As my freshman year of college was winding down, I was left with the same burning question many of my fellow students had in mind: what was I going to do for the summer?
Would I find the perfect internship in New York or Washington D.C.?
Go abroad and see the world while possibly earning school credit?
Or would I get stuck waiting tables in my home town like I had been since I turned 16?
Going abroad did not remain on my list for very long — I didn’t have the money and I had missed the deadlines for most financial aid/grant opportunities.
So I decided to dive head first into my job search. Cue days of pouring through job listings, alumni networks, and, yes, even classified ads back home.
They’re are a lot of factors that college students have to consider when making this kind of decision. Where will I live? What about my family? Will this look good on my resume? The list goes on for miles.
But the source of most of my aggravation was one vital question. Would my job even PAY me?
The unpaid internship is the bane of my entire existence.
I understand that experience is invaluable in our economy and job market. However it is ludicrous to expect students, many of whom already have to worry about paying for things like tuition, to gain the job skills and resume muscle demanded of them, while footing the bill themselves. The unpaid internship is a classist tool that allows students who can afford not to be paid a distinct advantage over their peers who have done just as well, but are forced to take less relevant and/or skilled positions that pay. Many of these students are wealthy enough to live in cities where you can find internships such as these, or even conveniently live there already.
Of course this is not the fault of affluent students, but rather that of the employment industry. It is using our ambition against us. We have been forced to attempt to make an impossible decision — further our career or not break the bank. Our generation has big dreams that require real life skills, and recommendations, and job history in order to come true.
If you asked a baby boomer if they would be willing to work for free, they would probably ask if you had lost your mind. Yet still, as the leaders of the work force, they expect millennials to do it every day. And tell them to be happy about it.
Why is our work worth so much less than that of older generations?
(FYI, it’s really not.)
Even with school programs offering stipends for those working at unpaid summer internships or earning school credits, it’s just not fiscally possible for a lot of students to gain important skills by taking on unpaid positions in their chosen fields.
As someone who has been working and managing my own money since the tender age of 14, I knew an unpaid internship wasn’t really an option, especially given the fact that the most relevant internships tend to be almost two thousand miles away from home. Luckily I found something near home that was willing to pay me —ironically a nonprofit organization; perhaps the only institution where unpaid work is usually part of the job description and necessary for their survival. While not necessarily pertinent to my career aspirations, spending the summer at home was free and this job was going to pay me.
I know several people who have had similar problems with unpaid internships — a friend of mine is hoping to apply to be an intern at a music blog, an amazing opportunity for an aspiring music journalist. However, she knows that though the experience would open up a lot of networking opportunities, it would mean she would not have time to work outside of school in addition to the internship. Career-wise, it’s “obvious” that she should take the internship opportunity; it’s a door to long term achievements and relationships. And completely unrealistic unless fiscally possible. With all the financial aid in the world, a student is still a student and that stress only increases when on their own to pay for their education. While I agree that working toward your end goal is more important than a bit of pocket change, the same “opportunities” and the concept of youth as a time to “try everything and not worry about money” only work out if you don’t have to worry about money.
The unpaid internship is a shiny, unattainable mirage that was created for wealthy students and has somehow become an acceptable expectation. If we want to ensure a future of economical success and innovation, businesses, especially Big Businesses, need to return to the idea of working from the bottom up and garnering respect in the work that we are capable of and showcasing the knowledge that we are paying thousands to accumulate. Hands-on experience shouldn’t mean free, expendable labor.
Our work is worth more than two lines on a resume.
