Unpaid internships are opportunities offered to you by an increasing number of companies to work for an agreed period of time – three months or more – in a particular discipline within their organisation, with no payment involved. The difference between an unpaid internship and a work placement is that the latter tends to cover a shorter period of time – maybe a matter of days or weeks – and be on a more informal basis.
A good internship should provide you with as much varied work as possible in order to give you the opportunity to see what is involved in the various areas of your own professional discipline. You should be given an induction as with any other employee and this should include aspects of health and safety.
You need to ensure that the activities you engage in during your internship should at least partly relate to the reasons why you are there, rather than merely contribute to the company’s revenue. You want to be sure that you really are going to gain valuable, professional experience and not just become involved in routine work that could be done just as well by a junior administrator.
Is this internship going to enable you to make useful professional connections that will help you get started on your chosen career? Will the work involved help you to confirm your career aspirations or will it aid you in establishing new ones? You might find the answer to these questions a positive benefit for you.
You should agree beforehand exactly what you are going to do and for how many hours each week. You should preferably try to get involved in teamwork activities, as well as independent tasks. You should expect to be appointed a mentor, someone who has been there for a significant period of time to guide you along the way, help with questions, and maybe even review your work and give you feedback at regular intervals. You should ask about training and development opportunities that you can participate in.
But, before you decide on pursuing an internship, there are some other questions you need to answer. What do you know about the company? Where do they operate and are they owned by – or do they own – other companies? Are you aware of their activities in the marketplace? Are they profitable? Do you know if their business values fit in with your own? If you can answer these questions before you start, you will gain from this knowledge and make a good impression.
There is a lot of concern in the media about unpaid internships. These relate to such issues as their impact on benefits, being paid at least a nominal amount, the claiming of travel expenses and, the question of whether internships are unethical.
However, if you are prepared to accept that these concerns outweigh the advantages, and if you can answer favourably all of the questions posed here you can then begin to choose which companies to approach