Ophelia - very true! As interns, however, we don't think that way. We never stop and think on the road to "Eternal Employment" how we may be perceived as a threat by "Eternal Employees" - on the contrary, often we're too focused kissing their b**ts...Speaking of interns and the "road to Eternal Employment" - have you girls been keeping up with the news lately? I don't know if you've seen this Ophelia, since you're back in Paris, but the words "intern", "unpaid", "illegal" and "internships" have been all over the place lately... Take one look at google news and you'll flip!
Yes oh yes, as I mentioned on Sunday, finally attention is being focused on the legality of unpaid internships. Now, I know that some of you may be pro-unpaid-internships...Rose, I know that you feel as though an unpaid internship lets some enter industries/companies/networks they otherwise would never be able to access...But, I do have to say that I'm not a proponent of these internships...
What was brought up in many articles that I read was the very fact: Can you afford a summer internship? Can you seriously, financially afford a 4, 5 even 6 month stint with no income - doing the work one was most likely paid to do a few years back (yes yes...corporate cut backs have led many "full-time" positions to be redesigned as "long-term" internship experience...bullshit...)...
Rose, I get your point that unpaid internships let some enter industries difficult to break into, however, these opportunities are once again only available to those who CAN afford the unpaid internship. Instead of removing an additional barrier to enter such industries (let's take Hollywood for instance...), unpaid internships only ADD another barrier .... a barrier for those who CANNOT afford to work for FREE for 3 months! It creates yet another discrimination...
Ophelia, could you give us your opinion. I know that in France the legislation is quite different than in North America...and that there's some kind of 'minimum wage' ALL interns performing an internship of more than 1 month (or 2?) must receive...something like 30% of regular mininum wage, around 400 euros.
Ok, so 400 euros is not a million dollars, but at least it's that!! At least it can let a few more kids, who don't have the luxury to work for free, to take an internship...
What do you think girls? Luckily my internship right now is not unpaid...look it's not paying me a ton, but it's keeping me going. I seriously don't know how I could do otherwise...
I must run girls, but let's keep chatting, this is an important topic.
Flora xoxo
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