8 ms·

"But students have said that once they got to Foxconn, they were assigned to jobs that had no relation whatsoever to their fields of study, including grunt work

"But students have said that once they got to Foxconn, they were assigned to jobs that had no relation whatsoever to their fields of study, including grunt work like distribution and shipping." Sounds like a lot of American internships haha. But seriously, people have given me advice to try "working at a McDonalds" or "work as a dishwaser" to gain some experience outside of sitting in front of a computer all day.

eru 13y ago
McDonalds might not be too bad, if you keep your eyes and ears open. They have great operations, that turns unskilled labour into steady source of income.
- redthrowaway 13y ago
  Plus they teach great customer service. When my step mother was in retail she would always hire people with McD's on their resume because she knew she wouldn't have to teach them how to treat customers.
  - logn 13y ago
    I was just thinking recently how good customer service is for McDonald's and fast food as a whole. McD's has 'served billions and billions' and scaled their workforce to an impressive extent while still retaining food safety and decent customer service. A philosophy of technology professor in college loved to use them as an example as the pinnacle of engineering, from supply chain down to point-of-sale. And while minimum wage might seem demeaning, they invest a lot more in people than many companies and (sadly) is one of a few good employers in many towns.
  - eru 13y ago
    I've heard that attitude echoed by a few small business owners. Especially coffee shops.
- KevinEldon 13y ago
  I worked @ McDonalds for about 6 months many years ago. I learned that I wanted to really like my work and that customer's care about what they get; clean restaurants and food prepared according to spec is good business. I got cheap food, good pay for a teenager, and learned that you should always look at the health score wherever you eat... a low score doesn't mean you don't eat there... but you better really love the place if you do (my restaurant always scored well, and when you know what goes into a health score you know what to look out for).
- e12e 13y ago
  > They have great operations, that turns unskilled labour into steady source of income. Interesting turn of phrase, given the context. I bet you could say the same thing about plantation owners in the old west.
  - eru 13y ago
    Plantations were horribly inefficient compared to McDonalds. And it's probably a bad idea to de-value the slaves' experiences by these comparisons.
    - e12e 13y ago
      Perhaps. I admit I drew some inspiration from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/the-messy-link-between-slave-owners-and-modern-management/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/t...
      - eru 13y ago
        Thanks, that seems like an interesting article.
jlgreco 13y ago
People joke a lot about American internships, but it seems the reality of internships in America depends heavily on major. I had three very relevant and very well paying internships as a CS student (working as an intern on the west coast, I got paid more than many people working fulltime on the east coast in entry level full time positions). A chemical engineer I know got stuck counting fish by hand on a 'fish ladder' webcam. Outside of STEM, unpaid internships seem semi-common, and are obvious scams / attempts to keep lower class people out of the industry (only rich kids can afford to work for free for several years).
- nrivadeneira 13y ago
  Your last comment about unpaid internships being an attempt to keep lower class people out of the industry seems pretty tinfoil-hat-ish. It's a much more logical conclusion that companies want to save money by not paying interns. They're able to do this outside of STEM because of the lower barrier to entry in these fields and thus larger surplus of potential candidates. Basically, companies do it because they can. I doubt STEM companies are abnormally altruistic in this sense. If they could get away with it, they would. Unfortunately for STEM, hiring low quality engineers is much higher risk than hiring low quality marketing interns.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    From what I understand, it is the common explanation of unpaid internships in particular industries, particularly fashion and Hollywood. I've often heard that working in these unpaid internships is seen as "paying your dues"; some sort of artificial hardship that you must be able to endure before you are considered to be "in". Whether or not it is the intent (difficult to prove, to say the least) it is the effect.
    - jmduke 13y ago
      I think it's less of an explicit class warfare type thing and more of an implicit one, but it's not just unpaid internships: - Afterschool classes and clubs require parents who are free after 3.30pm to drive you there and back. - That spring break trip to Rwanda to help underprivileged youths would look great on your college application! Too bad it costs $500 to join the mission. - You're not taking 4 AP classes and volunteering on weekends? You must be lazy, and its certainly not that you have to work 20 hours/wk after school to help put food on the table. - etc. etc. (I say this as a very privileged person who was fortunate enough to have two full-time parents -- but also as someone who knew people who weren't.)

