Unpaid Internships

Unpaid Internships

“One University study showed that an average, only 30% of graduating seniors have job offers prior to graduation, whereas this number rises to 58% for students who have completed internships.”(Facts about Internships).The statistics describe that there are more chances for students to get hired to a job much faster who completed an internship than those that did not. Internships are a great way to open up to different opportunities in gaining and expanding contacts for future job opportunities. Although many people may argue that unpaid internships are not beneficial students, I would complete an unpaid internship because it allows for a chance to gain experience and have advantages for future employment.

There are some benefits in doing an internship without pay, such as gaining valuable work experience. The article “No Pay? Many interns say, “No Problem” mentions a few students that agreed on the matter of doing an internship without pay. In that same article a student named Nick Orichuia from Italy commented,”I think unpaid internships are almost always a valuable experience, especially for students in college….

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.internships shouldn't only be seen as opportunities to be hired in the place where one interns, but part of a larger learning experience.'' (Halperin, Jennifer. par.#10). The student emphasizes strongly that benefits you gain is experience and that it is worth the time you put in. The advantages of an unpaid internship is that it is short term(from a week to 3 months minimum) and if mistakes are done, it will not be as bad as a paid worker because interns are there for the sake of learning and are not paid.

Another benefit would be that it can give students advantages for future employment. In the article “No Pay? Many Interns Say, 'No Problem’.”an intern named Priya Shah says, “Any type of experience in your field is good, it builds your resume and portfolio….unpaid internships are worth it because you are building experience and contacts. And you may land a job after it's over…… But you can learn skills that you wouldn't necessarily learn in a classroom.’’(Halperin, Jennifer par.#9).Even without pay, students cannot let the chance of gaining experience and forming contacts that can be used in resumes when applying for jobs.

A production assistant for the Dr. Oz Show named Hannah Ferdinand said that,”Unpaid internships are totally worth the hours you put in and the hard work….Employees of the workplace understand that you are working and learning for free. It shows that you are serious about the career and are willing to put in the hard work needed for the reward of a potential job.” (Halperin, Jennifer par.#8) Employers can hire students if their performance was good enough after their internship is finished. There really is no loss even if unpaid during internship, there is more gain and it will give an advantage when job hunting.

Having read these two articles, the comments that students have said, and the statistics shown for internships without pay is more than enough to convince me to complete an internship pay or no pay just for the valuable experience alone. Even though there is no pay in completing an internship, that does not mean there is no benefit in doing it. The benefits gained from it include experience, knowledge, and advantages for future employment. For these reasons alone it is well worth the time and effort to do an internship.