Unpaid Internships Are A Scam & Why Paid Interns Are Better Than Unpaid Interns

From the comments section of "The Biggest Scam In Photography"
by Rob Haggart..

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Patrick Yen wrote:
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm

An even bigger scam is unpaid internships. You may get scammed out of a couple hundred dollars for a B.S. photo contest, but that sure as hell beats being exploited for thousands of dollars and months of your valuable time.

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A Photo Editor Reply:
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:19 pm

@Patrick Yen,
We had unpaid editorial interns at one magazine and paid at another. Maybe it had more to do with the quality of the publication but the unpaid interns were horrible.

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Patrick Yen Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 2:03 am

@A Photo Editor,

Numerous reasons for this.

1) Most people aren’t motivated to work as hard when they aren’t getting paid for their labor.

2) Employers tend to be more selective with paid internships because they want a better return on their investment. Also, more people want paid internships than unpaid internships so employers get to choose from a larger, more competitive pool of applicants when hiring for paid interns, resulting in a higher probability of hiring better workers.

3) Only about 10-15% of the wealthiest can afford unpaid internships, so the whole practice of offering unpaid internships automatically locks out at least 85% of potential applicants, in which case the best are not chosen but simply the wealthiest.

4) The wealthiest have not had to work as hard throughout their lifetimes. The poor have, and tend to make better workers because of it - especially ones who have had to serve food or alcohol. They naturally tend to develop better social/communication/people skills that the privileged have not had to develop as a means to ensure their survival.

So yeah, unpaid interns aren’t as good as paid interns.

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jimmyD Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

@Patrick Yen, I used to be partnered in a small video post-production facility. We had two Avid Media Composers and a few linear editing systems. This was back in the mid-90s thru early 00s, before everyone and their mothers were able to afford a Final Cut Pro system.

We had prospective interns lined up at the door. They were falling all over themselves to get quality time on an Avid. A few of those we selected worked full-time hours, without pay, as long as we provided a fair amount of that time for them to spend on the systems and that we, my partner and I, also spent some of our time training them, mentoring them, and sharing what we knew. (Training, sharing knowledge, and mentoring should always be part of the deal… if it ain’t go intern elsewhere.)

Without exception, each of those interns went on to land great jobs in the motion picture industry– First, as paid Assistant Editors and, later, as Editors.

Each of them credit their internships as being one of the most important avenues to their chosen careers.

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Patrick Yen Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

@jimmyD,

You said:

“Without exception, each of those interns went on to land great jobs in the motion picture industry– First, as paid Assistant Editors and, later, as Editors.

Each of them credit their internships as being one of the most important avenues to their chosen careers.”

Would you be willing to provide me with their names? I would like to contact each and every one of them to verify your claim that each and every one of them landed great jobs without exception and that each credit their unpaid internships as being one of the most important avenues in their careers.

It seems more logical to me, that while they may cite their internships as significant educational experiences, many of them were probably pretty upset about working for free, and many probably felt taken advantage of.

While I’d like to believe you, jimmyD with no last name or website to link to - or with your specific company listed, I think you’re exaggerating and/or blowing smoke up my ass.

I myself learned on a Media100 system during high school before Final Cut got big, but not because I worked as an unpaid intern somewhere - rather because I had a job that paid actual money and afforded me similar opportunities.