http://forums.redflagdeals.com/what-hell-d-u-guys-think-about-unpaid-internship-bell-724640/9/

Back in the 90's there were one or two interns. I yapped my big mouth (Why I dont' work for you anymore, John Tory… Oops!)

Well, around 2003 I happened to flip through Flare and thought I'd look up the masthead to see a few old friends' names. Not many there, but boy oh boy! Had the internship list grown! I think it was up well into the teens!

Free slave labour for those suckers.

And the opportunity to get more "experience" for nothing.

What most don't realize, the ones that hang on? Well, they're the ones who can have Mommy and Daddy fork out the dough to allow them to starve the rest of you schlubs out.

And the result?

The "Lucky One" are the ones that finally get the jobs. You know the ones who will tell you years from now, how hard they worked to get where they are today.

Ri-ii-ii-ight! The Sliver Spoon Crowd.

And what do you think it will do for the quality of your magazine, with people that view the world as they do?

Good luck with that!

Doug Sweet

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Do you mean that the interns you have hired back have been on the whole better than blind hires, or the pool of all interns in general has worked better than blind hires in general. Because the interns that didn't like the job or that you guys didn't like won't be applying/considered for new positions, so if you mean "rehires" from the intern pool it makes sense they would on the whole work out better.

We expect interns to have the basic skill sets so that we don't need to do much hand-holding past the first couple of days. We also don't give them the most vital and time sensitive stuff, so they get the experience, some of the pressure and real-world people skills. Looking at the example of the young reporter in the story, the only thing different from my experience and hers was that I didn't get a press badge. But if you're a journalism student who can't figure stuff out by asking questions…

Sounds more like a "lousy employer" story than an "intern abuse" story.

This has actually been very helpful to me as I never have sat down and contemplated interns at our firm. For us, paid vs unpaid is irrelevant. While money is a concern for us, dealing with an intern has the greatest cost in terms of time. We want the intern to have a valuable experience, so I try to get them to do something useful. However, frequently it takes me at least an hour to explain the background to a task that would take me 30 minutes to do myself. I'll do this because, as time goes on, the intern becomes more and more self-sufficient. Unfortunately, for short-term internships such as you're describing, most people won't put in that effort because it won't pay off. This is why, in my mind, many interns end up doing menial tasks and/or find themselves completely bored when the entire office is in an uproar, because people simply don't have the time to explain the tasks that need to be done.

Perhaps it's just our operating environment, I'm not sure. It's certainly the weirdest place I've ever worked.

It sounds like your firm might benefit from probationary employees rather than internships as they are commonly understood. You can still pay them less and if they don't work out can be let go without severance. In fact, there may be very

At our shop, we hire almost exclusively from internal applicants, including present and past interns. We post every position publicly, of course, and usually receive between 30 and 60 applications, almost exclusively from fresh graduates. But we tend to chose the people we're familiar with, and who are familiar with us, and throw out all of those resumes.

For example, I was recently at a conference and was approached by a young lady who was within weeks of finishing her masters. She came across as being very knowledgeable about my firm and industry, and showed her enthusiasm for looking for employment in the sector. She had done her research, and I saw that she also talked to at least three or four of my colleagues from different firms in the same field at the same conference. If I have an internship or paid position open up in the next few weeks, she'll be the first person I call.

So for any new graduates out there, get off the couch, find local conventions in the field that you're interested in, do your homework, and get out there and network.

EDIT: And be prepared to be rebuffed; it's not an insult if the person you're talking to quickly excuses themselves to catch another individual who they need to connect with at the same conference. They'll remember who you are, and their quick exit is not a slap in the face nor a comment on your company. They may actually prefer your company to the person they're chasing, but that's irrelevant. Networking is not like a dinner party, where politeness is key; people are there to work, and part of that work is connecting with specific other individuals. If they're good at what they do you won't even notice that they've abandoned you, but sometimes it will be unavoidably apparent.

The other is networking. Be useful and show that you can adapt, and if you can't get a job where you intern, you now have a group of professionals who can help you look and may be willing to advocate on your behalf.

I have found, however, many of those that crash after a week have unrealistic expectations of salary and working conditions. No longer does a degree ensure a great paycheque and lots of time off right out of the gate.

but on the other side, once you are there and you feel that you are being taken advantage of (usually a gut feeling suffices) there is usually not much you can do. if u do complain to the company, your internship will end and you wont get a reference. what then?

Believe me, I used to wonder as a student nurse why I was being asked to pay for my clinical experience. In the old day, they used to pay the student nurses for their "slave labor". However, you pay for this part of your education, just as you pay for your classes. You also have a student advisor. My guess is the teacher who does the supervision only gets a pittance for having a student advisor in his/her class. It is an expectation that you will mentor. You do not do it for the money. Oh yah, I forgot to count my spring clinical internships….I paid for 11 in 4 years!

But the supervision effort for the permanent teacher is not nearly as intense than what you’re describing for a nurse. In fact, in the final internship the teacher has in fact far less work since the student is responsible for lesson preparation, corrections, class discipline, etc. All the permanent teacher does is review the work and provide counsel.

EDIT: And yes, my industry is one in which networking is of vital importance. Individual projects might be useful, but unless you're targeting the specific people who might give you a job for your 'project', it's not going to help you get hired. And if you are targeting those people, you're really just doing an internship for yourself.

I always tell friends and colleagues that it's better to spend time doing personal projects and pitches than internships.