I had 4 internships in software engineering and 1 in web management during high school, if you include the summer afterwards. Four were paid, one was not. I als

I had 4 internships in software engineering and 1 in web management during high school, if you include the summer afterwards. Four were paid, one was not. I also know quite a few friends with SWE internship experience in HS, but more often than not were in unpaid positions. I wanted to poke a hole in the idea that unpaid internships are a good thing. Spending hours of my time on someone else's project, regardless of what I'm learning, feels wrong. The fact is that I'm 'working' for the employer and therefore deserve to get paid. Being paid also makes me more productive and motivated to finish the project I'm working on and learn in the process. Unpaid internships feel loose and unorganized, while when real money is involved both the employer and student feel obligated to help each other. If you want to go unpaid, you're best off at an educational institution as a student helper or at a nonprofit. I just haven't seen unpaid internships with actual companies work well for the student or employer in that case. The burden on the employer is often too much for them to be able to offer any substantial help to a complete newbie while attending to their own responsibilities. Newbies need to code themselves or in class before they're ready for internships. That's my experience.