Internships Evaporate (Unless You’re Willing to Pay)
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| -Photo via Biojobblog.com |
How bad is the economy? Even the coffee lackeys are going to be out of work. For the 2009 internship season, companies are hiring almost 21 percent fewer interns. In a double shaft to college students everywhere, the number of applicants for these positions has increased by around the same percentage. That leaves far more people vying for far fewer positions.
If you are truly, truly desperate for an internship (and loaded), the WSJ reports that parents have been forking over thousands of dollars to buy internships for their children. Also, the bizarrely named University of Dreams will guarantee you an internship, if you pay them $5,000 to $9,000 dollars, that is.
The glimmer of hope is that the pay rates for internships have actually gone up for this year, but, even if you nab a high paying internship, you will still have this to contend with.
-DJB
Tags: but my ivy league education entitles me to this!, internships, sadness, well there goes my summer...
26 March 2009 @ 10:46 AM · 21 comments
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Only 5% of those employers who responded were nonprofit and/or government internships.
housing appt times are up
hhahah you all are screwed.
cut you up into bits and shove you back into your mothers uterus…
hahahaha, fwahahahaha PAYING FOR INTERNSHIPS! INTERNSHIP MARKETING CONSULTANTS! DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGNS!
that is the most hilarious thing i’ve read in a while.
it really says a lot about someone when they resort to having their parents buy them a job…
hilarious – guys (except for a few industries) an internship is a line on your resume & maybe a letter of reccomendation … that’s it
don’t pay money so you can be someone’s bitch for the summer – have some dignity and either earn that bitchwork the old fashioned way or decide to spend the summer getting *gasp* a normal menial job that pays real currency
and by the old fashioned way i mean of course, mostly nepotism, and occasionally a little merit on the side
While I wouldn’t use these services myself I think they are perfectlly rational given the state of the labor market.
You’re overlooking the fact that some people don’t have connections and can’t rely on nepotism (#7); also, menial jobs are scarce in this economy (#6).
It sounds to me that these consulting services are no different than test prep companies or admissions consultants that help people get into college.
into an unpaid internship is kind of like some weird perversion of indulgences, where you pay the Pope his money but instead of getting your (not) free pass to heaven, you then have to suffer in purgatory for a few thousand years first
If you’re going to be a loaded douche, at least get a good return on your bribes, ya feel me?
the good old fashioned interview blow job
puhleeeeeaze…
nepotism will get you a nice job serving coffee, just like several thousand dollars spent on an internship “recruiter.”
it isn’t really that hard, it just requires some ingenuity, self determination and original thought.
what do i mean by that? columbia is full of well connected people (professors, graduate students, professional students). seek them out, be honest about your goals, _respectfully persistent_ (such that you demonstrate both a seriousness and maturity that is beyond your peers) and be willing to trade honest hard work for a referral. do something interesting and unique to differentiate yourself. all you have to do is show a genuine willingness to invest time and effort, and you’ll find that this place is a veritable treasure trove of well connected people who are both able and more than happy to help you.
go up? Are you kidding?? This is a recession. People are not paying for *anything* anymore.
“pay rates” are probably up because companies are slashing their low-paying (unnecessary) internships, raising the average intern wage.
I wish that were the case for my internship, which isn’t even giving a stipend. I just don’t think that the money saved by getting rid of those “low-paying internships” will go to other interns. I see most companies keeping that moohlah. Or am I being too cynical?
I wonder if science and engineering majors can still rely on government moneys for research internships. What a cashcow!
The NSF is giving internships aplenty. Although most of the deadlines for science internships have passed.
NSF internships are a bit of a sham. they have ridiculous quotas for girls and underrepresented minorities that undermine the quality of their programs.
heh. been in a lab recently? women are the new science.
suck. And Columbia you suck for not offering grants, etc. to anyone not on financial aid.
or unpaid ANYTHING is ridiculous in any situation. Paying to get a job is the only thing that’s even more disgusting. What about the rest of us, who can’t buy our way in and who have to actually make money to live?
Fuck! How imma gon get my pappa! Imma be saying this to my girlfriend all summer!
I ain’t got no money
I ain’t got no car to take you on a date
I can’t even buy you flowers
But together we can be the perfect soul mates
Talk to me girl