The Beginning of the End of the Unpaid Internship

[baked_goldfish]

In August 2011, when Diana Wang began her seventh unpaid internship, this time at Harper’s Bazaar, the legendary high-end fashion magazine, she figured that her previous six internships - at a modeling agency, a PR firm, a jewelry designer, a magazine, an art gallery and a state governor’s office - had prepared her for the demands of New York’s

Comments

[britneyspears]

yeah, unpaid internships are bullshit. i'm too poor to even be able to consider them.

and i thought the 28 y/o was too old to be working unpaid internships...but 40? eaux.

[baked_goldfish]

i'm too poor to even be able to consider them.

One of the biggest problems with them, imo. An already exclusionary labor market excludes even further when you have to pay to play like this.

[britneyspears]

yup, exactly! you put it much better than I did lmao.

[dreamoftheday]

yep, this is pretty much my exact problem with unpaid internships

I attend a public city university where probably 75% of people who go there work at least part time, and lots work full time and take a full course load...I don't have a job at the moment and luckily my parents can pay for the essentials while I'm in school but it's still ridiculously exclusionary to expect people to work for no pay in order to get experience~ that doesn't even guarantee a future paid position or any kind of career advancement or educational gain at all.

[tilmon]

Well, how else can an employer keep out the minorities and lower class whites?

Really, internships are all about maintaining the status quo. If working for free is impossible, then you obviously don't have what it takes--familial wealth and power--to work in American media and politics.

[spyral_path]

This so much.

[kaowolfie]

If working for free is impossible, then you obviously don't have what it takes--familial wealth and power--to work in American media and politics.

qft.

[luminescnece]

When I took over management of my store and had to hire a few employees, I had to argue with my boss that I didn't want to only be able to choose from the applicants that could actually afford to be unpaid labour for 6 weeks.

[amyura]

Yup. Far too many interns are able to suck it up because their parents are bankrolling the whole thing. Another institution that keeps the rich and powerful rich and powerful while excluding the working class.

[bex]

Yep. It further privileges students whose families are able to support them for months on end while putting students who have to support themselves at a disadvantage, especially if the internship refuses to accommodate a student's work schedule for a job that actually pays the damn bills. I'm pretty passionate about this issue and I AM one of the people who is lucky enough to have a supportive family and resources that allowed me to work an unpaid internship, though I also worked 40 hours at a paying job during that time, too. I'd go to the internship from 7am-3pm each day, then dash across town to make it to my "real job", often changing in my car on the way, and work there from 4pm-10pm. Many times I was kept late at the internship and was then late to work... luckily I was able to avoid being disciplined for that. -.-

[britneyspears]

ugh that's horrible. i hope this crap changes, especially since college is starting to cost even more money.

[starsinshapes]

My mom was 50 and had an internship because she went back to school. it's not uncommon. They even hired her after her internship was up. She collected unemployment at the time.

[deathchibi]

Yeah, I can't work if I don't get paid. :/ I always thought about answering those ads sugar daddies put on Craigslist, but a part of me is afraid I'll end up somewhere missing a kidney or something.

[screamingintune]

yeah being able to hold a full time job without pay is a privilege that not a lot of people can afford. which sucks.