Unpaid internships - are they worth it?

Eod100

What do people make of unpaid internships?

Is it a good opportunity to gain some experience/skills and have somthing to put down on your C.V?

Or do companies take advantage of people by having unpaid internships?

I know there's a recession on so not really sure how people are supposed to survive without being paid (not even expenses) but guess companies use this to their advantage by saying they can't afford to offer paid internships.

What do people reckon?

If there's anyone who's done an unpaid internship and has advice that would be even better, thanks!

Cavehill Red

Obviously they're not, or rather, the one's that have to be advertised are not. Different story if daddy can swing you an internship with a cabinet minister or Denis O'Brien, of course.

Otherwise, they're a reversion to slave labour - working for free for a corporation that will spit you out, then rinse and repeat to avoid actually paying people for entry-level work.

Not only are you robbing yourself of a wage, you're actually complicit in preventing other people from obtaining paid work by facilitating companies in filling positions without remunerating them.

If you want to maintain half a million on the dole, then go ahead and work for nothing. Until people stand up and insist that they be paid for the work they do, this sh1t will keep on flowing, downhill as always.

UnklePhil

Companies do take advantage of interns, but given the right situation it can be worth it. I worked for free at a design company for 2 months. I kept positive, worked hard and did all the extra little things (washing the dishes etc).

It wasn't fun.

However, 3 months later when they were looking for full time people I was hired without an interview. That job gave me experience and leverage to move on to a better job elsewhere. after a year.
If you have no other foot in the door, it might be worth it.

mickmcl09

For every proper internship, there's up to 20 that take the piss.

My brother got an internship in a secondary school. He was a chippy and went back to UL aged 26 to qualify as a teacher.

He's been in their since January getting his extra €50 a week. However in the last 2 weeks it has led to him getting 8 hours paid work at another school while he continues the internship. It should lead to a proper job in the next few months.

HOWEVER, when I see internships out there for non skilled positions, that's just plain wrong and shouldn't be allowed.
Examples
Car Valeter, Cleaners etc. No disrespect to those who work ( and rightly get paid in those jobs) but if a position can be readily filled by a large number of people it should not qualify as an internship.

Insurance and call centre companies are using this as well and should not be allowed on the basis that a high no. of people on the dole queue are already experienced in these areas. What it means is that as soon as the internship expires your out the door and they get someone else. So its all for nothing. The argument that it is experience you can put towards a paid job holds little substance in these cases as there is so many people with similar experience on the dole queue to start with, that are all competing for a coveted paid position.

Only specialised skill jobs should be permitted to use internships where there is an obvious shortage of personnel from within the work pool, be they employed or unemployed, to start with.

By being a specialised type job it also means that the employer has to invest time and training into the intern. This in turn creates a situation where it wouldn't make sense for the employer to dispense with the intern and start over.

So, what I would say is, that if the internship is of an unusual nature, that demands that you develop unique or rare skills and in doing so, it wouldn't make sense to replace you. Then it's an internship worth taking the chance on. Otherwise avoid and move onto the next one.

In my book, at least 90% of them should not be permitted. It's keeping the dole queue up, it's taking advantage of people already under pressure. People are being hoodwinked.

porsche boy

what I see from the internships offered is that most employers are offering it as a way to get something for nothing.
I have been unemployed since December and I have been offered an internship in a local garage training me in a job I done for years. So I get fifty quid on top of my dole and for that I need to arrange a babysitter for my daughter and fuel to get in and out of the job.
It will cost me money to take this position. I had to refuse but now I will be look at as the bad person because I didn't take an opportunity that was presented.

Avatarr

Some of those internship stories do sound pretty bad. I work in a company who have taken on interns and to be fair they have been treated well and given relevant experience. Some have even gotten permanent jobs. There is probably abuse out there of the system but also a lot of good companies doing the right thing.

Mr. Loverman

When I did my degree (95 - 99) all internships were unpaid. No one complained.

You have to understand interns are practically useless and I'd say overall they cost the company more money than they're worth. So please keep this in mind and be grateful you are able to get experience and a paragraph for your CV.

Irish_Elect_Eng

I must agree with Mr Loverman on this one.

