Students Need to be Paid for an Internship, Be Careful of Where to Intern

abracetti on Jun 10th 2010

There should be a special program that allows students to gain compensation for interning. We’re the future of journalism and the way things are going in this industry, people are turning to different fields because they feel they can’t get the job they spent years studying for. Companies are relying so much on free labor that it’s turning a lot of up-and-coming journalists away. Students should be given this incentive when they intern because the reality for the most part is after you finish an internship now is that you won’t be hired. It’s so bad that companies offer to extend internships or allow students to stay onboard after they finish gaining credit, just to have a bigger staff. And they’ve been surviving so far because they know students are willing to stay to gain more experience and connections.

Working at The Source magazine, I saw what was considered the worst intern experience for incoming college students. They were pretty much being slaved, tackling jobs outside of what they signed on to do, like dropping off hundreds of magazines across town without any compensation to being scolded about how they weren’t writing at a professional level. It was so bad that the company literally burned their bridges, and word of mouth turned a lot college interns off about applying for an internship.

Now the company hires high school interns to do these jobs as part of some afterschool program, and they’re hiring ex-convicts to tackle these tasks—with a majority of the employees unaware of who they are working with. No announcements or memos are given to the staff. Considering underage students are working there now, it’s an unsafe environment for them to work.

Here’s a story that made the NY Daily News about an intern at the time who nearly murdered a woman and her two kids. Click here to read the article.

I’m sure it’s illegal to keep that information from your employees, but the magazine is ran by an entertainment lawyer, so it didn’t surprise me. The same boss just opened a second magazine, Jones Magazine, which has spawned a semi-successful reality show called “Keeping up with the Jones,” and has the same interns doing double the work, which wasn’t what they signed up for. It’s abuse and it’s unfair. Moving forward, I recommend looking at the masthead for both magazines, see who runs the operation, and avoid working for those publications.

Filed in Uncategorized | 3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Students Need to be Paid for an Internship, Be Careful of Where to Intern”

  1. mariadomnaon 14 Jun 2010 at 6:57 am

    That’s when you know a company is controlled by corrupt management, when the employees consist of ex-cons and high school students. It is especially unfortunate for the students because they probably believe they are receiving a great opportunity when in reality, their experience will not be so positive. And it’s easier to take advantage of them since they are of younger age and more willing to do unpaid work considering it is an after-school program.

  2. Lisaon 14 Jun 2010 at 2:12 pm

    I think you’re on to something when you said there should be a program that allows students to gain compensation for internships. It would be awesome if Baruchor New York State even, could set up like a grant program, like TAP, and students could apply for it and receive a stipend for internships.

  3. Dave Feldmanon 19 Jun 2010 at 1:39 pm

    I cannot believe that The Source is hiring ex cons as interns for their magazine, that sounds like something out of a sitcom.