Unpaid Internships

Intern Nation by Ross Perlin tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about internships and then some. Equal parts history lesson, tell all and personal commentary, this should be assigned reading for anyone considering taking part in an internship. It has been coded into the minds of the young job seekers today that they must first work for free if they ever hope to find a good paying position. Perlin sends the necessary message though that the system that has been put in place to make this possible is cracked and presents a bad deal for internship seeking individual.

Beyond getting an insider’s look at their future job, interns and apprentices also gain valuable industry connections they can use to land a job upon graduation.

Of course, it is preferable to get paid for work, but as a matter of fact to offer unpaid internship is often the only possibility for firms to offer internships at all.

Internships are extraordinary opportunities to learn and grow. Internships are mostly designed to expand the depth and the breadth of the academic learning in the particular areas of the study. Internship is an opportunity to receive experience in applying all formulas, methods, theories in the classroom to specific experiences in the real world and to see how it actually works.

Students receive on-the-job experience prior to graduation, and the internship assists them in obtaining permanent employment. Facilities benefit from the opportunity to participate in and improve the formal education process. Quite often, students who complete professional practice experiences are later employed by the facility at which they completed the internship.

He states, “Three-quarters of the 10 million students enrolled in America’s four-year colleges and universities will work as interns at least once before graduating … Between one-third and half will get no compensation for their efforts” (499 - 500). This evidence is relevant since it clearly supports the author’s claim that colleges allow unpaid internship. This may not necessarily imply that the colleges are bad, but this clearly shows the high occurrence of such cases. It shows the high number of students who do not get paid while working as interns. The information was taken from established research institutes, therefore the evidence is credible. The College Employment Research Institute conducts an annual survey of national employers seeking their intentions for hiring new college graduates ("College Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University"), while the Intern Bridge is the nation’s premier college recruiting, consulting and research firm (http://www.internbridge.com/). However, there was no information about the date when the statistic was taken or when the study was performed, and this made the evidence less sufficient. The evidence will be more sufficient if the date was mentioned and if it was current. Again, this evidence is addressed to students to present them with details about unpaid internship and be cautious when considering internship in their

Internship is a period of work experience offered by an employer to give people (usually college students and graduates) exposure to the working environment. It gives them an opportunity to get first-hand experience. The growing need for practical learning led to the emergence of internship. It helps to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. Internships in any form- paid, unpaid or co-operative learning has now become a standard practice for college students. It has

Currently, there are no statutory or regulatory guidelines specifically designated for the consideration of the relationship between an employer and an intern. Even when courts have not been consistent in applying the FLSA six-factor test or Walling v. Portland Terminal Co., our client will be able to offer the unpaid internship by acting in good faith, having in place an unpaid internship letter and signing an arbitration agreement.

In a business world, nowadays it isn’t just about whom you know, or what you know, experience is almost as valuable as education. It appears that almost all credibility comes from how long one has been in a particular field. Consider this, would you rather see a heart surgeon who just finished his or her residency, or a surgeon who has been practicing for many years? Almost always, experience is more enticing. This resulting in this epidemic that has college students and graduates hungry for experience, even willing to work for free, or in other words – internship. A compelling article published in a 2006 New York Times magazine, - “TAKE THIS INTERNSHIP AND SHOVE IT”, Anya Kamenetz uses ethos, pathos, and logos to lay out a thorough review of whether or not unpaid vs. paid internships are beneficial, not only for pre-graduate college students, but also for the economy as a whole.

Daniel Miller writes, “Unpaid interns who had worked at Fox Searchlight Pictures filed a lawsuit five years ago alleging the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying them for their work.” (July 12, 2016) This lawsuit could be instrumental on how Hollywood handles Interns. The companies need to take note and ensure their intern follows the guidelines of what an intern is. Our textbook lists six defining factors of a trainee for the FLSA on page 27 which should be circulated through all businesses. Furthermore, the former interns were rewarded the amount of $7,500 to $495 depending on the time they worked for the company. I believed company would have saved themselves the headache of a lawsuit by simply reading the guidelines for interns prior to hiring them. In conclusion, all three cases showed the general disregard for the law. All three companies would have benefited by doing some simple research of the Fair Labor Standards Act and what the law entails to avoid violating

Students and prospective students would be affected because internships can provide students with the necessary work experience and skills required to get a job in their field. Improving our existing internship program can assure that both current and prospective students are marketable and prepared when entering the workforce.

Our present day job market has seen a marked increase in competition among college graduates. Over the past 40 years, we have seen a 20 percent increase in bachelor’s degrees in citizens over the age of 25 (“Fast Facts” 1). This increase in degree holders has exacerbated the competition of our job markets and has forced workers to seek a further competitive edge. According to an annual survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an astonishing 95 percent of employers said relevant work experience is a major aspect in hiring decisions, and approximately half of the surveyed employers wanted the experience to come from internships (Hansen 1). Hence, many college students find themselves taking unpaid internships as resume boosters. Although these internship experiences are significant in providing college students with practical skills, their ethicality is highly questionable. Unpaid internships exploit interns, widen socioeconomic disparity, and offer little future benefit to interns. This paper will begin by framing the problem and highlighting the importance of this phenomenon. Following that, the multiple perspectives on this issue will be discussed and an analysis of the pros and cons of unpaid internships will unravel that unpaid internships are inherently flawed. Lastly, the paper will acknowledge that completely abolishing unpaid internships is an

Some students participate in internships while in school to gain some practical experience (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Most employers prefer to hire computer engineers with at least 2 years of experience (Bureau of Labor Statistics). I am hoping to be an intern for Nvidia and work there for at least 2 years while in college. If not, I might look into working for AMD as an intern.

An internship is no good if you do not make it work. Thus making the internship work for you is very important. To start out the student must want to direct their full attention to the internship because the internship is pretty much starting out their future. First impressions are usually suppose to be good so a student should not go into an internship thinking that it is going to be easy and that they can just blow through it. Internships should be beneficial for the students and the employer’s. The internship program coordinator should look for a few things when they are picking out the companies in which they are going to send their students to learn and gain experience. First off the firm in which you might be thinking about going into for an intern must have work for you to do. Sitting behind a desk all day staring out the window will not teach you anything. It also helps out when there are positive people surrounding the student intern. “For an internship to work, the firm’s principals must be available to supervise and teach.”(Berger 30) The student intern will usually have lots of questions and if there are good people around the intern to answer his or her questions and correct their mistakes then the internship will be quite beneficial.

Typically, internships are professional experiences that students participate in to gain professional skills and experiences. In this particular experience at Accounting Firm X I did in fact gain substantial professional skill while participating in new and challenging experiences. Internships allow in- class material to come to life in a practical manner. My internship did do this but not in a way that I had planned.