Why Unpaid Internships Should Be Illegal

“Do you have a can-do attitude and a desire to do a great job?” – said every internship job posting ever.

Internships are designed to provide students and young people an avenue into the workforce. Interns should be gaining experience, developing their soft skills and learning how to network; so why is it that most internships provide none of that?

During my university days I completed two unpaid internships, one at a Social Media Marketing firm and the other at a multinational PR company. Both of them taught me one valuable lesson, when I graduate, I don’t want to work in marketing, and I don’t want to work in PR.

Too often internship advertisements are littered with unfulfilled promises, the one that I succumb to the most was this:

For the right candidate, paid work may be available at the completion of the internship.

As much as I know I shouldn’t have applied, the allure of receiving a job within my degree’s industry pulled me in. And damn it, that was a mistake.

UNDERSTANDING WHY WE CAN'T JUST BOYCOTT UNPAID 'OPPORTUNITIES'

The life of a penultimate or final year university student is quite competitive. Everyone is gearing up to getting a job once they graduate, and you’re competing against them.

So, what do you do to stand out? You get an internship (and more often than not, it’s unpaid).

Australia’s only nationally representative study of internships, published in 2016, found that 58% of Australians aged between 18 and 29 had participated in at least one episode of unpaid work experience in the last five years.

This showcases that young people are willing to work for nothing just to get their foot in the door, and companies are taking advantage of that. If you won’t work without pay, they’ll find someone that will.

And that’s the vicious cycle of deciding whether you want to give up hours you could be getting paid or the potential to learn from experts in your field. It’s all circumstantial and not as easy as just boycotting it.

THE GLASS CEILING THAT UNPAID INTERNSHIPS ARE CREATING

Having completed unpaid work, I’ve got to say supporting yourself whilst doing it is not easy. One of my internships was part-time, whereas the other one was full-time; do not recommend.

The study I previously mentioned also found that of those that had completed an unpaid internship, one in four reduced their hours of paid work to participate in the unpaid work experience. This is infuriating. The fact that students have to split their time between studying, paid work and unpaid work does not lead to a balanced lifestyle.

But it also poses the question, what if you can’t take time off work? What if it’s the only way you support yourself?

And that leads me to the fact that these opportunities are designed for privileged people.

And it's not right.

WHY PAID INTERNSHIPS ARE THE WAY TO GO

Paid internships have a higher chance of leading to a paying job compared to the unpaid ones, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Of students offered positions after graduating, 60% had held a paid internship compared to only 37% of those who had worked unpaid.

Many argue that unpaid internships tend to provide interns with fewer skills compared to paid ones, as companies don’t have to put in as much effort into developing their employees. There is no incentive, since it is not costing them anything.

A survey by the Institute on Education and the Economy at Columbia University’s Teachers College found that paid internships are stronger in all measures of internship quality compared to unpaid ones.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

With that being said, don’t do what I did. Don’t apply for unpaid internships just to be ‘competitive’, I found when I went for my graduate interviews, I rarely brought up any of the work I did at these companies.

I spoke about being involved in university societies, my part-time jobs and case competitions. More often than not they want to hear about scenarios where you conquered a challenging situation, showcased leadership or buckled down and fixed a mistake.

They don’t care that you spent 20 hours a week writing up press releases or scrolling through social media to improve client engagement (yes, I did both of those things at my internships).

The main things they look for is whether you’re smart, willing to learn and a fit to their team. Stop worrying about the cachet of doing an internship, instead focus on improving your skills through other avenues.