Dan Dolan knew he shouldn’t expect a high-paying job right after graduating from Sheridan College’s postgrad advertising program this spring. His fate was clear: living at home with his parents so he could take an unpaid internship at a small firm in Toronto.
“That was something [professors] stressed really hard – that we would not get paid,” says the 23-year-old from Mississauga.
What he didn’t expect was that the job would entail only 5-per-cent work with clients (in line with his education) and 95-per-cent custodial tasks, such as cleaning up the kitchen and taking out the trash.
He ditched the gig after six weeks, accepting a position at a prominent firm that’s given him a taste of the work he’d like to do long term.
Problem is, he’s still not making any cash.
As if shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for postsecondary schooling isn’t enough, an unpaid internship has become a rite of passage for many students, argues Ross Perlin in the recently published exposé Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. He says the United States and Canada are in the midst of an “intern boom.” Some complete them as part of their degree requirements, others take them to gain entry into a competitive field.
It’s difficult to nail down statistics on interns, as “intern” isn’t a title recognized in law. Still, some employment lawyers have taken it on as their cause, citing a growing acceptance of unpaid internships in offices and postsecondary institutions. There’s a clear draw for employers, who use internships as a way to save money and nurture talent. They’re most common in what Mr. Perlin calls the “glamour” industries: media, politics, advertising, marketing and non-profit work, which attract idealistic students who “aren’t in it for the money.”
But these ubiquitous unpaid opportunities face a myriad of criticisms: They exclude students who can’t afford to work without pay. Some companies use them to take advantage of students. And interns, because they receive no pay, have limited rights.
One of Mr. Perlin’s chief critiques of unpaid internships is they are classist. While they may be a stepping stone to gainful employment, students who cannot afford to spend a summer without pay are shut out from such opportunities.
Bethany Horne, 25, is now proudly, and defiantly, turning down such offers.
Because one of her degree requirements for the University of King’s College’s journalism program was to complete an internship, she travelled from Halifax to Toronto last year for placement at an online magazine. She returned with a rich portfolio of stories, but not a cent from the company.
After seeing her peers take on similar opportunities without landing jobs, she took a public stand against unpaid internships last month in an op-ed posted on J-Source.ca, a website run by the Canadian Journalism Foundation.
“I am boycotting the system … I won’t support with my free labour a media organization that cuts its legs out from under itself,” she wrote.
This summer, she’s getting work in her field through a few freelance projects, but still believes she’s been shut out from countless jobs because she refuses to do unpaid work.
Arthur Gallant didn’t want to risk that fate so he quit a retail job he’d held for a year and a half to take on an eight-week internship at CTV’s Canada AM. It’s a dream job for the 21-year-old.
On Twitter, the Burlington, Ont., resident began enthusiastically counting down the days to his internship months before it even began. He says the company is doing him a favour by taking him on as an unpaid intern.
“If I don’t get this experience, what’s going to happen? No one’s going to want me,” he says.
