Nobody likes needing to go to work, but we do it because it puts money in our pockets
and food on our tables, and hey if you can find a job that you don’t totally hate to
fill this requirement that’s great.
But what about jobs that you aren’t paid for at all?
Unpaid internships rightfully attract a fair bit of scrutiny in modern corporate America.
Many say that these roles effectively amount to slave labor, where scummy companies are
able to take advantage of free workers to do the menial tasks that they would have otherwise
had to employ an office secretary for.
Even the best unpaid internship programs at high end technology companies have their critics,
for some pretty valid reasons.
And you know, on the surface this looks pretty cut and dry.
A worker should get an honest compensation for an honest days work, that’s just fair,
but what if that compensation didn’t come in the form of a pay check?
Well it’s time to learn how money works by defending the indefensible and looking
how unpaid internships of all things could actually be the answer to a lot of the problems
facing our modern workforce.
The defending the indefensible series is always a little bit on the controversial side, but
thankfully it is made possible for everybody by this channel’s premium members and amazing
supporters on patreon.
Standard disclaimer, this video is all about playing devil’s advocate and trying to understand
an issue by exploring the argument from both sides of the coin.
If you want to downvote the video that’s fine, but do it just because you think unpaid
internships are bad.
Moving along, there are really big advantages that these roles can offer that work to benefit
not only the companies offering the roles, but also entire industries and most importantly
the young professionals that will be doing these jobs.
Knowledge of industry standards that is up to date and relevant.
Building a contact network with a group of peers and employers.
And offering a risk free way to candidates to prove their worth to an employer while
also being an obligation free way to try out a company.
So let’s start off with that networking point.
How often have you heard the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”?
As in, jobs tend to go to people who already have some kind of connection to a workplace
over someone who might technically be more qualified or proficient in a role.
This is normally seen as a bad thing.
People will conjure up images of the Founder & CEO’s useless son being given a VP role
and completely fudgining it up for everybody in his department and certainly that is bad,
but it doesn’t need to be.
A lot of roles even in non-family institutions will still be given to people with contacts.
It doesn’t always guarantee them a role, but it CAN guarantee them an interview.
If a company is advertising for a mid-level role and someone within the business recommends
an old colleague to the hiring manager, the standard response will almost ALWAYS be “Yeah
sure, get me their resume and I will set up an interview”.
This might not sound like a big deal, but even if they don’t get ANY special consideration
beyond that point, they are still TEN TIMES more likely to end up getting the job than
someone who applied through the standard channels who has a 90% chance of not even getting an
interview.
Again this might sound bad, but really it’s does make good business sense.
A hiring manager only has so much time to spend interviewing people, and if someone
comes recommended from an existing employee who is willing to vouch for their competence,
it’s probably a better bet than some random candidate that applied online.
Even beyond making the job search easier, a robust contact network can mean that you
are aware of new opportunities in different companies in your industry, it will give you
insights into salaries for different roles, and also give you a heads up for businesses
or managers to avoid.
The best way to start building this contact network is to start working, and start working
in a role where you will be amongst lot’s of peers with a similar career outlook to
your own.
An entry level position COULD work, but internships can be far better in a number of ways.
In an entry level job you are normally going to be working on a narrow set of tasks as
a junior member of an already established team.
In a good unpaid internship you will normally be placed in a large team with lots of other
interns and slowly be moved through lots of different roles in the business.
This means more chances to meet more managers (aka potential employers), but most importantly
it means you are almost forced to form professional relationships with a group of people who are
going to be spending the rest of your career working with.
An entry level role is also going to place less emphasis on training with more of a focus
on doing what you are paid to do whereas n most countries there are actually laws that
mandate unpaid interns need to be gaining skills in their role, and not exclusively
being used to grab the coffee.
Some countries even forbid interns from being used in any type of productive capacity AT
ALL, meaning their time with the business must be spent on learning new roles exclusively.
Obviously check locally before applying your milage may vary.
There is one other big thing as well.
An entry level job will be a lot harder to get.
An unpaid internship does not carry the same kind of legal employer employee requirements
that comes with even a junior employee, beyond that most companies are not going to make
unpaid interns essential staff.
This means that the selection process can be much more accepting of applicants that
they aren’t necessarily sure about.
Showing a willingness to prove yourself in a role that pays in nothing, but experience
and connections is going to open a lot more doors than the millions of people all looking
for entry level jobs every year.
