobs because of the endless supply of UNPAID labor. Your words. Anecdotal evidence won’t cut it.</p>
<p>When you have a few minutes, why don’t you google “wrongful termination or employee discrimination lawsuits” and see how many lawyers out there are advertising their services in this lucrative area of the law.</p>
<p>Medical insurance IS a huge cost of any employee in our state that puts in 20+ hours/week. It is really a BIG expense and adds to all the other overhead for employees.</p>
<p>When I graduated from college, a personal contact at a company could often get you an entry level job. Now, that same contact with the same “pull” can get you an unpaid internship.</p>
<p>Many interns are doing work that companies otherwise would have to employ someone to do. They work right alongside paid employees, doing work that does in fact need to be done (and yes, they learn in the process). Why would a company bother to hire someone if they can get the work for free?</p>