{"id":28581,"date":"2009-08-21T00:34:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T23:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=28581"},"modified":"2021-01-07T14:51:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T13:51:30","slug":"pay-to-play-intern-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/pay-to-play-intern-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay to Play–Intern Style"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"money\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Again, I’m a little bit shocked.\u00a0 First I found out that aspiring government employees pay to have other people write their KSA<\/a>s, and no one seems to notice.\u00a0 Now I’ve learned that prospective\/recent college grads (or their parents) are paying to obtain desirable internships.<\/p>\n

According to a story in the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, there’s a mini-industry growing up around the unpaid internship market.\u00a0 The options available to aspiring interns range from matching services to auctions (yes, really), but the big boat in this regatta will take the student from resume to interview to offer to apartment, with tourist amenities thrown in.\u00a0 All for under $10,000!<\/p>\n

Companies say they regard this as a useful service, providing them with better interns while reducing the effort required to acquire them.\u00a0 Parents say they regard it as a worthwhile investment.\u00a0 And one assumes that the interns consider it a splendid opportunity–and\/or a \u00a0way to get something of value without a lot of effort.<\/p>\n

Is this okay?\u00a0 On the one hand, market opportunities are always going to be exploited by somebody, and apparently the demand for internships has been sky-rocketing.\u00a0 In terms of the fairness question–arguably, only better-off students can afford to spend their summers accruing unpaid experience instead of flipping burgers to fund the next semester anyway.\u00a0 So perhaps it doesn’t make any real difference if the well-funded compete amongst themselves?<\/p>\n

But on the other<\/em> hand . . . students who can afford to pay for play in the internship market probably already have a lot more connections than their less-fortunate peers.\u00a0 Should they also get the resume boost of a high-value internship–without an asterisk that says “placed by a paid broker”?<\/p>\n

Another thought:\u00a0 The student who gets ushered into an internship (and doesn’t even need to find an apartment or figure out the city map) may not be getting the full benefit of this step toward professional and personal maturity.<\/p>\n

To get the placement side of the story, visit this website for a leading provider<\/a>.\u00a0 Then, if your company utilizes interns, you might consider these questions:<\/p>\n