Can Interns Make $15k in 3 Months? Should They?
When interns used to be called apprentices and before that indentured servants or serfs, they rarely received or even expected to receive more than a pittance in monetary compensation. Should the apprentice, servant, or serf be so fortunate to work for an enlightened employer, master, or lord, the real compensation was in learning a trade and simply surviving to live another day. That's all changed. Thank goodness.
Today's interns expect far more than simple survival. The February 20, 2006 issue of Business Week indicated that some MBA students will earn $15,000 this summer working for Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Is that representative of what most interns will earn this summer? Should it be? While I do not begrudge these cream of the cream interns their monetary compensation, I also recognize that the compensation that they earn is far beyond what virtually all other interns will make this summer, and should be.
An internship program is all about recruitment. It is essentially a temp-to-perm relationship. Interns tend to work for little to no money but in return expect and deserve (1) a realistic view of what it is like to work for the employer; the opportunity to do meaningful work for that employer; (3) an opportunity to convert their academic experiences into practical, work-related experiences in their chosen career paths; and (4) a presumption that they will be hired on a permanent basis upon graduation by that employer.
Notice that monetary compensation is not included in the list. While many will argue that it should be, I respectfully disagree. Everything else being equal, I always recommend to students that they choose the internship that offers them the best experience over the internship that offers them the best pay. The difference in pay between even an unpaid internship and a highly paid internship is negligible when viewed over the course of the first few years of the career of that intern. If they select the internship that offers them the better experience, they are almost certain to make far more money their first year or two after graduation than they would have if they selected the more highly paid internship that offers a lower quality experience.
Look at it another way. You pay to go to school. You aren't paid to go to school. Well, Chris Webber was but outside of a handful of NCAA superstars, you pay to go to school. You do so because it is an excellent investment in yourself. The better the quality of your education, the more likely it is that you'll be able to enjoy your work and your life. Internships are part of your educational experience, so I counsel students not to expect to earn much money and, if the right opportunity presents itself, not to worry about earning any money at all. If they are fortunate enough to be able to choose between two internships that will each provide great experience, then choose the one that pays better. That's pretty obvious. But if one offers great pay and the other offers great experience, then choose the one that offers great experience.
Your summer internship should not be viewed as an opportunity to become wealthy. Instead, it is an opportunity to gain a wealth of experience.
To some extent I agee with your argument. However, to some extent, I do not.
The basic premises that you set out (1-4) are very appropriate, especially for young people who anticipate graduating from an undergraduate institution and have not yet had any real world experience. They've not been reality tested nor gotten their feet wet. So an unpaid internship is the time when the employer can train at a low cost, mold and model to the extent possible for their own company traditions and practices, and see how well all of this ultimately works.
However, MBA (from which you draw your arguments in this post) and law students are a different breed of interns. They are professional designation students who have established their definite career goals and are fine tuning their skills. They're in this for the long haul and are establishing how well they can do their work by impressing not only the client with mission critical content and contact. They are creating substantive documents and input for deal-making initiatives that have critical business consequences. Their efforts are not support or administrative, discretionary tasks. The documents they create will be part of the significant history of the company for which they're interning. They are setting one professional brick after another on their brick wall of sturdiness.
In most instances, these professionals also have families (which is a poor argument but a very real one) that need to be supported. They have incurred relocation expenses in order to work for these potential employers. And they have real housing costs that need to be covered. Student loans do not cover this. Should MBA and second and third year law school students expect to be compensated while completing their internships? Yes, I believe they should.
Should an undergraduate who is interning in order to get some sense of real work workforce environment expect to be compensated? No. Only if they already have that experience and are enhancing it to some meaningful degree.
It seems to me that we are, here, looking at apples and oranges and speaking of a fruit pie. Actually, there are two pies before us -- the one that's ready to go into the oven and the one that's ready to be taken out of it.