Nothing divides opinion like the prospect of an unpaid internship. Where a week’s work experience once used to suffice, now months of free labour in your chosen sector is considered a CV must-have by many employers. But are internships really worth it?
Taking on a summer internship beats playing Xbox Live for the next three months and it will help get you onto the career ladder more quickly after you graduate. Far better to take on an unsalaried post while you’re still living with your parents than to try to stay afloat with no income after you’ve made the big move to live independently.
But not everyone is in the plum position of living rent free over the summer months and paid work may be a necessity. Thankfully there are more and more paid internships and though competition for these opportunities will be fierce, they’re well worth fighting for. In some industries demonstrating that you already have relevant experience will be essential to land that first job, so putting in some hard work now should help you reap rewards further down the line.
In reality, many internships won’t give you the kind of experience you were hoping for. You’re not going to be trusted with big decisions and you’ll probably start out making the tea. You can no doubt think of better ways to while away your summer but internships are as much about the people you meet and the doors they can open for you, as they are the working experience itself.
Sacrificing at least one summer while you’re at university is the price you have to pay for a CV that isn’t going to be immediately tossed on the rejects pile. Getting a job is going to be hard enough so make sure you don’t give employers a reason to discount you right at the beginning.