Every time I turn around another company is offering intern opportunities. Being an unpaid intern can be a great way to start a career when the opportunity provides you with a chance to learn, but if it seems like all the position wants are access to your talents with nothing in return, it isn’t an intern position.

A friend of mine online recently decided that he might open up some intern positions and this had me steaming a bit. His plan was to give them reasonably inexpensive items in return for reviews for his blog. This is a better deal than most internships provide, but still not really fair when compared to the level of experience some of the interns will probably have.

People continually undervalue skills and people’s time, and it is very frustrating to watch people try to compete in such a marketplace. Future potential is not enough, the honour of working with a great team is not enough. Unless there is some time set aside to answer questions and train interns, you aren’t doing right by the people you are “hiring”.

To clarify though, I am an intern for GeekBrief.tv and I am enjoying it. This isn’t about that, but instead other instances I have seen with this whole new blogging intern issue.

Just a little rant today that I hope people will understand.

Originally posted on July 1, 2008 @ 9:11 pm