5 ms·
I'll bite. I believe people who say "why can't they work for free if they want to?" aren't seeing the big picture. What's been happening in some areas (not IT),
by iaskwhy 17y ago
I'll bite. I believe people who say "why can't they work for free if they want to?" aren't seeing the big picture. What's been happening in some areas (not IT), like people working on culture (museums mainly), is that the company will avoid paying at any cost. This means they will keep you working for free as an intern until you decide to leave or they are required to give you a work contract. Then, when you leave, they just get another intern and this goes on and on.
So you'd ask "why are people falling for this?" and the answer is quite simple: there's too many people who'd like to work on culture but it's not a gold mine for companies so they can't pay even if they wanted to. So you keep accepting internships to get a better CV but it never stops. I can't count the number of friends I have in this situation for years and years. I'm not kidding: more than ten years trying internships and with amazing CVs living with parents because you can't afford living by yourself.
I can imagine this happening in IT too since there's so many people wanting to work on this area. People need to qualify and I'm not talking about a degree, you need to practice and learn by yourself so you can have a real advantage over everyone else and escape the never ending internships.
- mseebach 17y agoI agree that unpaid internships attract their more than fair share of suckers, and I personally advice anyone who cares to listen very strongly against taking unpaid internships, except for very short stunts, such as helping out at a trade show or festival. But if someone wants to work for free at a museum, and the museum can't pay them anyway, why should it be a crime? > more than ten years trying internships and with amazing CVs living with parents because you can't afford living by yourself. I don't want to draw conclusions on the situation of your friends, but I'm not at all sure unpaid internships are to blame.
- Tichy 17y agoStill, why blame the companies? seems to me it is still the people who are volunteering who are bringing this upon themselves. There is no human right to "working on culture" - if they want to get paid for it, maybe they should try to think about what they could offer to make it worth paying them.
- iaskwhy 17y agoI don't think I blamed the companies for it. I believe it's immoral to do it but it's up to the people to understand the situation and fight it by not following such practices.
- Tichy 17y agoIsn't thinking it's immoral the same as blaming them. But you even said they often can't even afford to pay. Anyway, this is an issue that is not going to be resolved by opinions, but by economics and markets.
- iaskwhy 17y agoLike I said, if nobody fell for it then it wouldn't work so, no, thinking it's immoral is not the same as blaming them.