Current Events > This..this actually makes so much sense. Why unpaid internships exist.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never thought about it that way but it makes so much sense. I always thought it was free labor which it is, but really this must be the deeper reason:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7e1631e7.jpg

damn

That's not really true tho. The places ime where unpaid internships are most prevalent are public service your jobs, where wealthy nepo babies aren't applying

lilORANG posted...

prevalent are public service your jobs,

huh

give an example

Nah, thats just marxist BS.

Rich kids dont need those jobs and most probably wouldnt demean themselves to working as a free intern either if they dont have to. Especially if they could have connections to get them into the door immediately.

Its just employers taking advantage of their industrys high demand for cheap and or free labor. The actual individuals income lv couldnt matter less.

That and personally if their that desperate for the above then they probably arent an employer worth working for in the first place. More so if youre rich.

I mean, maybe that's the intent but if so, it doesn't necessarily work.

Rich kids are well connected enough to just completely skip the internship and go right into low to mid level leadership positions at either companies owned by their families or friends of their families. Unpaid internships are for the free slave, I mean, totally fair but unpaid labour.

Prismsblade posted...

Nah, thats just marxist BS.

Rich kids dont need those jobs and most probably wouldnt demean themselves to working as a free intern either if they dont have to. Especially if they could have connections to get them into the door immediately.

Its just employers taking advantage of their industrys high demand for cheap and or free labor. The actual individuals income lv couldnt matter less.

That and personally if their that desperate for the above then they probably arent an employer worth working for in the first place. More so if youre rich.

Politicians Aide, Film Industry, Paralegals, lots of young rich kids work unpaid to get foot in a prestigious career. Mom and Dad pay the bills while they advance their career.

Any time I'm asked for advice on the matter I tell people not to pursue or accept unpaid internships, regardless of their personal financial situation.

Social workers need to do unpaid internships as part of the schooling.

"it filters poor people"

my guy, rich people aren't doing unpaid internships when they can just get hired instantly via nepotism

Unpaid internships are a way for companies to skirt around child labor laws and minimum wage laws. Any other justification is post hoc nonsense.

WingsOfGood posted...

huh

give an example

Public defenders offices, prosecutor's offices, legal aid. All private firms pay their people.

hint I'm a lawyer

Just typical bid/ask market at play. If theres a demand for a job/experience and large supply, you can lower your compensation to the minimum to what people will still accept it at. In these cases, zero.

Its immoral and not justified in a modern society IMO but as long as people keep accepting these positions and businesses are legally allowed to offer them, its only natural they will continue to do the cost saving option.

Unpaid internships are basically a very long interview with on-the-job training. Companies offering them benefit because they get free labor (duh), but the real benefit is seeing how the intern would actually be as an employee, which helps with retention and hiring good candidates. The hiring hamster wheel is real, which is why lots of internships end with job offers.

The post in the OP is completely backwards, rich kids don't do unpaid internships, they simply get the job through connections. Unpaid internships are a way for non-rich kids to get a foot in the door, even if they aren't getting paid to do it. Even if they don't get a job offer, they get the experience that any hiring manager will want to see on a resume.

Anything remotely related to politics has tons of interns running around. Let that one sink in

WingsOfGood posted...

I never thought about it that way but it makes so much sense. I always thought it was free labor which it is, but really this must be the deeper reason:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7e1631e7.jpg

How does the intern ship filter them out of the job pool?

As someone else said rich kids can literally just buy their way into a job; its not a competition lol

Karl barks? More like Karl marx amirite

Yeah Im pretty sure unpaid labor exists so that businesses can get free labor outta people.

Always thought that it was such a freaking scam.

BloodyBenten posted...

Any time I'm asked for advice on the matter I tell people not to pursue or accept unpaid internships, regardless of their personal financial situation.

Because even if you can afford to weather an unpaid internship, it's still exploitation of your labor. And no one should put up with that.

DnDer posted...

Because even if you can afford to weather an unpaid internship, it's still exploitation of your labor. And no one should put up with that.

Thats right.

Its not rich vs poor, its can-just-squeak-by vs poor

yuuup

Maybe that's not how they were originally intended, but it's how they are now. How is anyone going to keep a roof over their head and feed themselves if they are working for free for 6 months to a year, if not longer, if they don't have independent wealth or the support of their parents? It's definitely how things worked in fields I have been adjacent to. The kids who lived in an "investment" condo their parents bought for them to live in are the ones who could do internships, and they were the ones who got jobs in the field. The people who had no family support couldn't do internships and had to keep working in their old jobs, and they could never break into the field that they got a degree in.

Volunteering is like this in big cities too. When I lived in LA and wanted to do some volunteering work to put on my resume before going to teach in South Korea, it was nearly impossible because there are so many trust fund kids who don't need to work who take up all the volunteering roles. I finally found a volunteer gig at a school in a shitty area near Skid Row, and even there the other volunteers would show up driving cars like Mercedes-Benzes.

TheDurinator posted...

Unpaid internships are basically a very long interview with on-the-job training. Companies offering them benefit because they get free labor (duh), but the real benefit is seeing how the intern would actually be as an employee, which helps with retention and hiring good candidates. The hiring hamster wheel is real, which is why lots of internships end with job offers.

The post in the OP is completely backwards, rich kids don't do unpaid internships, they simply get the job through connections. Unpaid internships are a way for non-rich kids to get a foot in the door, even if they aren't getting paid to do it. Even if they don't get a job offer, they get the experience that any hiring manager will want to see on a resume.

It's a sliding scale not 2 bins. Rich kids just get the job without the internship but the remaining riffraff still have a hierarchy and the poorest of them aren't going to be able to take an unpaid position.

That tweet reads like some armchair commie shit >_> smh

The overwhelming majority of the time it's for free labor.

There is a minority of businesses where a free internship is the only way an internship can exist. My mom works for a sports events organizer. They organize sports awards and what not. They are also basically always teetering on bankruptcy and can barely afford their actual employeess. So they understandably didn't offer internships. The problem was that their industry is so niche that you had college kids constantly begging for internships. And when they said they didn't do internships, the students offered to do them for free. You'd think the students would maybe question whether it was a good idea to get into an industry that can't afford to pay them, but I guess the alure of meeting celebrities is too strong. I've been begging my mom to quit that shithole for ages but she has a stupid amount of loyalty.