From the beginning of college, we are told that we are expected to have at least one or two internships completed by the time we graduate, and more would be preferable, and that internships are the key to success after graduation. It's easy to see why this makes sense: internships provide real-world experience in the fields students plan to enter after graduation, and in an increasingly competitive job market, this experience is crucial in distinguishing applicants from one another. But while the benefits of undertaking an internship are great, there's also a darker side this internship game that is not recognized quite as much in the push for experience: that internships are a privilege, rather than just part of the college experience.
You might be thinking: what are you talking about? And why this talk about privilege? It seems like the p-word gets thrown around a lot. If this is you, just stop. If this is you, just listen. Stay with me.
By stating that internships are a privilege, I mean that internships are not accessible to all college students regardless of their background. Internships are praised as this critical thing that is needed by college students to find a job or enter a graduate school upon graduation, but the sad reality is, that these opportunities for real-world experience are not always accessible to college students who may desperately want to experience them. Instead of the college experience serving as an equalizer for students from underrepresented backgrounds, this internship game is one of many facets of the college world that makes the gap of opportunity between traditionally represented and underrepresented students even larger. The so-called "equality of opportunity" that is apparently afforded by receiving a college education isn't quite so equal after all.
The Unpaid Internship
The existence of the unpaid internship, the vast majority of existing internships, is one of the facets of the internship game that especially contributes to this disparity. You may be thinking, but interns are not supposed to be paid; they are doing the gig for the experience. I see where you are coming from, and while deep down I believe all interns should be paid because of the amount of work they contribute to an organization, that's not my main argument for why the fact that most internships being unpaid is problematic. Unpaid internships are often out of reach for students who cannot afford to work for free. The groups most affected by this include students coming from families with a low socio-economic status (SES), which also are often students of color because of how messed up our socio-economic society is to begin with, and students paying for college completely on their own. These are the students that are taking on multiple jobs to not only help get themselves through college and survive on their own, but also to help out their families back home, who definitely need that extra income to be able to put food on the table and pay their bills on time, to provide for the necessities that so many take for granted. Unpaid internships are time consuming; most internships want folks who can contribute at least 20 hours per week, as much as one might work at a part-time job, but for free, and for those who have to take on multiple jobs, they one, don't have time to fit in an internship, and two, can't afford to not work for pay by undertaking such a large time commitment for free.
Yesterday, I was sitting in my capstone class for one of my majors, and our professor had invited alumni from that department to sit on a panel to help us get ready to enter graduate school or the real-world job market. One of the panelists brought up critical nature of internships in securing full-time employment, and how those who couldn't afford to do one just needed to pick up an extra job and do whatever it takes to secure that unpaid internship. But the sad reality is, it's not that easy. Between already balancing multiple jobs, being a full-time student, and involvement on campus, picking up an extra job and an internship is not the simple task that the panelist made it out to be.
I understand that it's hard for many to wrap their heads around this, especially those who have not lived the experiences that these students face. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the dark side of the internship game, not to make you feel guilty. All I ask is that when undergoing an internship, you recognize that it is a privilege not accessible to everyone and that you take advantage for all that it has to offer, because for other students, they greatly miss out on the real-world experience, the networking opportunities, the chance to establish relationships with mentors, the chance to learn more about the field they are entering into upon graduation, all because they internship game was rigged against them from the start.