So far you might be thinking that I have only looked at reasons that YOU should consider
getting an unpaid internship, rather than why these questionable roles should exist
at all.
Fair enough, lets look at that.
To do that I want to ask a question to those of you watching who are lucky enough to have
a job that DOES actually pay you money.
How many of your day-to-day tasks did you learn to do at school or at college?
Probably very few right?
Almost everything was learnt on the job.
Everything from advanced corporate processes down to client management is going to be learnt
by doing.
I would assume that unless you want to be a doctor, lawyer, career academic or engineer,
you are going to learn more applicable skills spending 6 months in a corporate office than
you would spending 4 years at college.
This isn’t to jump onto the bandwagon of knocking higher education, it can still play
an incredibly important part in getting people ready for certain roles, but it just doesn’t
create job ready applicants by itself, and it’s not necessarily even meant to.
How many times have you asked someone what they are studying at college only to follow
that question up by asking what job they want to get with that degree?
Most college courses are not designed with a specific job in mind, they are a more diverse
demonstration of general aptitude.
It’s probably worth disclosing that I myself went to college and then went through an unpaid
internship program.
I studied business & finance at college and did quite well, I could have probably gone
straight out and found a job, but it would be as an junior employee at a bank, or a financial
analyst of some corporation.
Not a bad position by any means, but by spending an extra three months doing an unpaid internship
I was able to get an analyst job at an investment bank where my salary, benefits and career
progression opportunities were SIGNIFICANTLY improved.
I realise this is a best-case scenario but by the end of my first year I had still taken
home more money going through three months without pay than I would have by going straight
into a entry level role.
In fact, the fact that unpaid internships can give employees such a head start in their
careers is counterintuitively one of the biggest problems a lot of critics have with these
programs.
Working 40 hours a week for no money might not sound like a “luxury” but to SOME
people it really is.
Most people simply cannot afford to stop working and even if spending three months as an intern
would give them life changing career prospects in the long term, it would put them out on
the streets right now.
I was by no means rich when I did my unpaid internship, but I wasn’t going to be homeless
if I went three months without a payslip, which retrospectively made me INCREDIBLY fortunate
when compared to most other young Americans.
Now companies have started to realise this, and they have also realised that they are
missing out on top talent with this expensive barrier to entry.
In response a lot of companies have started offering PAID internships.
This trend started with tech companies which are now often paying their interns over six
figures for their time, but the generosity has even started to trickle down to historically
tight fisted organisations like investment banks and asset management firms.
Now this sounds great, problem solved right?
The problem is that these paid internships aren’t really internships as much as they
are trial jobs, and with that they bring the same barriers to entry as a normal entry level
job without any of the security.
Am I saying that these companies are bad for paying their interns?
No of course not.
I am saying that these paid internship programs are just not the foot in the door that they
would have otherwise been if it were not for the money involved.
A great solution would be to open up the same financial assistance available to college
students and extend that to people wanting to do internships.
It means that less financially secure potential interns can go in and access all the same
benefits as their financially stable peers.
If you wanted to be really generous you could mandate that only employers that retained
a certain percentage of these interns as actual employees would remain eligible for this type
of student funding.
Wishful thinking?
Maybe.
But in a job market that has a massive mismatch of skills the role of gaining first hand industry
experience should not be totally dismissed as a scam to give corporations a free pool
of labour.
Are their scummy companies that use it like this?
Oh you betcha, and they should be exposed for it.
But these programs really do offer an easy way for even average students to quickly gain
the skills they need to go into an interview and tick all of the boxes.
It’s an investment, just one that you make with your time, no different to how college,
or a trade school is an investment of time AND money.
Like all investments you should consider your options carefully, make sure you are investing
in the right fields, make sure you are investing in the right company, but if you do this successfully,
it might be the best investment you ever make.
Now if you decide that you couldn’t be bothered with this corporate careerist bullshoot and
would rather get an average job paying an average salary, you might be on to something.
Many reports have argued that more money doesn’t bring you more happiness past about $75,000
per year.
The problem is, these reports are wrong, or at the very least, massively misinterpreted.
Go watch my video on how more money does actually buy you more happiness to find out why.
An again I want to say a very special thank you to all of my new sponsors and channel
members who are continuing to make it possible for everybody to learn, How Money Works.