Internships: Unpaid and Unfair

Recently in my job-searching adventures, I have come across job-ads offering full time unpaid internships. Some offer expenses but some keep suspiciously vague on the subject of remuneration.

I understand the rules of capitalism, of ‘demand’ and ‘supply’, and I agree that it makes sense to get people in cheap if they are willing to do the job. Still too often the line between ‘offering experience’ and ‘pure exploitation’ is being crossed.

Firstly, this is London and London is notoriously expensive. As a company you are effectively expecting people to put in full-time hours for nothing and still live here. Although some people make it work thanks to scholarships and parents, many miss out. If the internship was part-time, the intern could also take on a paid part-time job. Interns are not necessarily known for speed anyway – but if the job needed to be done quickly, you should pay for the experience of an employee.

Secondly, if a person signs up to work for your London company unpaid, travel costs (and heck, lunch or they’ll have toast for three months) should be paid for. Some foreign students I know got screwed out of their travel expenses because they didn’t think about negotiating this in their contract. This means they are now effectively paying to get to work.

Am I the only one thinking this is wrong? Sure, they signed the contract but they are 19! Foreign! It’s like beating newborn puppies!

I have a Masters degree and have held a job for years before trying to switch careers this year. So my applications to internships is a choice, though more one in the category of ‘rock and hard place’.

I have sent in three-page writing-tests with my CV and have been for interviews to demonstrate my abilities for these unpaid positions. Then I’m told there might be another round or that they could possibly renew the internship for another three months (more toast…) but there is no paid job.

For crying out loud! How are companies looking for employees but not budgeting for them? Where does all the money that they help generate go? Was that not another rule of capitalism – one works for the profit one makes? I’m no Marxist, I’m not sitting in a tent outside to kick the 1%, but I do wonder whether the markets have crashed on our common sense and sense of morality. Greed made the system come crashing down, wouldn’t it be time to try another approach?

Discussing fair or unfair seems futile: all I know is that this exploited generation will have its time. No big, slick, Linked-In connection will help you, when the time comes, be aware: karma is a bitch.

Image by Loughborough University Library courtesy of Flickr