We take a few college interns every year and they ate paid the same rate as graduate engineers. We are seriously considering discontinuing the intern positions as they achieve very little and consume the time of permanent staff to babysit.

That said occasionally we do get a driven student that milks every possible experience out of the opportunity and restores out faith in the system. But most leave with a note on their reference record of "would not re-hire" Perhaps they just see this as a doss, or perhaps the college do not adequately prepare them with the skills that are needed to be productive in the work environment.

Due to the bad press that the internship scheme has been getting in the press, our company will not touch it with a barge pole. Even though we had proposed to create 10 good intern positions.

Eod100

Thanks for the replies guys!

Mr. Loverman and Irish_Elect_Eng, I've a feeling you're talking about internships that college students undertake as part of their course.

As far as I know the majority of these type of internships are still unpaid.

But, I should have specified - I meant internships available to graduates.

From my research, several graduate internships require the intern to carry out tasks that other employees are being paid a decent wage for.

It seems a bit rich not to offer any form of payment in scenarios like this.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Yes, I was referring to student intern positions or Co-Op as they are often called. (Paid)

I am considering changing them to graduate internship positions (Still paid)

I am hoping that the graduates may be more motivated to make better use of the opportunity and the experiences on offer and that the company will therefore have a better return on our investment of time and resources.

Drake66

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

When I did my degree (95 - 99) all internships were unpaid. No one complained.

You have to understand interns are practically useless and I'd say overall they cost the company more money than they're worth. So please keep this in mind and be grateful you are able to get experience and a paragraph for your CV.

Everybody is useless until they are trained in.

Mr. Loverman

Drake66 wrote: »

Everybody is useless until they are trained in.

That's not really accurate, as interns tend to have no experience so don't really have a clue what to do, whereas an experienced guy like me can be up and running in no time.

Drake66

Ergo as you gain more experience, you become more useful.

Mr. Loverman

Drake66 wrote: »

Ergo as you gain more experience, you become more useful.

Inexperienced interns and experienced new hires are not the same. If you've ever worked as a manager in a company who takes on interns you would instantly understand what I am saying.

starlit

Drake66 wrote: »

Everybody is useless until they are trained in.

You could be trained in and still not be experienced enough for certain roles.

Employers don't want to train people in any more they expect them to be trained already. The exception is the unpaid/paid internships whether its internal company internship or a job-bridge.

You may have a lot of work experience but might not be relevant to a role you wish to apply for even if you have the skills, qualities, qualifications and personality for it, having the experience makes a difference between a graduate/intern and an experienced candidate.

Basically where do you start? You start from the bottom of the ladder/ground up!? You work your way up through work experience is the only way to train oneself up and self learning, constantly updating ones skills is the only way to work your way up without the help of employers to train you, you need to train yourself.

Are unpaid internships more valuable and beneficial as much as paid internship/graduate roles/jobs? Yes they are but you need to chose the correct job I think depending what career path you wish to go for no point in going for something totally out of your field unless its relevant to qualifications/experience. You need to find your niche/passion if you like not necessary the perfect job or dream job but a job that you like and suits you and that you be good at it means a lot and will make an unpaid job easier to accomplish and gain the necessary skills and experience needed for future jobs.

Its fine to say get any job but no one should have to stoop that level unless money is really tight. You are going off track with your career otherwise and make it harder to get back into a career you wanted than the one you didn't want. No point going for a job you don't want. You work a way better if you are in a job you like or at least good at makes a huge difference.

Disko biscuits

Can you just walk into a shop/company that you would be interested in doing one there and ask the manager if the training is not on the jobsbridge website?

Mr. Loverman

Disko biscuits wrote: »

Can you just walk into a shop/company that you would be interested in doing one there and ask the manager if the training is not on the jobsbridge website?

Can't see any harm in doing this.

muireann50

Can you just walk into a shop/company that you would be interested in doing one there and ask the manager if the training is not on the jobsbridge website?

Yes, my FAS case worker told me last week that you can create your own internship.

Disko biscuits

muireann50 wrote: »

Yes, my FAS case worker told me last week that you can create your own internship.

Is there a minimum amount of time you can do this? I though the min was 6 months and the max was 9 months but someone said they did one for 3 months?

cheers for the info lads