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Let's say I'm someone looking for an internship in the fashion industry. I go intern at fashion company Y. My entire internship is to watch the E! channel and

by ismarc 17y ago

Let's say I'm someone looking for an internship in the fashion industry. I go intern at fashion company Y. My entire internship is to watch the E! channel and update twitter every time someone has a horrible (in my opinion)outfit. This work has no immediate supervision. I sit in a cubicle, isolated from everyone else. I have a weekly meeting with an employee who takes the number of twitter updates I've made and goes "You should be making more". At the end of the internship, the intern has gained nothing. They have provided a service to company Y, but received no training, enlightenment or greater understanding of the industry. In fact, based on what they experienced, it is likely the intern would decide to NOT go into the fashion industry because their entire perception of what the job is is now contradictory to what they thought it was before (but the new view is in fact incorrect). The internship had a negative impact on the intern who may have actually enjoyed the industry. Without having paid the intern (class credit, money, real industry experience), all they did was provide a service for the company for free. (As a side note, I tried to model this close to the blog post, not provide some artificial "it wouldn't happen" type scenario)

cwan 17y ago
Not having much knowledge of the fashion industry, I can't say if this seems probable or not. But presuming you've done this for a week or two already why would you as an intern continue to stay at what seems to be a horrible position? Further, surely you would also recognize that this isn't indicative of the fashion industry?
- ismarc 17y ago
  I actually have no idea if this is even feasible in the fashion industry, I was just using a similar (fictitious) internship as what was described in the blog as an example. And the key is that an internship should be indicative of the business. Either way, the intern would have lost that week or two (even if they recognize it was a bunk internship), and the position would be open again if the business wanted to continue it. Without the protection from unpaid internships, businesses are free to exploit low-skilled labor in order to perform low to no (monetary) cost for experimentation.
  - cwan 17y ago
    There is a cost to managing any project. Presumably even if for PR, one wants the PR to result in a good impression of your company? So yes, lose a week or two, does that seem so bad at the individual level? It would probably end up costing the company even more in time to filter the work. It's also not frictionless to find new staff - whether paid or unpaid.
  - apotheon 17y ago
    I'm not sure I see how your example is similar to Mark Cuban's example. For instance, conducting surveys (one of the tasks Cuban was talking about having interns accomplish) is part of a wide range of professional fields -- including experimental psychology (according to my girlfriend with the psychology degree), political analysis (according to major news networks), and usability testing. > Either way, the intern would have lost that week or two (even if they recognize it was a bunk internship) . . . and what else would they have done during that time? Sometimes, one must try two or three things to find one that's worthwhile. Should I then be able to bring suit against a software developer whose software wasted a week of my time before I decided it wasn't doing me any good, before I moved on to something better?

by ismarc 17y ago

cwan 17y ago

Not having much knowledge of the fashion industry, I can't say if this seems probable or not. But presuming you've done this for a week or two already why would you as an intern continue to stay at what seems to be a horrible position? Further, surely you would also recognize that this isn't indicative of the fashion industry?

ismarc 17y ago
I actually have no idea if this is even feasible in the fashion industry, I was just using a similar (fictitious) internship as what was described in the blog as an example. And the key is that an internship should be indicative of the business. Either way, the intern would have lost that week or two (even if they recognize it was a bunk internship), and the position would be open again if the business wanted to continue it. Without the protection from unpaid internships, businesses are free to exploit low-skilled labor in order to perform low to no (monetary) cost for experimentation.
- cwan 17y ago
  There is a cost to managing any project. Presumably even if for PR, one wants the PR to result in a good impression of your company? So yes, lose a week or two, does that seem so bad at the individual level? It would probably end up costing the company even more in time to filter the work. It's also not frictionless to find new staff - whether paid or unpaid.
- apotheon 17y ago
  I'm not sure I see how your example is similar to Mark Cuban's example. For instance, conducting surveys (one of the tasks Cuban was talking about having interns accomplish) is part of a wide range of professional fields -- including experimental psychology (according to my girlfriend with the psychology degree), political analysis (according to major news networks), and usability testing. > Either way, the intern would have lost that week or two (even if they recognize it was a bunk internship) . . . and what else would they have done during that time? Sometimes, one must try two or three things to find one that's worthwhile. Should I then be able to bring suit against a software developer whose software wasted a week of my time before I decided it wasn't doing me any good, before I moved on to something better?