As many people understand from firsthand experience, students and recent graduates often need to complete unpaid internships during the school year and summers in order to build their resumes. Such unpaid internships may confer valuable experiences that can help the student during their job search later in their careers. However, unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers, and employers should consider offering paid internships while interns should look for sources of funding.
During my student debt repayment saga, I mostly completed paid internships. The amount of money I made during such internships was minimal. However, this compensation helped me purchase books, school supplies, and other necessities as a student, and this showed me how unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers.
The only unpaid internship I took was working for a judge after my first year of law school. However, I did not mind working for the judge without pay. Most of my job was just observing trials and hearings, which did not involve me doing much actual work. In addition, I completed other work that summer that paid me some compensation. However, this experience showed me how unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers because it was difficult for me to justify not earning money in order to complete the internship.
Perhaps recognizing how unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers, courts and lawmakers have begun to require employers to either pay interns or provide a bona fide educational component to the internship. There are a variety of complexities to this area of the law, but employers should err on the side of caution and pay interns if they are completing work just like other workers at their company.
Moreover, employers should consider paying their interns in order to boost the quality of work performed by an intern. Of course, people are less likely to complete quality work if they are not being compensated properly for their output. In such a way, unpaid internships hurt student borrowers and employers alike, and companies should consider paying interns so that they can help interns and increase the quality of work completed by interns.
Perhaps realizing that unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers, there are programs available to many students that can help finance an internship. Many students can turn to programs at their schools in order to seek funding for unpaid internships. Indeed, my college had several different types of programs that provided stipends for students who wanted to pursue different types of work during their summer breaks.
Some funding was meant for individuals who wanted to work for public-interest organizations. I applied one summer for such an internship, but I was not granted this award. Other more general programs were also available that provided funding for students who wanted to pursue all kinds of internships, including jobs in industries which they wanted to enter after graduating.
Other programs included not only funding, but help finding employment during the summer. Indeed, my college was part of a citizen leadership program, and through this initiative, I was able to secure an internship at Teach For America and funding so that I could receive a stipend from the program during my time completing this internship. Of course, schools benefit when their graduates succeed vocationally, and since unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers, they should provide finding to students.
Another strategy individuals can take so unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers less is to work a paying job part of the summer and complete an unpaid internship for the other part of the summer. In this way, students can earn valuable experience without breaking the bank. During my first summer after graduating from law school, I completed a paid job for part of the summer. I then worked for a judge without receiving pay for the rest of the summer. Earning money for part of the summer definitely helped my bottom line and gave me the cash I needed to complete unpaid work for the remainder of the summer.
It is important to emphasize that even though unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers, it is still important to complete unpaid work in certain circumstances. In the legal arena, for instance, it is common to complete an unpaid internship your first summer after law school. It does not really matter what you do during this time, it is simply important that you do something so that you have something to talk about during interviews for jobs after your second year, when the stakes are higher.
As a result, students may need to be proactive to ensure that they have the opportunity to complete valuable work. If this includes working an extra job or crashing with relatives, these are small sacrifices to make. Unpaid internships can lead to better jobs and higher incomes later in your career. As a result, it might make financial sense to take an unpaid internship in the short term in order to earn more money and make a bigger dent on your student loans in the long term.
All told, unpaid internships hurt student debt borrowers and schools and public service organizations should be cognizant of this fact and help students so they have a source of income while completing internships. In addition, students should be creative so they do not miss out on the chance to gain valuable experiences during an unpaid internship.