I didn't see this on there, so let me add: There is no reason, in the year 2012, for a CS or engineering student to take an unpaid internship. Depending where you go, you can expect over $20/hour as a student intern--if you're doing work of real value, you deserve to be paid!
I don't see any excuse whatsoever to take on an intern without paying them.
I think the closest I ever saw was when we brought a guy in for 3 days unpaid for him to learn on the system. He did no work in those 3 days, our company paid all his travel and food expenses, and he was pretty much guaranteed a job once the funding paperwork was filed. Personally, I would have preferred to pay him for the 3 days he was up, but then going somewhere to get free food is better than sitting at home paying for your own food ;-)
At least in the UK, there are plenty of opportunities to get funding for graduates. Call up your local universities and they will pay you to take people on.
My own internship was paid, with 2/3rds of my wage covered by my university. I'm now employed full-time here.
In summary, if you're looking for an internship, get one that pays. If nothing else, it shows other potential employers that you value your time appropriately.
Hear..Hear...Maybe HN should do a list of US companies that indulge in illegal stuff like unpaid internships. For starters, http://www.8thlight.com/apprenticeship is one such company where a friend interns for free -- The Ruby switch (from Php) was so great that she is doing an unpaid internship there.
...really? It's not about the money..it's about the experience. Granted, an internship that pays you + gives you the experience you're seeking is a jackpot, but I would always rank experience over money.
I worked 20 hours a week in college (and my summers) mostly for free, and I don't regret a second of it. Learned more through those opportunities than anything that would have paid me.
I'm coming here from a slightly different angle, as a computer engineer, but here's how I see it.
If you're going to work at a tiny little startup of 2-3 people, maybe they can't pay you. Of course, maybe they shouldn't be hiring interns at that stage of the game. I worked as an intern for a startup that size, though, and they still paid me $15/hour.
If you're working somewhere larger, it only makes sense that they should pay you if you're doing work of value. Telling you it's all about the experience is like that oft-told story where clients want web designers to work for free, because it's "good exposure" and will "expand your portfolio".
As an intern, I've laid out, soldered, and debugged PCBs, designed and assembled test equipment setups, made fiber optic cables, tested cameras for surveillance drones, re-written UIs to use WPF, done significant kernel hacking, and published several papers, among other things. All of these tasks generated value for my employers, and it only makes sense that they should pay me for it.
Yep - I agree, you should get yours. Maybe there should be a more robust culture of giving interns equity at early stage startups. VC's hate cluttered cap tables...but it would be a fair way to compensate students for their work if the startup can't afford to pay them.
If you can't afford to pay someone for work [edit: in the US, can't speak for other countries], it's illegal for them to work for you. It doesn't matter if they're a student and you call it an internship, even if they get credit for it.
Perhaps you misunderstood me, so let me state it another way: you must pay people who work for you, even if their title is "intern." To do otherwise circumvents the minimum wage laws.
There's often exceptions for interns. I don't know about the US though.
It's a common dodge in Australia to put people on as "trainees". I think it can be illegal if they aren't really being trained, and there's lots of other rules (like it must be an educational course requirement).
There is no exception in the US. The only way a company can have an unpaid intern in the US is if that intern does no productive work for the company - that is, they don't profit from the intern's labor.
My understanding is that it's actually rare for tech companies to violate this law. But I have heard that it is common in the publishing industry. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2412255
That is an exception - US interns just can't be "productive". FTA: "50 percent of graduating students had held internships". Face it, most of them will be doing unpaid clerical work. It will be "educational", in that they will gain valuable office skills, but it won't really be legal.
When were you in college? These days nearly everyone I've seen is paying for interns. Kids from top schools are looking at $15-20k offers from Google and Amazon and at least $10k or so from startups in the Bay and NYC.
The one shop I've seen who didn't pay for interns was in upstate NY and only recruited from a small college nearby. It was hard to take them seriously with just that but when they said they didn't pay, the top students with options just walked away.
Not only are interns doing work but they're being trained and inducted into a company that they have a very high likelihood of returning to. It is a big win for the company if they can try you out at a discounted rate before hiring you full time.
I'm with you - the big companies should (and do) pay their interns. I also agree that it's a big win - you get to see how the students perform in your culture, and what quality work their produce. Massive win.
But as a student, it's important to build valuable experience that you can quantify. If you can get that experience AND get paid at Amazon,Google, etc, then so be it! That's awesome.
But if you have an amazing opportunity to learn more, and have a greater impact at a smaller org, that pays less or nothing, then that could still be the best opportunity as an intern. (Not to mention, it could also prove to be more rewarding).
Don't get me wrong - if you're going to learn more AND get paid big bucks at one of the big companies, then that's the best opportunity in the world and you should never pass that up.
That's a pretty general assumption thinking you would learn less at a paying position. Not all of us can live at home with mommy, we have bills to pay. There are also older people, wanting to change careers, that need to provide for their families. People need to stop taking unpaid internships so companies stop thinking they can get away with it. They make money off your work so you deserve to be paid for it. If they don't pay you then they are taking advantage of you, and if you allow that then your just a tool.
I have no disagreement that the experience is more important than the money, but in the US, if you are doing useful work for a company, then they legally have to pay you.
Being offered an unpaid internship should be a red flag. While it's possible for a tech company to have an intern around who does no useful work for the company, I find it unlikely. And, given that, any company that would willfully break labor law is probably going to be a bad place to work.
Philip - unpaid internships are not inherently evil, but the market for tech interns is strong enough that most everybody should be able to find a paying internship. It's a different standard in tech - the only interns not being paid are the ones nobody told better.
In the fantasy world in which labor laws are obeyed for the good of employees, an unpaid internship should inherently mean you don't do any real work. Otherwise it would ostensibly be illegal.
I'm not arguing that you don't learn at a paid position. I'm arguing that the focus for an internship shouldn't be the money.
Ranking in terms of priority:
1) Paid + Learning = Jackpot.
2) Learning Only, Unpaid = Not as great, but at least you're building skills that will increase your value out of school.
3) Paid Only, Less Learning = Worst option. When it comes to full time hiring, people won't care that your internship paid you 15-30/hr. They'll care about what you've learned, what quantifiable skills you bring to the table, and proof that you're a mover and shaker.
You're right in that it's about experience and not about the money, BUT if it's a tech company that can't properly compensate, it should be a big red light.
All the internships I've done and folks I knew in CS/CE/EE, I don't recall anyone having an unpaid internship.
Not all of us had the opportunity to "rank experience over money". Some of us had to earn money during the summers just to get by and hoped to find an opportunity to do that with a relevant internship.
If you're finishing your junior year, then yes, that's true. But if you've only done one year of college, then you might have trouble finding a paid internship. Your best bet might be an unpaid internship at a start-up.
