Why I Turned Down My Umpteenth Offer for an Unpaid Internship

"I got you contact information for a guy at the Metro," Chris wrote to me in a text while he was at work. The car dealership where he works is a new advertiser in the free daily paper read by commuters and Chris had spoken to the ad sales rep about his journalism student girlfriend who happens to want a paying job in journalism.

When I got home to our apartment that evening, Chris handed me the guy's card. "He said to give him a call. He said he's got jobs and internships open," Chris said.

Yippee! Maybe I'll get a part-time paid journalism gig, I thought. Stupid me to get so excited.

When I called the guy the next day, he offered to pass my resume and some clips along to an editor.

"Thank you so much!" I said.

Within minutes, I'd sent him an email with my resume, three targeted clips and the link to my online portfolio should the editor wish to see even more.

Hours later, I had a new message in my inbox. The ad sales guy apologized saying there were no jobs open, only unpaid internships.

Dagnabbit!

I thanked him once again and shot the editor, whose email address he'd included, an email. In the email, I thanked him for his consideration and apologized that I couldn't take an unpaid internship at this time. Would it be okay if I emailed him in a few months to let him know what I've been up to and to see if there are any new opportunities?

The editor never responded.

Those of you who are more experienced journalists may be shaking your heads at me. Why wouldn't I devote 15-20 hours of my week to working without compensation? Because I've written news before. I get paid $50 a piece by my local newspaper. One of the pieces I wrote for Broad Street Media appeared on the front covers of both of their weekly newspapers.

So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to work hard at something I'd adept at for no money. Just ain't happenin'.

Now maybe, if I wanted an internship in marketing, something that's a little outside my area of expertise, I'd take an unpaid internship. But at this point, I'd really just like to get paid for the things I can do and do well so that on my night off, I can go to the movies with my boyfriend -- or even just afford to buy candy at my local Wawa.

At the moment, I work my ass off at a day job at Temple, run a quarterly online magazine (for which I am paid nothing) and am trying to further my freelance career. Seriously, I'm not looking for sympathy or pity -- even though between me and my hardworking live-in boyfriend we hardly make enough money to have any fun. Nope, it's fine.

Just don't tell me that I should bow down and thank anyone willing to throw me an unpaid gig. I can make my own unpaid work. I could write a novel I'll never sell. I could start a second magazine.

So perhaps, having read this, you'll understand why a recent discussion board on a magazine group on LinkedIn pissed me off so badly.

A young guy posted a fairly innocuous question asking if all journalism internships are unpaid and if so, why. The first response got my blood boiling.

"Unfortunately, many -- even university graduates -- are not yet at a standard where they are contributing anything of value. They often take more resources than they offer. So from the company's view it is reasonable to have them work for a limited time, initially, for nothing. For many or most interns it is more 'work experience', than 'unpaid work' per se, if you take my meaning! We are doing *them* a favour by having them there as part of their skill development and progress towards a career."

This woman's response is outrageous. First of all, lots of interns will do as well as you let them. Yes, at first, there might be some instruction required but honestly? If you offer paying internships, those interns she's claiming have to be "broken in" will stick around a lot longer than one semester, meaning there's a significant return on your investment.

And "for a limited time"? Most internships -- and I've had a bunch of unpaid internships -- that start off unpaid don't ever start paying you, unless you're hired as a full-time staffer (which is by definition and entirely different gig).

As for work experience, I get that argument. And I've made it to juniors and seniors I knew who had never had a single internship. I've often said that I learned more during my internships than during any class at my journalism school. But I ask you to take a few steps back and reread the intro to this post.

If the intern or potential intern has done this kind of work before -- and employers are honest enough to admit or grant that -- then they should be paid. Maybe not as much as a staffer, but give us more $12 a day (this is the stipend I've seen on most listings at companies like Conde Nast and Hearst making a commute to New York City for an internship feel like a waste of my time and money, no matter how much I might learn by bringing Anna Wintour her coffee).

In one of my classes this past semester, which was taught by an employed journalist, the teacher and one of her guest speakers lamented that the beginning salary for a lot of journalism jobs is about $20,000. I wanted to smack their indignant, disbelieving faces. I'd be overjoyed to make that much money in a year -- especially starting off. I didn't go to journalism school expecting to come out making $60,000 a year, but I don't think an internship that pays minimum wage is too much to ask.

These companies wouldn't hire interns if there really was such a great imbalance between what the student gets out of it and what the student gives to it. Once upon a time, I knew a girl who had to paid a $50 parking ticket incurred while spending her afternoon off taking photos for a local alternative weekly's style blog. I asked her, "Can't they pay that for you?" She scoffed at me and said she'd gotten another the week before that she was told she'd have to handle.

Interns give a lot and they should be compensated fairly, especially if they've amassed a lot of relevant "work experience" at previous internships. 

Want another reason why interns should be given a dollar value? Because interns working for free devalues what paid freelancers offer to media companies. They offer valuable, viable skills that they expect to be fairly compensated for and they deserve it. I think interns do, too.

So despite the fact that the editor at the Metro never responded to my email, I'm going to follow up with him in a couple of months, attaching PDFs of more recent news stories I've written, and if he again offers nothing more than an unpaid internship, I'll wait another few months before contacting him again.

I'm not saying I know everything there is to know about journalism, but what writer or editor does? This world is constantly evolving and if media companies want to keep ahead of the curve and start building readership among young people, they ought to value their interns a little more. We're the future after all, you cynics.

Image from WeHeartIt.

Me's Company

She sat in front of me on my last bus toward home. Four foot tall at the most and toothpick thin with all her hair in a single high braid. With cheerleader cadence, she chanted, "Oh my GAWD, Becky, look at her butt." With that she clapped her tiny hands, flashed a peace sign and said, "Deuces." Over and over.

Probably five years old, she was entertaining herself because Mommy, seated ahead of her, was painting her nails over the 3-month-old in a stroller and ignoring the older child.

Soon, the little girl was singing Ms. Mary Mack into not just black but red and purple. When her mother finally turned around to shush her, it dawned on me: It's so important to learn to entertain yourself.

That little girl's mother is not the first woman I've watched ignore her children on SEPTA. Many of them engage in long phone conversations and turn a cold eye on their children.

I'm not a mother so I don't know exactly what it's like to have a little person demanding your attention constantly, but I remember being that kid, the kid who just wanted Mommy to focus solely on her (and completely forget that other little person they called my sister). These women hurt my heart every time they scream "What the fuck is wrong witchu?" at a crying babe.

But maybe what I consider to be poor parenting will pay off in the long run for those kids. That tiny 5-year-old on the bus today was clearly determined to enjoy her own company, even if her mother wouldn't, and I thought, Maybe she'll learn to be comfortable with herself and learn how to do things on her own.

A friend of mine wrote a column for our school newspaper a few weeks ago asking others not to pity her because she actually enjoys eating her lunch alone some days, and I applauded her. I, too, enjoy eating alone some days. There are times at work when a coworker will talk my ear off while I munch on my American hoagie and all I want to do is politely ask her to leave me alone.

For a really long time, I've been practicing being alone. Even surrounded by others, I can be alone in my head. And sometimes I really crave it. I think it's totally healthy as long as you also enjoy social activities (which I do).

So while she sang of Ms. Mary Mack-Mack-Mack all dressed in purple, that 5-year-old got a knowing, appreciative smile from me. Maybe some day she'll be riding the bus on her own, happy to be alone with her thoughts like me.

(Above image of Marilyn Monroe from popculturenerd.com)