The counter post to this is available at https://universitytimes.ie/?p=16097
A stand up comedian once told me that if you are able to enjoy what you’re doing and you put that aspect first, over time you will be surprised to find that people will want to pay you. He went on to say that if your goal was simply to get paid, then how much you are allowed to enjoy your work, and how much you develop your craft is often compromised. At the time, I was working as an intern at a magazine for free, and his words certainly served as some sort of comfort. A year later, and as I write, the stark reality of my chosen career path has begun to dawn on me. It is most definitely unpaid internships from here on in, in the hope of one day earning my place amongst my salaried peers. Of course, it’s not just that I’ll be unpaid, but the fact that these internships will actually be costing me; be it to rent in Dublin, or to commute if I manage to get something slightly closer to home. So there has to be a paid job involved at some stage, be it in the weeks leading up to the internship, or running simultaneously alongside it. And of course, never the twain shall meet – the internship is the one that you must excel at, despite the lack of financial motivation. I’ve been particularly lucky. Though the internship I embarked upon last summer was unpaid, it more than excused itself by giving me the chance to attend gigs and plays for free, getting the odd book to review, swinging the occasional celeb interview and most excitingly an invitation to the edgy work party. I can’t pretend the value of all my freebies would have matched up in any way to the cost of my rent, but though completely skint, by August I was at least rich in anecdotes.
As it stands, while its still acceptable not to pay interns, those of us lacking the political motivation to do something about it, simply have to make the most of it. I haven’t got the time to start campaigning about the injustice of the matter, because at the moment, I’m self absorbed enough just to want to get into paid employment in my chosen field as quickly as possible. If that means a string of unpaid internships for now, at least when I’m secure enough to actually think about changing things, I’ll have had some first hand experience of the joys of working unwaged. There is of course, one obvious advantage, if you suspend your disillusionment for a second, and look to the future. Things are definitely beginning to change, and in the next decade or so, I’m confident that unpaid internships will truly be given the boot. With that in mind then, imagine the sheer treat its going to be, blathering on to our children, and their children about those days when the going really was tough, you know, so tough WE WORKED FOR FREE. It’s already even gaining me great kudos with the older generation – as tough as I (regularly) hear it was in their day, even as the coffee boy, my dad’s entry level job was a paid one. I am going to dine out on the injustice for years, even if it means I can’t afford to actually dine out at all for the foreseeable future.
But is the strongest case for unpaid internships really that we can use them to back up that creepingly inevitable opinion of the elderly, that these young’uns don’t know how good they’ve got it? Though it is a good contender amongst the really rather small pool of reasons why they might still appeal, there are in fact, others. It’s certainly true that an unpaid internship shows future employers that you are genuinely dedicated to the particular interest or career you’re pursuing, so much so that you were willing to live off rice and little else for a few months. Being so low down on the food chain that you’re not even paid might plausibly even be character-building, and force out some gritty, Rocky-style determination to do this job some day and actually be able to use it to fund some fun-having. And, at least this way, if you still end up liking a job you’re not being paid for, you can be absolutely sure that its what might suit you in terms of a career. All small consolations, perhaps. But the humble unpaid intern also has a further edge over their paid pals, in that it’s terribly difficult to accuse them of drinking their wages. Admittedly, this does have the rather unfortunate flipside that any hangover incurred over the span of employment is doubled immediately with the addition of crippling financial guilt, but I sense this guilt affects the even the yuppies too. I just try not to focus on the fact they can treat themselves with a consolation brunch on a whim to ease their woes.
