“Valuable Experience” Won’t Pay Your Rent: The Case Against An Unpaid Internship

By Lev Novak

“If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”

The Joker says that, sometime in The Dark Knight. While I generally avoid repeating career advice given by fictional murder-clowns, the point made here is too important to ignore. That’s because in college, you’re often expected to work for free, or for the vague promises of “exposure” or “experience.” But is this the way to get ahead in life?

Every person and every experience is different, but, for the most part, I’d tell you to avoid an unpaid internship.

That’s because of a few different things, the first of which is the internship itself. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to get an unpaid internship at a prestigious institution- let’s say, for the sake of argument, you want to work at a record company, and you got an internship at a big record company. That’s great! That’s a foot in the door of a serious, difficult industry. If you can network your way up there, then you can really make that internship count. You can work and hustle it. But if you return there…well, what more can you do? How much further can you really go there?

One unpaid internship might give you valuable experience- both in the specific field you’re looking at, and for the concept of working at large. The problem is every internship after that becomes much, much less important.

Next comes a super important question; is this a good idea?

Economically speaking, it might not be. A summer job can fill your resume just as well as an internship can, and it’ll have the added bonus of, you know, paying. Ten bucks an hour isn’t much, but it’s pizza and beer. If you’re moving to New York to fetch coffee at SNL for free, well, it sounds cool, but it might not be feasible. Student loans are real enough without internship loans on top of them.

Money is a real thing in life, and the reason a “dream internship” might not pay is because they’re paying you in something else, which is your dream itself. A glamorous company might not pay because of the strength their name has, but if that’s the case, you might be better off with a paid internship at a similar company. Playing for the Lakers is great, but if they pay in “college credits” you might be better off being paid by the Hawks. Either way, it’s Basketball.

It’s also important to know what you’re getting into before you start your internship. If you don’t really like a paid internship, it’s a lot easier to deal with- it’s good for your resume, sure, but it’s also good for your wallet. It’s work, and you can treat it as such. But if you don’t like your unpaid internship…well, you’re going to feel a little stupid, huh? Photocopying for free is one way to climb up the corporate ladder, but it sure isn’t the only one.

Finally, if you don’t want a corporate job, an unpaid internship might be unnecessary. If you’re going to be an artist, do some art instead. If you’re not going to get paid for doing something, it might as well be something you love, right?

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