Interns Anonymous
Uploaded on Nov 08, 2010 / 212 views / 273 impressions / 4 comments
Description
The founders of Interns Anonymous explain why they set up their campaign and website. They spill the beans on the largest survey ever done with interns and challenge the idea that a whole generation should put up with working for free. As Rosy...
The founders of Interns Anonymous explain why they set up their campaign and website. They spill the beans on the largest survey ever done with interns and challenge the idea that a whole generation should put up with working for free. As Rosy Rickett put it “internships don’t get you jobs, jobs get you jobs.”
4 comments
KatjaMuellers
As Interns Anonoymous states it is simply not possible to do an internship if you are not paid, especially if you are doing it in a expensive city as London. So how can somebody afford life without money? I mean you cant live from fresh air? But you have to collect work experiences to get some furter qualification for a future job. So the only way to get work experience is to ask ypu parents to help or you have to save money during your studies to get work experience. And this is definetly the wrong way.
I mean internships are a good thing and really helpful to improve your work skills. But the employer sees the interns simply as cheap or even free workers which is leading to a further discussion on unempolyment. As the students are unemployed as they dont get money and as the is simply a a lack of jobs.
Vivien
I really like these two, they actually did something about the situation of graduates not only not finding jobs and having to take internships - basically working for nothing - but actually finding they can't even get good internships . How absurd is that. We have got to the point where there is so little jobs available, so little opportunities out there, that graduates are competing fiercely just so they can work for nothing! I like the 'spat' they have at the end where Rosie says demanding good internships isn't the end goal but creating a society that provides jobs for everyone is and Alex quizzes this and says you can't just magic up jobs. I am with Rosie on wanting to demand a society that provides the jobs for all, this is the bare minimum isn't it - jobs for all or at least a living wage for everyone. Far cry from what our coalition government is working towards.
joethemosh
I think that the survey these two have done is exactly what we need. I think that this issue has only just begun, and will continue to impact the job market as an increasing number of young adults complete their studies and look for a career only to end up as an unpaid intern. I’m in my early twenties and everyone i know around my age has been affected by this exploitation of labor. In a way i think that the friends of mine who chose not to attend university made a smart decision, because they have four-years more experience than most other people.
josieg01
Really interesting video – it’s great that Interns Anonymous are helping young people to work together to stop this pattern, especially since the job-seeking environment itself can so easily turn peers into competitors. I also completely agree that the current internship system needs to end. It’s really important to remember that the internship phenomenon is a relatively recent thing- before that, the work done by interns would be done by paid staff (it would be interesting to find out whether the numbers of admin staff in the average office have decreased since internships became so popular.) The benefits to organisations of the current popularity of internships are two-fold: firstly, they have an intelligent and capable free labour force at their fingertips to do the work which would otherwise have to be done by either a paid member of staff or divided up between other staff members; secondly, companies can now demand far more experience from their graduate or entry-level staff, because they can reasonabl