Image by Joel Gillman (License CC BY-SA 2.0)
Many of us go through the same process. We want a job. An entry level position is fine. Yet, when we try to get an entry level job, we’re told no, because we have no experience. So, the question is, does anyone really want you to have a job? In short, no. But in all seriousness, this Catch 22 that has affected us millennials for the past decade, has snowballed into one of the biggest jokes in our job history: Unpaid internships.
Unpaid internships are normal, and seemingly a rite of passage now for us twenty-somethings. Many of us hope these internships will open the door into the white picket fence image of success. To me, it seems like unpaid internships are just big business’ way of getting free labor. I can tell you this with complete confidence-unpaid internships do not guarantee full time jobs, and when we do get a paid position, we usually end up with a salary that doesn’t come close to covering our cost of living.
So, I must ask; is this corporate slavery that we seem to have deemed mandatory worth it. After a bit of research, the tragic answer is Hell NO! Per The Atlantic, having an unpaid internship offers almost no leg up in the job market in comparison to students who had no internship. I hate to break it to you, but that summer you worked for free, suffering through weekends at home, since you had no money to go out, did nothing to “boost your resume.”
According to a study by The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 37% of students who hustled through an unpaid internship received job offers. In contrast, 35.2% of students who didn’t intern, still received at least one job offer! That means there is a 1.8% difference between those who held a shitty job that paid them, and those who held a shitty internship that had no pay. Makes you think, who really comes out on top?
“That internship that was supposed to send me down the money paved road to success, has in fact, lead to low wage offers. Future employers see you are willing to work for free, and that you value your time and effort at zero dollars.”
To break your hearts further, having that “totally amazing” unpaid opportunity can actually be harmful to future job opportunities. Those who have had unpaid internships are normally offered less money than those with actual paid internship experience!
So now I demand to know who is pushing the bullshit that unpaid, low wage internships are our ticket to the big leagues? Who has perpetuated this lie so far that we all now believe working for free is lucky, when in reality, we are screwing ourselves into a lower wage?
The fact of the matter is, we’re conditioned to believe the jobs we get outside of college are a privilege. That we should be honored to be offered them. Let me take you back three years ago when I was a writing major in college, being constantly reminded I would never get a job in my entire life.
My last semester, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I got an unpaid internship writing for the Study Abroad office. On top of my full course load, playing for sports teams, and the hassles of graduating, I also got to spend hours of my nonexistent free time working …. For free! But I was going somewhere career wise so it didn’t matter. This was my golden ticket – my “experience.”
Flash forward a year, I hadn’t had any luck in the professional world of writing (omg that unpaid internship didn’t help you, what?) and I was growing desperate. Fortunately, I was offered a writing job. An apprenticeship as they called it(bullshit). I would become a content writer for an online blog during the 3 months of summer. And the best part, they were paying me!
I would receive $5,000 over the course of the three summer months. I was paid every first Tuesday of the month. So I got one paycheck every month. If that isn’t crappy enough, I did the math this morning to find out what I actually made that summer. I seriously wish I had stayed naïve.
I made $833 bi-weekly. That’s a whopping $83 a day. A day that consisted of writing at least five articles, managing the community they assigned me, cultivating new members, and having my phone glued to my nose on weekends. That was to ensure the best numbers for each article. Oh, and a $5.50 train ride every day to and from work. But who cared if it was slavery- I was getting paid to write.
Now that I look back, it makes me sick. I was always told writing didn’t pay well, and my first writing job was unpaid. That internship that was supposed to send me down the money paved road to success, has in fact, led to low wage offers. Future employers see you are willing to work for free, and that you value your time and effort at zero dollars.
Just because we’re new to the work force doesn’t make our time less valuable. Believe in your work ethic and your skills. The truth is, nothing about these “free internships” are a true welcome into adulthood. They’re just another way to trick you into accepting less money than you are worth, and demanding you feel grateful for it.
Liz Arnone is currently a free lance writer trapped in the 9-5 corporate work place. She loves hiking, swimming, the book of the month club, and writing articles about feminism that makes strangers yell at her online. Her dream job is to write for a women’s magazine or become a mermaid. Whichever works out first.
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