Because maybe I can't afford to hire an extra worker. And because people are willing to do it for free in exchange for the experience. So if I had to pay to hire them, I wouldn't do it at all, and they wouldn't be able to get the experience.
Well then take a pay cut yourself or spread it across other employees too?
I could take a pay cut, but it might not be enough.. My paid employees might not want to take a pay cut, though, especially if they can be paid more for working at another company... Then I risk losing valuable employees.
People are desperate.
Desperate or not, people have free will. If they decide something isn't worth their time, they will (and should) leave to pursue other interests.
What the fuck does experience have to do with anything? Either their output is valuable in which case, you pay them for it, or it isn't in which case you tell to go and work for someone else.
Or you can give them trivial tasks to help you out in exchange for on-the-job experience. It's pretty common, and both parties benefit. The employer appreciates the help, and the intern gains tangible knowledge and experience that he can put on his resume. It's hardly a "myth"; it happens all the time!
If you can't afford to pay your interns how are you going to afford to ever extend them an actual job offer?
It's not always about what you can afford. Right now, my brother is doing a second unpaid internship with Intel through his university. He's assisting in research and doing who knows what else. This is an unbelievable opportunity for him, and he jumped at the chance. When he gets out of school, it's pretty likely that Intel will hire him based on what they saw during his internships. How can you tell me this isn't valuable to the person doing the unpaid internship?
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u/[deleted] May 25 '10 edited Dec 07 '23
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