IT internship - UNPDAID!

CR7

This position came into my mailbox today,

Technical Support Specialist - Unpaid Internship Clonakilty, Co. Cork. Premiere Global Services

So the deal here is a desperate college graduate currently on benefit must move to West Cork for the chance of having 3 months unpaid work experience. No salary no expenses no rent, and since you are technically employed lose your benfits?

Some may think this is an opportunity but taking advantage of qualified grads in the current situation makes me pretty angry.

petes

Say you take the position. You get experience. You can put it on your cv. You may even be kept on paid if you are any good.


Why not exploit the current situation? People/Companies will always try to cut corners no matter what the current economic climate is.

markpb

CR7 wrote: »

Some may think this is an opportunity but taking advantage of qualified grads in the current situation makes me pretty angry.

It's hardly a new thing - six years ago when I was doing an internship as part of my Soft. Dev degree, plenty of people were offered unpaid work and had no choice but to accept it.

tommy21

CR7 wrote: »

This position came into my mailbox today,

Technical Support Specialist - Unpaid Internship Clonakilty, Co. Cork. Premiere Global Services

So the deal here is a desperate college graduate currently on benefit must move to West Cork for the chance of having 3 months unpaid work experience. No salary no expenses no rent, and since you are technically employed lose your benfits?

Some may think this is an opportunity but taking advantage of qualified grads in the current situation makes me pretty angry.

Haha that is a joke. Insurgent's idea is good if you can afford it and try it out for a few days to see if it is possible to move up or you are going to be a dog's body as they say. Fota were looking for something similiar recently, a marketing internship, no pay, 3 months.

petes

tommy21 wrote: »

Haha that is a joke. Insurgent's idea is good if you can afford it and try it out for a few days to see if it is possible to move up or you are going to be a dog's body as they say. Fota were looking for something similiar recently, a marketing internship, no pay, 3 months.

That's true, you have to be able to afford it. I am not sure of the technicalities of it but surely you will still receive benefit? You can't live on nothing!

MysticalRain

That's a joke. Even in my day, I was paid the minimum wage for my IT internship. Funny how such a rich company can exploit people like that.

Mrs OBumble

Insurgent wrote: »

Say you take the position. You get experience. You can put it on your cv. You may even be kept on paid if you are any good.

Why not exploit the current situation? People/Companies will always try to cut corners no matter what the current economic climate is.

Three months experience won't look good on your CV in the future: it will suggest to future employers that you didn't last at the job. Or if you tell them that the deal was to work unpaid for three months, it makes you look like a stupid pushover.

Yes, companies will try to exploit the situation. But those that will do OK long term are the ones that respect their staff. This one isn't.

CR7

Insurgent wrote: »

Why not exploit the current situation? People/Companies will always try to cut corners no matter what the current economic climate is.

Because it is exploiting vulnerable people, thats why not.

Insurgent wrote: »

That's true, you have to be able to afford it. I am not sure of the technicalities of it but surely you will still receive benefit? You can't live on nothing!

Exactly my point, Clonakilty is a small village in West Cork, if you have to relocate there it will cost you on travel, rent, and you will have to drive to work - oh wait dont think an unemployed grad will have that luxury. I suppose someone here will suggest they cycle through the winter.

I work in IT myself, during my college days I was also on internship and was paid modestly. How things change - I really feel for grads trying to get a foothold out there these days. Does anyone know for sure if you have to give up the dole to take this role? I mean if you are not on the books with the company what proof have you of working for them.

This is exploitation - nothing else.

testicle

CR7 wrote: »

Exactly my point, Clonakilty is a small village in West Cork, if you have to relocate there it will cost you on travel, rent, and you will have to drive to work - oh wait dont think an unemployed grad will have that luxury. I suppose someone here will suggest they cycle through the winter.

I am sure there are unemployed grads living in Clon...

petes

CR7 wrote: »

Because it is exploiting vulnerable people, thats why not.


Exactly my point, Clonakilty is a small village in West Cork, if you have to relocate there it will cost you on travel, rent, and you will have to drive to work - oh wait dont think an unemployed grad will have that luxury. I suppose someone here will suggest they cycle through the winter.

I work in IT myself, during my college days I was also on internship and was paid modestly. How things change - I really feel for grads trying to get a foothold out there these days. Does anyone know for sure if you have to give up the dole to take this role? I mean if you are not on the books with the company what proof have you of working for them.

This is exploitation - nothing else.

I love your naievity. Do you think this just started happening?

neil_hosey

Insurgent wrote: »

I love your naievity. Do you think this just started happening?

jesus no need to be so condescending.. especially when you are wrong. It was very uncommon to be unpaid for 3/4th internships up to 2 years ago. I dont know WHAT you are on about, you are making out it was common place.

In fact, i dont know one person in my 3rd year in ANY college that i knew of that were working for free. Even students who couldnt get an internship got paid to work on projects in university/college..


Fancy naming a few companys that dont pay?? i can name atleast 30 that do.

Kinetic^

Insurgent wrote: »

That's true, you have to be able to afford it. I am not sure of the technicalities of it but surely you will still receive benefit? You can't live on nothing!

No benefits would be recieved.

TheDoc

I did my IT internship this year for 6 months and was fully paid including bonuses for targets achieved.

I wouldnt bother, your college should have fallback plans in place, owing to the current climate.

For those who could not get employment from my course, the college setup like extra classes to which were helpful and at the end had students sending IT equipment to Africa for a charity.

For a company to offer you internship unpaid is not them doing you a favour, your doing them the favour remember that.

Theres plenty of plaes taking on interns that will pay money, dont hold out for getting nothing.

markpb

TheDoc wrote: »

I wouldnt bother, your college should have fallback plans in place, owing to the current climate.

Anything else a college comes up with will be useless on your CV. Companies (especially IT companies) look for experience first and everything else second. In most companies, people with any work experience at all will be graded above people with an honours degree or anything else the college made up to take the place of work experience.

susanroth

If this is anything to do with the FAS work placement programme you will be paid if you are on jobseekers allowance. I don't think you can even do these programmes if your are on benefit as opposed to allowance.

How great would it be to be an employer right now? I mean they have their pick from the cream of the crop and can pay peanuts!! Government jobs are the way to go, at least workers seem to have more of a voice... nice work if you can get it ii'm sure!!

fret_wimp

3 months means squat on a CV. i guess if you have zero months experience then 3 months is better than nothing, but its not worth uprooting, moving and trying to live on nothing for.

Microsoft have some IT internships going. they are 8-12 months long and pay around 21k i think. when you have zero experience, and are getting up to a year of it at 21k, thats a good offer.

http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/careers/graduate/default.mspx

https://careers.microsoft.com/JobDetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=6&jid=7238&jlang=EN

Sleepy

21k is good for a recent grad in this market tbh, I started on 22k back in 2003!