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| Creative Commons |
During an unpaid internship at a youth football camp in the summer of 2011, Matt Leland, a senior Broadcast Journalism major at the University of Southern California, wasn't told he would be required to pay for his own transportation to the camp locations. This included flights to and from San Francisco to Colorado and San Diego, and a train to Los Angeles. Leland estimates spending over $1,000 in transportation costs during his internship.
"The most ridiculous thing about the internship came at the conclusion of the Colorado camp," said Leland. A supervisor asked him to drive a large truck full of equipment from Colorado to San Francisco. "This meant canceling my already-paid-for flight, getting into a vehicle I had no idea how to drive, and spending the next two full days on the road with a lot of expensive equipment that I was suddenly responsible for," said Leland. "Luckily, I was able to find someone who actually had experience doing this before being roped too far into it. . .but I still think it's ridiculous that I was even asked, considering the circumstances and my lack of compensation."
A national survey found almost 75 percent of college students take-on at least one internship during their time at four-year schools. The survey, conducted by Intern Bridge in 2010, included over 42,000 students at 400 universities. Of those interns, almost 20 percent reported they didn't get paid or receive school credit for working, making the work illegal.
"I think it's a mixture of free labor and the desire to educate students," said Faith Xue, a senior Communication major at the University of Southern California, on the motivation for companies to hire interns. "I've had five internships and they've varied in terms of how much I feel like the company or boss actually cares about what I learn and [them] using me solely to do the work they don't want to do."
Xue worked without pay or school credit for a surf and fashion magazine based in Santa Monica, Calif. during the summer of 2011. "I expected to gain experience learning the ins and outs of what it takes to produce a magazine and hopefully exercise some reporting and writing skills," she said. The internship touched on this, but mostly involved menial, day-to-day tasks to assist her manager. "I was asked by one of my bosses to research cleaning companies in the area," said Xue. "A week later, she asked me if I could clean, dust and Swiffer the entire office space…completely disregarding the fact that I had emailed her cleaning company options a week before. She asked me to 'especially clean the bathroom, because it's terrible in there.'"
"Two weeks later, she asked me if I could clean the bathroom again, because I was 'so good at it last time.' So for the second time, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor and toilet of this magazine's bathroom," said Xue.
To be considered legal, an unpaid internship must comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The act spells out six qualifications, summarized below, allowing a company to hire "trainees" that do not qualify as employees.
The Supreme Court deems an internship meeting all of these qualifications legal:
- The training is similar to education received in a vocational school and is for the benefit of the student.
- The trainees work with a close supervisor and do not take the place of paid employees.
- The employer doesn’t receive any direct advantage from the work, and sometimes “his operations may even be impeded” by providing the internship.
- The trainee is not entitled to a job at the end of the period and understands he will not receive payment.
Although many unpaid internships don't follow these regulations, students continue to accept them due to an extreme pressure to gain experience, boost résumés, or make connections.
A senior Cinema-Television Production major at the University of Southern California, who asked to remain anonymous, interns for a prominent Los Angeles writer and director’s production company. “Between me and his assistant, we pick up his kids from school, we take them to their sports lessons, their after-school activities… we tell his kids when to do their homework. I know their schedule better than my own at this point,” he said.
Running an errand—a trip to the vet with his boss’s dog—the intern had to spend $170 of his own money to pay the fee. “Usually the companies are good about reimbursing…but it’s always awkward asking and I find that I’m too focused on the job I’m doing to really keep a good track of all my own receipts, so I’m not usually able to get reimbursed,” he said.
"In the film industry you’re expected to be someone’s bitch for years, even after you graduate. But I’ve had really good experiences... and overall it’s been worth it,” he said.
A survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that over 76 percent of companies reported relevant work experience was the critical factor in making hires. Often, adding internships to résumés is the only compensation students receive for their work.
"[Being] an intern is almost like a rite of passage, but a very important one. Sometimes they are given daunting tasks but everyone has had to do it. It is almost like a way of paying your dues," said Meredith Strober, who has seen both sides of the experience as a former intern in the entertainment industry and a former manager for a Discovery Communications' internship program.
"I think students get internships so they have better chances of receiving a job after graduation. Employers like to see that a recent graduate has experience in the real world. It is also a great way for college students with limited connections in their industries to get a foot in the door," said Strober.
Nearly 20 percent of large for-profit companies, defined as those with more than 5,000 employees, have unpaid internships, according to Intern Bridge. This doesn’t include the massive programs run by nonprofits, government offices, and small for-profit companies.
With 4,200 employees, Discovery Communications—the parent company of 13 U.S. networks including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and TLC—operates an extensive internship program in eight locations nationwide. "There were several departments that had interns in the L.A. office, such as production, development, education, ad sales, etc.," said Strober, estimating about 20 interns cycled through the Los Angeles office every semester.
The company, like many others, requires that students receive school credit as compensation. For many students in summer internships, this means paying money to enroll in an internship course at an academic institution if they are not taking summer school. At the University of Southern California, students must enroll in a class of 2-4 units to receive credit. At $1,420 per unit, this means between $2,840 and $5,680 of a student's own money in order to receive credit and abide by the FLSA.
Academic advisors recommend taking an internship course at a community college to avoid the hefty price tag of USC tuition. A course at Los Angeles City College costs $226 per unit for out-of-state and $36 for in-state students. "Even though it's probably not transferable, it will be a lot less expensive," said an undergraduate academic advisor at USC.
In an effort to make a good impression on employers, students make sacrifices to make the most out of their internships. "I was basically his assistant—I would schedule all of his meetings, doing his personal assistant stuff all the time, from home when I wake up and sending emails during class," said the Cinema-Production major of his two-day-a-week internship for the CEO of a prominent production company. "It's always worth it, you have to work your ass off for these places and I love doing that because if you show them that you care, they’ll care about you too."
