What Makes a Good Internship?
Internships can be invaluable experiences that shape your career. Internships can also be an exploitative practice used by employers. How do you know what makes a good internship a beneficial experience? As a former and current intern, I reflect further in detail below.
Note: Not all internships are the same. These opinions are based on my own personal experiences. My opinions also don’t reflect the employer since sometimes problems can occur by department rather than an overall organization.
My Past Internships: The Pros and The Cons
Some context. I’m a PhD candidate who wants to work outside of academia. My career path is “non-traditional.” I tend to break down my history of internships in two parts: my undergraduate years and post-master’s years. During my masters, I was not part of any internships.
Internships in My Undergrad Years:
Role: Camera operator intern for a video production company in Fort Worth, Texas.
Pros: Got to be involved in filming of live-events. Hands-on experience with camera equipment.
Cons: Worked full-days on shoots. Not paid. Gave me serious anxiety and felt like a failure. Questioned my desire to work in the film industry.
Internships in My Post-Master’s Years:
Role: Business and Marketing intern for a PR firm in Bloomington, Indiana.
Pros: Supportive environment. People with similar experiences as PhDs. Hands-on experience with marketing tools.
Cons: Not paid. Small company, so little room for growth. PR industry can be very competitive space.
Role: Data Analyst Intern for a Media Research Firm.
Pros: Hands-on experience with coding/Python. Looks nice on a resume.
Cons: Interns (at least on my end) were not integrated in the company. I knew little about the company when I left. Not paid. Communication was not great.
Current Role: SEO Intern at a company that owns several websites.
Pros: Very involved in the company. Supportive team members. Paid. I have learned a lot about SEO in just one week. I feel motivated.
Cons: Being a 28-year old intern (the oldest intern) can be somewhat weird at times.
Qualities of a Good Internship
- You’re involved.
- You have input.
- The organization is transparent during the interview process what you will be doing.
- You feel like you can succeed.
- You are paid for your labor.
- It’s a space for learning in the “real-world.”
Qualities of a Bad Internship
- Other people don’t recognize your value.
- The organization doesn’t care about your time.
- Little to no growth opportunities.
- Hustle culture is valorized.
- You don’t know how the company operates day-to-day.
- You’re “just an intern.” If you left, no one would feel the impact of you leaving.
Are Unpaid Internships Inherently Exploitative?
It depends. Is the organization a non-profit? Is the organization for-profit? If the organization is non-profit, I would say no.
Local non-profit organizations do a lot of good work for their communities with limited resources, you also learn a lot in the process. I was a volunteer for a local homeless shelter, and even though I wasn’t paid, I felt very motivated to help the organization and they valued my time (link below).
In terms of larger organizations/companies, unpaid internships just feel…wrong. Unpaid internships were founded and justified on on a legal loophole that railway brakemen didn’t have to be paid for their training. Internships are commonly considered internships if they fall within the 6-point test based on the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938:
- The internship must be similar to training that would be given in an educational environment;
- The internship must be for the benefit of the intern;
- The intern does not displace regular employees;
- The employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern;
- The intern is not entitled to a job at the end of the internship; and
- The intern understands that he or she is not entitled to wages.
The reality is that not all companies follow these points above. When I was a camera operator intern, that role could definitely have been a paid role given the time and energy spent. It could have been easily done by an entry-level camera operator. Likewise when I was a data analyst intern, I received no training about my role or what the media research industry actually did. It just felt like a pro-bono work, which was not the agreement. I wanted to actually be involved in the organization in some way.
Unpaid internships also benefit those who can afford to take an unpaid internship. I’ve been privileged enough that I don’t have to work an internship, study, and get a part-time job to support myself.
If the company is a for-profit organization, they should pay their workers. Workers can’t pay their rent in experience.
If companies want workers to truly succeed, paying interns for their time and labor (even at minimum wage) will most certainly increase productivity.
If companies want their workers to feel valued, they should back it up with action and not words.
That ends my Ted Talk.
The Silver Lining of Internships
Even if the internship doesn’t work out, they give you a glimpse of what you don’t want to do in your career. For example, if you have a internship that is writing-heavy, you might learn that you would rather not write most of your day.
In terms of my time as a camera operator intern, I learned that that was not the life for me. Most film industry professionals work long hours and most of the week and I wanted a 9–5 job (albeit academia is not this I also learned).
Nonetheless, internships are meant to be beneficial and a learning experience.
At the core of a “good internship” is the fact that you are involved and that you are learning. If you aren’t involved and you are not learning in the process, what’s the point?
Local Donation Suggestion in Bloomington, Indiana: https://beaconinc.org/
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