Let’s all cry for the white girl who got a solo for no reason
I have long believed that my labor is worth something. Seems plausible. It is, in fact, the basis of a currency economy. So when I was told that in order to make it in my chosen field*, I’d have to spend some time working for someone and not getting paid for it. I find the suggestion outrageous. Yes, yes, play the game. Yes, yes, it’s the way things are done. Fine. Nonetheless, no one takes on an intern out of the goodness of their heart. I would be asked to answer mail, file papers, answer phones; all minor but necessary functions of an office. Things that, if people weren’t trying to do for free, would have to be paid for.
There are more people looking to get in to an entry level job than there are positions for them. Bosses therefore have let us bid-down the value of our work to the point where entry level jobs are called “internships”, and as a rule interns don’t get paid. Which is actually my point. There is a power dynamic at work. It’s the classic one where those who own the means of production are able to set the prices at which they will hire people to pull the levers of the machinery**. It seems nothing turns me into a communist faster than being asked to provide value to an organization without being recompensed for my time and energy.
Which brings up another point: who can afford to work for free? The only answer that springs to mind is: those who are being supported by someone else. Generally, the rich. It’s sort of disgusting that in America in order to have access to a high-level career, you need to build a network by bidding your labor-cost down to nothing. I’m not saying that only rich kids get internships. I’m not saying that no poor people do. I am saying that internships look like a tool by which power perpetuates itself. That is sort of the antithesis of what America is supposed to be about.
In other news: I had an interview yesterday for an internship. I don’t have to like a system in order to participate in it. In fact, I can hate it and still see that I need to do it. Nevertheless, the market has decreed that my skills, talents, experience and degree are all worthless. I’ve got to fix that…
*politics
** In my case, that would be the machinery of state
In my field, unpaid internships are all but unheard-of. Intern wages generally start around $10-15/hour for someone with only basic training and no experience, and scale up into the $20-30/hour range for a college senior.
I traveled to Germany for mine and was paid a fair wage (this being the only way I could afford to travel to and live in Germany for months). Perhaps this is the difference between technical internships and non-technical ones.
A few things that comes to mind:
1. Yes, it sucks. Especially the rich people part.
2. But then again, you had to PAY someone to get an education before. Now you’re getting an education FOR FREE.
3. Which is kind of the whole point of an internship. You get experience and knowledge (like in college), and they have to deal with all your mistakes (’cause you’re not experienced and knowledgeable enough, and you will mess up)
4. Which I think why most people do internships in college; it’s like part of their education.
5. I like numbering things.
6. Political internships don’t pay. But maybe that’s because POLITICS doesn’t pay. It’s a rich man’s (and now woman’s) game. You don’t play it unless you can pay it.
7. But you do get cool free t-shirts.
Every job has an entry level. In other fields, you get paid even at the entry level, even as a “trainee”. Come to think of it, in California, we didn’t used to have to pay tuition until fairly recently. Indeed, tuition was instituted because Reagan wanted to “get rid of the undesirables”. It is difficult to make the case that internships aren’t a form of class warfare by comparing them to a specific case of class warfare.
As far as doing internships in college… yup. I wish I’d had the chance. If I’d known that without an internship my degree would be worth a lot less, I would have taken out loans and done one. As it was, I instead worked 40hr weeks and graduated college nearly debt free.