The Perils of Internships

Look familiar?

Turns out, not everyone is gung-ho about post-graduate internships.

Yesterday, I spoke with Pamela Noel, the director of career services at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She quickly proved herself my first source who strongly opposes post-grad internships. She suggests that students consider freelancing after college rather than interning.

Noel also touched on a theme that has come up in several of my interviews: the phenomenon of unpaid internships in journalism. Speaking in terms of undergraduates, she said,

“There is much debate out there about how unpaid internships generally, whether it’s during the academic year, while you’re earning your degree or afterward, pushing your industry into a realm where it can only be avoided by people who have money anyway. And, whether you feel pro or con about it, you can’t dispute that some of that is happening.”

Let’s face it: magazine work isn’t anyone’s get rich quick scheme. But, until very recently, publications such as Newsday and those housed under the Condé Nast umbrella gave their interns some compensation. Now, they require academic credit. This means that not only are magazines not paying interns, but interns are paying their universities for course credit. During the fall and spring semesters, students often have enough credit that they can work in internships for no extra cost. This is not the case over the summer, something I know all too well.

Interns need something for their piggy banks

Last summer, I had the following conversation an innumerable amount of times:

Person X: What are you doing for the summer?

Me: I’m an editorial intern at Seventeen.

Person X: [impressed] Wow, that’s awesome! Do you love it?

Me: Yeah, it’s great! The people are wonderful and I’m learning so much.

Person X: Do they pay you?

Me: Nope.

Person X: Oh, that sucks.

Me: Actually, my parents are paying the university $1000 for me to intern.

Person X: That’s absurd.

Jim O’Brien, the director of career services at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism echoed Noel’s concerns. Although he is unsure whether the number of internships has increased, O’Brien has seen a transition from paid to unpaid internships, a phenomenon which he calls “disturbing, but understandable at the moment.”

Both Noel and O’Brien hope that as the economy improves, more paid journalism internships will emerge. But, as Noel wisely asks, “can that happen before the business model catches up and figures out how to make media pay again?”