Filing paperwork, fetching coffee and answering phone calls are only a few of the stereotypical, but likely tasks you will be faced with as a college intern.
Whether it’s your parents, advisors or professors encouraging you, constantly hearing the value of getting an internship is not something you’re likely to miss out on.
But is this coffee-gathering experience really something you need?
In some cases internships are essential to one’s major, and in others, a student may be reaching out to seek extra knowledge in his or her chosen field. An internship is valued as a necessary reality to prepare oneself for “the real world.”
According to Randall S. Hansen of Quintessential Careers, 86 percent of college graduates claim they have participated in an internship while attending college, and 69 percent report having two or more.
Two hundred students from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication are currently participating in internships in the Phoenix area, according to Michael Wong, director of Cronkite Career Services. It is not uncommon that students are motivated to apply for internships to establish a reputation post-graduation, but who is really benefiting from the labor?
Students understand the advantages an internship can offer, however, many internships go without any pay. Certainly there are obvious benefits to getting “real world” experience, but many students end up trading hard labor for little to no money.
Maria Fassil, a freshman majoring in printmaking, has a more critical outlook on internships.
“I would like to try to participate in an internship to gain experience in my field of interest,” she said.
Whether the internship is paid or unpaid is ultimately the deciding factor, she said.
“If it was unpaid, I would be less likely to accept it because I pay all of my own expenses,” said Fassil. “Because I already have a job it would be difficult to go to school full time, work my regular job, and work an unpaid job.”
From my understanding, employers of internships are usually good about working around a student’s academic schedule. However, students who are dependent on themselves may see an unpaid internship experience as less advantageous and somewhat hindering.
“Unpaid internships can be understandable because they are allowing you, as an inexperienced student, to work for them to gain the experience to set them apart from the other students,” Fassil said. “However, college expenses are far too high to be working unpaid for students who support themselves. Being unpaid would cause certain students to miss out if they aren’t financially privileged.”
Tedious work such as being scheduled too many hours and less opportunity in the field is no longer the issue. Rather, students who participate in internships should be reimbursed for their efforts.
Internships also validate what a student plans to do with his or her career, or in some cases, can redirect what a student is studying and mold these experiences into new career goals. They make students more marketable from an employer’s perspective. Nonetheless, students should be provided a fair opportunity for the diligence they put forth.
Reach Morgan at mptanabe@asu.edu
