If you’re still flipping out about what you’ll do after you’re done with your internship—
Wait, why did you take that internship in the first place? You’re facing old-time labor abuse - long hours, low pay, you’re replaceable, you’re nothing. Sound familiar? You’re now, as a result, starving, exhausted, and everlastingly miserable.
So why are you wasting your time?
Here’s why – you have no choice.
None of us does. And what’s worse is when either millennials or baby-boomers tell us “Oh, well we all did that. It’s just another hurdle you have to get through before you start your career.”
But then why didn’t you, as the modern-day employers and leaders, change this? Why didn’t you find a way to fix this at all?
Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy, in The Devil Wears Prada, is you – she took on a bunch of actual jobs in college, thinking they would do something to get her a new job. She was an Editor-in-Chief of a school newspaper - yes, that is challenging coming from a former EIC - and she had high grades, plus other work-related experiences. Of course when Meryl Streep's silent, evil brilliance as her character, Miranda Priestly - I always call her Miranda Beastly - sends Andy out of the interview crushed, you can relate.
Then of course, Andy does get hired "just to get her foot in the door" of the editorial industry. But what happens throughout the movie turns into Andy's coming-of-age story as a new,
working adult. She faces a personality-breaking cataclysm upon realizing that she can either quit the bitchy workplace harassment at "Runaway" magazine, or give the industry brats what they want in a worker.
What they want - that's what basically rings in our ears when we take on a crappy yet "necessary" internship to use as a strong "resume builder." It's conformity.
My question is - is it really necessary?
You're another Andy working for an abusive employer, a Miranda who has no problem reminding you that you are nothing to her. You're the goafer that gets stuck bringing the coffee. Placing a book on a specific table, in a specific location, at a specific time. Can't get any more precise than that, except you're new. And although they welcome you with the whole "Don't worry, we were all new once," they still treat you like you're stupid.
Following me? If not, here are some actual stories from people that were forced to either keep their enslavement and have a 1% chance of climbing the employment ladder, or quit and have 0% chance of getting anything at all.
*These current and former employees chose to remain anonymous
1) Working for an Empire
"I worked for the Walt Disney Company. I had already heard that it was a grueling, cliquey, and expendable environment. But I honestly thought it would help me earn another position with the company.
Instead, I wasn't even given the chance. The only chance I was given was to stay in the position I had at the time, which was working in one of their parks [Source chose to keep their position anonymous].
The deep hatred that goes on with some of the cast members is insane; it's not even like those old stories you'd hear about just the performers:
It's a constant ass-kissing, competitive place. Older workers bully the younger ones - and the younger cast members that aren't picked on anymore become the bullies - that's basically
their only choice; the "leaders," AKA bosses, talked about employees behind their backs IN FRONT of other employees. It was a true dog-eat-dog little world.
But I held onto the fact that many people, including random guests, would tell us, "The corporate world will LOVE you guys; you will for sure get a good job just by working with this company."
Then how come it didn't? Because I wasn't a skilled suck-up?
No, the rest of the employees there will always say it's because people "like me" didn't network enough, didn't work hard enough.
Really Karen? Compare employee records - no forget that. Compare ethics. You are not ethical. You are the product produced out of their empire's factory.
Don't work for a gigantic company thinking that it will lead you to anything, even to a smaller, paying job; the only ones that get that are either the family members of a company executive, or they just seriously got lucky."
2) Volunteering for a "Nonprofit" program
"I did the 'City-year' program. It's supposed to look really good for you because you tutor and mentor kids in higher-poverty areas. The application process itself involved multiple recommendations and essays. It was like re-applying to college. I knew what it would be like, generally. But I did not anticipate that it would cost me my health, sleep, and overall sanity.
Ten - YES TEN - or more hour work shifts sometimes - with only the federal minimum wage - was a huge struggle. I could barely pay for ANYTHING on my own. Others have reported that since there are no benefits, '[we] are forced to rely on food stamps or eat leftover food from cafeterias of the schools that we 'serve'...[and] City Year is exempt from labor laws, from the minimum wage to the right to free speech,' (https://www.liberationnews.org/the-truth-about-city-year-exploiting-idealism/). Yes, I do understand that this program specifies the non-profit, 'going the extra mile' type of work, which supposedly ensures other employers will appreciate. But I don't understand what's going to come out of it. I'm literally working all day and night, with no warning as to when I can leave, and can't even afford my rent and other bills - just to reach 1,700 'community service' hours.
The "team building" essence of the program is like someone shoving a nasty cough syrup in your mouth to help you - it's awful. I don't ever feel fulfilled whenever I have to play cheerleader in front of the kids. In fact, I feel emotionally drained watching their faces look at us like we're crazy. We DO look crazy, so I can't blame them
You're either one of the overly happy robots or you don't fit in. What I'm saying is - what the hell is the point in this?"
3) The Startup, Unpaid Internship
"I worked for a couple of startups as an intern - all were unpaid work. Sure, I learned a few things here and there. And one of them actually prepared me for the 'real working world.' But I couldn't even start my adult life.
I could not rent a place with roommates, I could not buy groceries, I could not pay for transportation - I had to rely on my parents for everything, and I'm in my early twenties.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing to live with your family. What I am saying is that it's bad to work several unpaid jobs HOPING they lead to PAID work, but with zero leads, and heavily rely
on your parents when they already have to worry about paying their own bills.
Sure, blame me for depending on them, but if I do not have ANY job prospects other than working as a server on the days I don't intern long hours for, what else do you expect? I don't know what else to do. I'm slave labor now, I guess."
The Devil Wears Prada is an actual, applicable, borderline-documentary of what we apparently have to experience. But maybe there is some way to fix this whole problem.
Perhaps we don't need to take these no-point, jobs. Maybe employers can judge their applicants based on the various jobs, internships, and volunteering they did in college.
Most students nowadays already know that they have to do internships and on-campus jobs during their undergraduate careers. So why expect them to do any more after graduating?
The only ones waiting for them are the grueling, volunteer-based jobs that know they can use and abuse students almost too easily.
Employers - you cannot honestly expect your next batch of workers to have "5+ years of professional experience and a Bachelor's degree." Do you know what professional experience means? For most of us, it means an actual job, but you want a degree too.
How the hell do any of you expect a student to have a paid, relevant job on top of their 4-credit courses as part of their $200,000 degree?
Great job there. Go get 'em. You'll have many applicants, employers, just keep it up.
The job culture is seriously flawed. Nobody should be expected to endure free and/or degrading labor. This is not the factories of 1923 and it's certainly not the overly-bright, white walls of "Runway' magazine. It's almost 2020. Let's fix the job market. Or prepare the future generations for this slavery because that's what it is, whether you like it or not.