eru 13y ago

McDonalds might not be too bad, if you keep your eyes and ears open. They have great operations, that turns unskilled labour into steady source of income.

redthrowaway 13y ago
Plus they teach great customer service. When my step mother was in retail she would always hire people with McD's on their resume because she knew she wouldn't have to teach them how to treat customers.
- logn 13y ago
  I was just thinking recently how good customer service is for McDonald's and fast food as a whole. McD's has 'served billions and billions' and scaled their workforce to an impressive extent while still retaining food safety and decent customer service. A philosophy of technology professor in college loved to use them as an example as the pinnacle of engineering, from supply chain down to point-of-sale. And while minimum wage might seem demeaning, they invest a lot more in people than many companies and (sadly) is one of a few good employers in many towns.
- eru 13y ago
  I've heard that attitude echoed by a few small business owners. Especially coffee shops.
KevinEldon 13y ago
I worked @ McDonalds for about 6 months many years ago. I learned that I wanted to really like my work and that customer's care about what they get; clean restaurants and food prepared according to spec is good business. I got cheap food, good pay for a teenager, and learned that you should always look at the health score wherever you eat... a low score doesn't mean you don't eat there... but you better really love the place if you do (my restaurant always scored well, and when you know what goes into a health score you know what to look out for).
e12e 13y ago
> They have great operations, that turns unskilled labour into steady source of income. Interesting turn of phrase, given the context. I bet you could say the same thing about plantation owners in the old west.
- eru 13y ago
  Plantations were horribly inefficient compared to McDonalds. And it's probably a bad idea to de-value the slaves' experiences by these comparisons.
  - e12e 13y ago
    Perhaps. I admit I drew some inspiration from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/the-messy-link-between-slave-owners-and-modern-management/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/01/16/t...
    - eru 13y ago
      Thanks, that seems like an interesting article.

jlgreco 13y ago

People joke a lot about American internships, but it seems the reality of internships in America depends heavily on major. I had three very relevant and very well paying internships as a CS student (working as an intern on the west coast, I got paid more than many people working fulltime on the east coast in entry level full time positions). A chemical engineer I know got stuck counting fish by hand on a 'fish ladder' webcam. Outside of STEM, unpaid internships seem semi-common, and are obvious scams / attempts to keep lower class people out of the industry (only rich kids can afford to work for free for several years).

nrivadeneira 13y ago
Your last comment about unpaid internships being an attempt to keep lower class people out of the industry seems pretty tinfoil-hat-ish. It's a much more logical conclusion that companies want to save money by not paying interns. They're able to do this outside of STEM because of the lower barrier to entry in these fields and thus larger surplus of potential candidates. Basically, companies do it because they can. I doubt STEM companies are abnormally altruistic in this sense. If they could get away with it, they would. Unfortunately for STEM, hiring low quality engineers is much higher risk than hiring low quality marketing interns.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  From what I understand, it is the common explanation of unpaid internships in particular industries, particularly fashion and Hollywood. I've often heard that working in these unpaid internships is seen as "paying your dues"; some sort of artificial hardship that you must be able to endure before you are considered to be "in". Whether or not it is the intent (difficult to prove, to say the least) it is the effect.
  - jmduke 13y ago
    I think it's less of an explicit class warfare type thing and more of an implicit one, but it's not just unpaid internships: - Afterschool classes and clubs require parents who are free after 3.30pm to drive you there and back. - That spring break trip to Rwanda to help underprivileged youths would look great on your college application! Too bad it costs $500 to join the mission. - You're not taking 4 AP classes and volunteering on weekends? You must be lazy, and its certainly not that you have to work 20 hours/wk after school to help put food on the table. - etc. etc. (I say this as a very privileged person who was fortunate enough to have two full-time parents -- but also as someone who knew people who weren't.)