Should unpaid internships be outlawed?

[Dlbdonn]

If you work you should get paid . Anything else is akin involuntary servitude

[woodsrider]

If you work you should get paid . Anything else is akin involuntary servitude

Then don't take the internship. Kind of like taking a min wage job at McDonalds and whining about the pay. its a free country.

[mcpapa]

Then don't take the internship. Kind of like taking a min wage job at McDonalds and whining about the pay. its a free country.

 

Tell that to a twenty-something who is $50 - $100K in debt before he enters the workforce.:eek:

[75center]

Then don't take the internship. Kind of like taking a min wage job at McDonalds and whining about the pay. its a free country.

 

Exactly! Valuable experience is priceless. Don't want it, go somewhere else for pay but don't be surprised if down the road you end up working for the guy that took it.

[LIPTON BASH]

One of my long term jobs is at a radio group that is among the most successful in the country.

 

For 12 of the first 15 years we took unpaid interns and the best of the bunch resulted in long term jobs and numerous advancement opportunities in the business.

 

Now we have to pay interns, and there has been the worst possible staffing situations possible. It is a grind to wait out hires that would have been abundantly clear if the same people had to do a semester of unpaid internship in a group of potential hires.

 

We are no longer forcing those that have the desire to make it to compete with the lazy sloths that round out the potential field of applicants.

 

Have a splashy resume on paper with a parent that knows a few people and you are in. It is going to take a few years for them to fire you and not offend anyone in the process.

 

In the meantime everyone else suffers and has to hope the next forced hire without a test run is the right fit.

 

I've seen many unpaid interns make the most of their situation and be set for life. The ones that had no desire to make anything of it failed and were pushed aside.

 

I worked mostly for free for 3 years back in my early 20s and once I got to the point I had people willing to pay for my talents I cut off the free portion of my career.

 

Some were willing to pay and some weren't. Figure it our or give up on the "dream" and enter the work forc e you didn't plan on being your path...

 

I like this Gametime

[LIPTON BASH]

Tell that to a twenty-something who is $50 - $100K in debt before he enters the workforce.:eek:

 

Then don't take out the loans ?

[sportsfan41]

They have been a target for awhile. I'm on the side that ending them will hurt students gain valuable experience.

 

But at the same time with rising tuition costs its harder and harder for a student of middle class backround to afford it.

 

A little over a decade ago my senior year working full time , going to school full time and interning two or 3 days a week was stressful.

 

I don't like the idea of the government getting involved and I also think to many student go through school without working and building up loan debt blaming it on being impossible to work full time and go to school which is not true.

In a perfect world businesses will reward good interns and a lot do already. But I don't want government making a blanket rule because it will do more harm than good.

 

I agree. I managed to do both, but that's on me. I had to decide between taking sometime off school or finishing up and not being as stressed about money by taking out some money from student loans. I don't regret choosing to finish up and take out loans to do so. I regret to an extent being so lax about taking out more money than I really needed just to not be so stressed about money.

 

I think at that age it's easy to just punch through and make it "not so stressful" by taking a bit more than you NEED. However that stress isn't gone it's just postponed IMO.

[TAC]

Oldest TACster interviewing for an unpaid internship today. His cousin did the same gig and landed the job. Article in paper today said 47% of internships lead to jobs at the company the person interned with.

[doomer]

We hire many interns in my business. We hire them to perform value-added projects, and I wouldn't think of not paying them. Many of them have become long-term employees. We interview and choose one as we would a regular employee. This works for us. Most are engineering students or the occasional financial student.

 

Maybe if landing a full-time job with us lead to immediate wealth potential, it would be different.

[doomer]

Everyone in my family had to take out some level of loan for post graduate education...two MS's, two laws schools, vet medicine and orthopedic medicine. We feel it was a good investment, and there was no other way to get there. Without student loans, we would have been mired in "careers" that would have been unsatisfying and unrewarding.