ost internships, paid or unpaid, are incredibly beneficial. They are a chance to learn and make valuable connections. More importantly, they allow you to test-drive a career and gain work experience. Even if you ultimately decide you don’t want to pursue a job in your internship’s field, many of the skills you honed will be useful in a different position down the road. While unpaid internships can have many of the same positive attributes as paid ones, they can also be problematic. Depending on the internship length, type of work, hours and chances of employment, they range from being a helpful learning experience to outright exploitation.
First and foremost, it should be noted that the majority of unpaid internships are not financially feasible for everyone. I have completed unpaid internships, which would not have been possible had I not saved money from scholarships and previous jobs. I am also among the minority of college students who still receive financial help from my parents (which I am endlessly grateful for).
With that being said, not all unpaid internships are exclusionary. In fact, the summer internship I held with a nonprofit economic think tank, in my eyes, was an excellent example of what an unpaid internship should be.
Although I was a full-time intern, many of my fellow interns were able to request part-time hours so they could hold jobs on other days of the week. We were also reimbursed for transportation costs, so we didn’t have to spend any money to participate. Furthermore, most of what we did for the think tank was purely educational; if we did complete work for them, it was highly supervised by employees so we could learn as much as possible. We were also invited to events that allowed us to network with highly esteemed academics, professionals and politicians.
My unpaid internship was a wonderful experience, and I learned a lot. However, many unpaid interns are not so lucky. I’ve heard of students working without pay at for-profit firms with a "staff" comprised almost entirely of unpaid interns. Lured by the vague possibility of a true job, they agree to work for several months performing the duties of full-time employees with absolutely no supervision and no compensation for lunch or travel expenses. They fill roles ranging from human resources to database management. Their work generates most, if not all, of the firm’s revenue.
When these interns completed their internships, their roles were immediately filled by another set of interns, and the cycle continued. While it’s true they agreed to work without pay, they only did so because they believed there was a light at the end of the tunnel: full-time employment. The sad truth is that this was an unlikely prospect their firms used to attract a continuous stream of unpaid labor.
If you are a prospective, unpaid intern who wants to avoid situations like the one above, take a minute to evaluate the likelihood of obtaining employment or useful contacts through your internship. If the company you’re going to intern with has a large, paid staff that started out in your position, your chances are probably pretty good. Similarly, if your company regularly associates with other firms in the same industry, you may have the opportunity to meet a future employer. However, if your internship involves you sitting in a room all day with other unpaid interns, it’s probably a dead end. Another red flag is whether your internship has a "revolving door." If you notice most interns who complete their internships are simply replaced by more unpaid interns, it will probably be the same for you.
Internships are an increasingly mandatory prerequisite for post-graduate employment. Perhaps as they become more common, there will be a set of regulations developed for what differentiates an unpaid internship versus illegally free labor. Until then, the best thing anyone pursuing an unpaid internship can do is to be wary.
Namwan Leavell is a UF economics senior. Her column appears on Fridays.
