Paid vs. Unpaid Internships and

Criteria for Choosing the Best Internship

By Carol R. Anderson

Director of Career Development and Placement

New School University

 

Unpaid internships are common and legal. The premise is that as an intern, you are not yet an “up-to-speed” professional and will need more supervision and training, and deliver less value to the organization, than an already competent employee. The internship “pays” you with training and real-world experience that adds value to your résumé. Another acknowledgment that your internship provides valuable training is that some schools will offer academic credit for internships they monitor, but when an employer says “available for academic credit,” that may mean only that they don't want to pay you, not that your school has agreed to give credit.

 

Whether an organization chooses to pay its interns is a function of supply and demand, budget, organizational philosophy, and the ability of international students to get work authorization. For example, if students are eager to work for a certain organization to get its name on their résumés, the company may not need to offer pay to get qualified students as interns. On the other hand, large national corporations that use internships as a primary recruiting tool often pay interns very well. Certain nongovernmental organizations offer only unpaid internships because they are in high demand from European students who must have an internship in such an organization in order to graduate: again, larger supply of students than demand drives the decision. In New York City , with over 60 nonprofit organizations per square mile, competition for interns can be stiff, and all but the poorest funded nonprofits (i.e., arts organizations and small start-ups) offer pay in order to be able to attract interns. In Washington , D.C. , there are more students seeking government and nonprofit internships than opportunities, and many are unpaid or paid very little, such as $6.50 an hour. In 2002, graduate students earn $12 to $25 an hour in New York City in the nonprofit sector and $19-$27 in the for-profit sector; undergraduates earn significantly less, often $8 to $10 in nonprofits, more in the corporate sector. Financial services is the best paying industry.

 

Whether or not you choose to pursue an unpaid internship is a matter of weighing the value of the experience against your need or desire to earn money during the period of the internship. All other factors being equal, why not get paid for learning the skills of your chosen profession? But often, not all factors are equal. Here are some important criteria:

•  Amount of interaction with an expert in your field : this is often more important than whether the project you are working on is one of interest to you. The amount of attention and guidance you get from a working professional often produces the highest level learning experience.

•  Know what you want to get out of an internship, and hold out for it : a new skill, more experience in a role you've had some in (depth), training in a software program, an experience in a different function or role (breadth), to get on a hiring track with an organization or within an industry. Trying on a different role allows you to find out what you like and don't like about different job functions; getting an internship with an organization that hires primarily through its internship program is an inside track.

•  Nature of tasks you will perform -are they commensurate with college or graduate school levels of skill? Avoid internships without defined tasks. Most good internships are project-based and expect you to deliver a product by internship's end: a survey, a report, or an analysis. You get to demonstrate the application of a skill set to a real-world problem. Make sure it goes on your résumé.

 

If the internship that satisfies most of these criteria is unpaid, and you can afford to spend the time unpaid, it may be the most appropriate. A paid internship that does not meet these criteria is a bad investment.

 

Carol R. Anderson is Director of Career Development and Placement for a professional graduate school of management and policy at New School University, where she counsels and places graduates and interns in nonprofit, corporate, and government sectors, and maintains a part-time private practice in career transition management.

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