That is not surprising. Unpaid internships can more easily exist in job categories where there is an oversupply of job seekers relative to the number of jobs. So, even when the unpaid interns look for paid jobs, they are less likely to find them and more likely to have to settle for lower pay due to heavy competition (and some may have taken unpaid internships because they were previously unable to find a paid job or internship to begin with).
Yup, correlation not causation.
God, if you don’t want to work in unpaid internships - don’t do them! Please, don’t forbid people who would like to volunteer.
There is a difference between volunteering and an unpaid internship.
Looks like this was sufficiently discussed, but I want to echo another commenter’s notes about humanities and social sciences majors. There seems to be a narrative that, due to one’s major, the business world is essentially out of reach, and that person will need to adjust expectations accordingly, to the point of accepting unpaid work for profitable companies. This narrative cannot be more wrong!
Looking at full-time, entry-level opportunities, there are certainly many companies that still request certain majors in their applicants, but for the most part, even when specific majors are requested, they don’t have systems in place to filter out applications that don’t list those magic majors. As long as your resume gets through to a recruiter, and as long as you aren’t looking into fields that require more vocational degrees (think, engineering, nursing, etc.), you are essentially on a level playing field with everybody else.
Why is that?
Well, for one, basically every mid-sized and large company has some sort of training program. They don’t decide to let someone skip training because they had prior internships or because they majored in one discipline or another. Rather, every single new hire in the class goes through this training. They go through the training because, no matter what they did before and what they studied in school, they still need to get the essential information needed to do their jobs, and that information is not taught as part of a university curriculum.
I’ve worked for three companies since graduating college. All three of them have had similar requirements. There is a technical element, which requires tech-ey skills and thinking. There is a business savvy element, which requires a decent set of business sense. And there is a communication element, which requires strong writing, speaking, and listening skills. Every new hire that came straight out of college into the workforce had strength in one of those three elements but needed to develop skills in the other two. For me, I came out of school with a political science degree; I was very strong in communication, but not so strong in technology or business sense. I started with someone who came out of school with a computer science degree; she was adept at technology but couldn’t write to save her life. When it came to delivering high quality work, none of tech skills, business sense or communication abilities could be differentiated as more or less important.
At the end of the day, there is a real need to separate people who get degrees in humanities, fine arts, and social sciences: There are those who want to follow their dreams and become writers or philosophers or artists, and that is perfectly fine, but these folks don’t care too much about business success. And then, there are those who want to join the business world and work their way through the ranks. If you believe the people who say that the latter group has no way of getting jobs because their resumes list “Philosophy” or “Spanish,” then I’ve got a bridge to sell you…
From the NYT: “While some students take a summer job in food service to pay the bills, others can afford to accept unpaid jobs at high-profile organizations, setting them on a more lucrative path.”
Ds2 has both a minimum-wage part-time internship this summer AND a job as a dishwasher. A boy’s got to eat.
I’ve done a number of unpaid internships (and am doing yet another one in the fall) - but they are always with either non-profits or government agencies, and they are never anything close to full time (usually 6-10 hours a week, including summer ones.) Moreover, they are always more educational than utilitarian(?) In fact, I am probably more of a burden than an asset to the organization, as my supervisor has had to dedicate time specifically to training or educating me. In one internship I had, my supervisor asked for me to keep an online diary, detailing my daily experiences in the office - she would then read them and discuss them with me on a weekly basis. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled to do it, but I found that it enhanced my experience overall. The internship I am doing in the fall is a research position with a non-profit museum - I’ll be conducting independent research that will be submitted as a component of my senior thesis.
I’d obviously preferred to be paid, but I’ve never felt as though I was taken advantage of or abused by my (pseudo)-employer.
What you describe is what an unpaid internship is supposed to be like.
My D just finished her second week at her unpaid PR internship (they are reimbursing parking and picking up lunch for her each day). She is part of a 12 week program with specific training each week and shadowing a current employee. D has already submitted 2 assignments that have been reviewed by the principals of the firm and she was invited to an event with a fashion designer last week and will be working a fashion event for the firm next week. Next week she will be working on a photo shoot. The employee she is shadowing was hired directly from the internship program. So far she is very excited about the work and responsibility she has been given.
Stumbled upon this article and found it interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/us/part-time-jobs-and-thrift-how-unpaid-interns-in-dc-get-by.html?action=click&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&contentCollection=us&contentPlacement=9&em_pos=large&emc=edit_nn_20160707&module=package&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=75029279&pgtype=sectionfront®ion=rank&rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&version=highlights&_r=0