<p>Hi guys. I just interviewed for an unpaid internship position at a federal institution, and to be honest I'm still not quite sure if the experience will be worth it. As of now the supervisors require 20+ hours per week (is this the norm for unpaid internships? this is in the field of public health, by the way) for 2+ months. For this internship I'll be working with staff members to set up a relational database, enter data, and perform data analysis. </p>
<p>If any of you have had experiences as an unpaid intern, what was it like?</p>
<p>I didn’t exactly have the best experience when I had my unpaid internship. I was a design engineer intern at a start-up medical device company. It was VERY small (CEO, HR lady, and 2 other interns including me). The first couple of weeks, I was tasked with reading a giant 400+ page binder that dealt with product development and FDA regulations. It was very tedious and boring because all we would do is read and take notes; pretty much felt like being in school again. I was supposed to be working on a medical device project but for some reason he had us do an iPhone case project; it was for one of my CEO’s friends, very random. </p>
<p>I did learn a little bit about my work habits and my design skills, but overall, it felt like a waste of time because a lot of days, my boss wouldn’t show up and I was alone in the office doing nothing.</p>
<p>Your unpaid internship seems more legit than mine. Ask a lot of questions about the position and the company and decide from there if it’s worth it. Make sure you have a back up plan in case you decide that it’s not right for you. If it is, do your best and try to get good letters of recommendation from them. Everyone’s experience with an unpaid internship is different but if possible, try to get a paid one because it’s a lot better.</p>
<p>I did an unpaid internship with the federal government in DC.</p>
<p>I firmly believe that it lead to my paid internships and ultimately my job.</p>
<p>I had a big project to work on, and I also helped out where I could. I wrote a memo from my office to the Secretary, was a final set of eyes (after everyone else’s had glazed over) on a memo that would have the secretaries signature, and got to attend a meeting between the Deputy Secretary and a committee of the European Parliament.</p>
<p>I also met some good people, and got some solid references from fairly senior government employees (GS14 and 15), which almost no other entry level job candidates would have on their resume.</p>
<p>So, mine was productive. And yes, I worked about 6 hours/day, 4x per week, with almost 2 hours of commuting each way.</p>
<p>All of them won’t pay off, but I firmly believe mine was VERY helpful.</p>
<p>I have been interning at an architectural firm, and I personally feel as if my time spent here has been absolutely worth it in terms of finalizing a career path. </p>
<p>The small firm (4 people) let me in under the premise of “job shadowing” but it was only for a week, 9 to 5 though. My typical schedule was going out to a site, meeting some contractor, and then returning to the office and sitting in front of a computer for a few hours. It got boring at times, but the principle architect gave a few fun things to do like drawing floor plans and practicing autoCAD.</p>