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Unpaid internships: Gateway to a Career or Dressed Up Version of Free Labor?
I want to get into working in global health so that is part of the reason that I have been volunteering abroad for the last year. How prevalent are unpaid internships in other fields? If you had one, do you feel that if was a valuable experience or did the company/organization just use your skills for free?
Tags: career, internships, salary, volunteer, volunteering
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ExSchutz on -
I think it depends on the structure of the internship. I did 5 internships in PR/Marketing/Communications while in college and the more valuable ones actually had an internship "program" as opposed to just needing an "intern" to help them get mailings out. When you interview for an internship, don't be afraid to interview the company too!
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Permalink Reply by Elle on -
I've done an unpaid internship for PR. I did get through to final-round interviews without one, and made it to the last two (i.e. - it was either me, or the other person who was going to get the job), but every time, it was always the other person because they had that all-important experience. If you can't get a related job to get experience (yet entry-level technically means you shouldn't need this experience ... but you do), then an unpaid internship is the only way you can compete (IMHO).
For me, it was valuable because the company utilised my skills and didn't make me make tea/photocopy - I was doing proper PR from the word go and because I was doing all this for free, they took me seriously because they viewed this free work as me taking my career seriously. In turn, interviewers for these entry-level jobs saw it that way too.
It may have been free labour, but for competitive industries, sadly this seems to be the only way in ... unless you happen to be very lucky and interviewing at the right place, at the right time, with the right person. It does happen (so I've heard)!
Good luck with your global health career!
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Permalink Reply by Mallory on -
Some internships are better than others. Getting paid has nothing to do with it (in most cases). As long as you do your research in the beginning and clearly define expectations with your supervisor, it should have great potential. I did one paid and one unpaid internship-- both led to further employment.
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Permalink Reply by Miss OJ on
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I have never had a paid internship, but the unpaid internship I did this summer was a great experience. To begin with, I really didn't have any skills in my field when I started, but they taught me so much that I really couldn't have learned any other way. (I interned in a museum, so I learned about art handling, storage, collections management, etc.) And even in the short term, I think it's paid off in other ways--one of my supervisors from the summer asked me to come back and volunteer during the school year. I'm doing many of the same things that I did over the summer, but on a more casual basis.
Of course, it depends on the company/institution, too. When we started, they made it very clear that everyone had to file and make copies at some point in their day, but that should not be the bulk of our responsibilities as interns. They also brought in people from all different parts of the museum to do workshops, tours, etc. Even though we didn't get paid, I feel like we were really treated well, and I'm so glad I did it.
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