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There is no reason why those companies can't pay a basic internship salary You don't know that. Maybe the company is a totally new idea being started on a sho

by crusso 13y ago

There is no reason why those companies can't pay a basic internship salary You don't know that. Maybe the company is a totally new idea being started on a shoe string that can't afford to pay much of anything. Maybe the product or project is a "what the hell" kind of project that doesn't really have any revenue associated with it but won't be even attempted without some free or mostly free time. Where would the open source community be without people contributing to it for free? Yours is the kind of thinking that leads to the ever-increasing minimum wage, which sounds great at first blush but whose unintended consequence is the killing off of whimsical tough-to-start or high risk ventures while also denying real experience to workers who lack the job skills needed to actually be productive at the required minimum wage.

jaehoony 13y ago
Are the companies that new in a such tough and risky situation the usual ones hiring interns? I was under the impression companies like that would just want few core highly efficient workers.
chasing 13y ago
"How can I possibly start my whimsical high-risk venture if I have to pay my employees enough so they can afford food and shelter? Why does everything have to be stacked in favor of those greedy minimum wage earners?"
- crusso 13y ago
  Always with the us-vs-them mentality. Maybe both sides are risking something. Maybe both sides have something to gain? Those ideas are hard to consider when you only have one perspective in mind.
  - jaehoony 13y ago
    I get the sense that you have your perspective in mind much more than your employee's perspective, if you think new-grads should work for you for free, just because you have this "whimsical" idea, and empty promise of learning experience. The risk and gain on each side is very far from fair, especially if the company is not a well established one.
RuggeroAltair 13y ago
I agree and open source is a completely different thing, in facts someone here even suggested that as a better option than working for a company for free. But honestly, you are talking about a different thing. If you can't afford to pay much of anything it's fine, as long as, for example, you give me a bunch of shares which would be worth nothing now, but something in case you become a billionaire. But if you don't want to give anything back for my work, then I tend to think that you are trying to use my time. Of course there may be a million exceptions to this, and there are. But in my experience those where the exceptions, and the usual case was just a way to get free labor.

by crusso 13y ago

jaehoony 13y ago

Are the companies that new in a such tough and risky situation the usual ones hiring interns? I was under the impression companies like that would just want few core highly efficient workers.

chasing 13y ago

"How can I possibly start my whimsical high-risk venture if I have to pay my employees enough so they can afford food and shelter? Why does everything have to be stacked in favor of those greedy minimum wage earners?"

crusso 13y ago
Always with the us-vs-them mentality. Maybe both sides are risking something. Maybe both sides have something to gain? Those ideas are hard to consider when you only have one perspective in mind.
- jaehoony 13y ago
  I get the sense that you have your perspective in mind much more than your employee's perspective, if you think new-grads should work for you for free, just because you have this "whimsical" idea, and empty promise of learning experience. The risk and gain on each side is very far from fair, especially if the company is not a well established one.

RuggeroAltair 13y ago

I agree and open source is a completely different thing, in facts someone here even suggested that as a better option than working for a company for free. But honestly, you are talking about a different thing. If you can't afford to pay much of anything it's fine, as long as, for example, you give me a bunch of shares which would be worth nothing now, but something in case you become a billionaire. But if you don't want to give anything back for my work, then I tend to think that you are trying to use my time. Of course there may be a million exceptions to this, and there are. But in my experience those where the exceptions, and the usual case was just a way to get free labor.