Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Intern Sues for Minimum Wage

Article

When I first heard about this story on the radio ... my jaw hit the floor. Really? An intern at one of the largest magazine companies in the country was suing for minimum wage because she was "doing work that she wasn't hired for" ?

I completed (4) unpaid internships prior to my being hired at my current position. Three of the four were a complete waste of my time and did not foster my education in the field.

So what say ye? Did your internships have relevance to your industry or were you really just an unpaid lackie, like I was in so many cases?


3 comments:

  1. We were required to have 3 quarters (my college did quarters - 10 weeks instead of semesters) of internships (we called them co-ops) in order to graduate. They had to be paid and relevant to our field. I think it definitely helped me when it was time to get a job after graduation because I had work experience as well as education.

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  2. I did student teaching, which I suppose is like interning. It definitely did not help me prepare for a real teaching job. I created lesson plans and carried them out, yes, but it taught me absolutely nothing about classroom management, which (when you have failing students who don't give a crap) is way more important than the material you're trying to teach. In fact, my entire education was pretty one-sided, and heavy on the music & light on the educational methodology and psychology.

    My best "internship" has been having kids of my own. I've learned way more from them about education than I ever did in the classroom or student teaching.

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  3. I hated my unpaid internship, it was long hours, it didn't help my education for the industry, didn't help me land a better paying job. BUT, I certainly would never sue over it!

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