As I wandered around the food hall at London’s Facebook HQ there was no doubt why their internship programme is so competitive. The room had been decorated with trees and hanging plants to adhere to the “Midsummer Night’s Dream” theme chosen for their Intern Summer Fest. Complete with soft pink lighting, a free bar, and every type of food you could imagine all in miniature form it was everything a High-Tec internship networking event should be. It’s not like it took a lot of persuasion for nearly every person in that room to roll over and beg for a spot interning at one of the biggest social networks in the world. If having “intern at Facebook” on your CV wasn’t enough reason to sway you to apply than the free breakfast, lunch, and dinner might. Or how about the free gym membership? Or, maybe the average £4,000 a month salary you would be paid?
Despite Facebook not being the right place for me, I can’t help but be in awe of their internship programme. At University we are constantly badgered about the importance of internships and the experience we will undeniably gain from working in the journalism industry. But how exactly are we supposed to afford an internship when so little of them pay anything above “travel costs” and we have to work full-time in order to afford the costs of living independently?
According to Sutton Trust social mobility charity, 70,000 internships are offered in the UK each year. However out of 10,000 graduates that are in internships once they’ve left university 1 in 5 are unpaid. Despite the minimum wage legislation attempting to crack-down on unpaid internships, employers have crafty ways of getting around paying up. The Employment Rights and Pay for Interns states that “an intern is entitled to the national minimum wage if they are counted as a worker… and/or if they are promised a contract of future work”. However, if companies advertise for “work experience” or “voluntary work” you are not classed as a worker and therefore do not have to be paid minimum wage- despite doing the same level of work.
Ani Saakana is 26 and living in London. She’s had many internships including two weeks working as a stylist’s assistant at a modeling agency, working at a PR agency, and working as a social media assistant and content writer. Despite these high-pressure job roles, she was paid little more than travel costs, and when you are living in London this just won’t cut it. When I asked her about her views on unpaid internships she told me: “interns need to eat too. We can’t survive on lunch and travel and, like my last internship, a lot of the time they want someone full-time, so you can’t take up a second job”.
Having worked in two internships in my time in London it’s disgusting the amount of effort you have to put in to receive no financial benefit at the end of your time as an intern. In fact, my first internship was running a start-up businesses social media account with no help from a social media manager, or a manager at all. I was doing the job of a social media manager without the payoff. Despite my second internship being more structured and offering me a mentor to work with I was still working from 9am to 6pm and only getting £10 towards my travel and food expenses, which didn’t even cover what I had to pay. Of course, I wish I could sit here and write money isn’t everything and that it’s just as beneficial to work for nothing; but when you have rent, travel, and food to pay for I’m afraid money is everything and it becomes a restriction to what internships you can apply for.
So, with it being a financial stress to get an internship why do we still do it? Why have I, as well as thousands of others, been trawling the internet all summer in search of an opportunity that won’t pay me what I deserve? The simple answer is the experience. Internships are a great way to really understand the field you want to eventually find a job in and can sometimes lead you into said job. Despite not being paid for them the knowledge I gained from my internships is invaluable and the skills I learned will follow me into my future journalistic career.
Internships are invaluable, but what advice do we need to make sure we aren’t giving our time for nothing? “Start early,” Ani says. “I was very foolish in thinking that I would get snapped up by Vogue and Elle and basically looked down at perfectly good opportunities. Reach out to everyone”.
But it’s also important to know your rights as an intern so you aren’t taken advantage of. Make sure to read the government internship guidelines to see if you should be getting paid for your work.
Leaving Facebooks Summer Fest, full of miniature tacos and countless cocktails, I knew Facebook wasn’t the right avenue for me. However, employers can take a leaf out of their internship guidelines book. We aren’t looking for £4,000 a month, although that would be nice, or free meals and gym memberships. We just want internships that will pay us a minimum wage and help us pay the bills while learning invaluable experience about our industries. We aren’t free labour after all.
All The Stuff In-between 