Hi Neahga, I completely agree that the whole internship route does limit full pay jobs for the majority of us looking for work. Many employers seem to prefer to hire interns who will work for less, sacrificing time training new people due to the temporary nature of the positions. However it seems that with the way the economy is right now, for individuals coming straight out of school, these internships are among the best options.
Granted I would love to be working full time right now and not as Seasonal; however, it seems to me (And I have only been out of school for a short time so I could be wrong) that the funding is just not there to hire as many permanent employees as there are people looking for jobs or even to hire a small fraction of us. Those jobs that are available require at least a few years of experience working, I believe that the internships provide by SCA, AmeriCorps, and other programs provide that required experience and without them many of us would be unemployed or searching for work in another field...not by choice, but more so because we must to 'survive,' financially that is. I would also like to hear other opinions on this subject. Best, Jim On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 8:02 AM, Neahga Leonard <[email protected]>wrote: > Hello Fellow Ecologgers, > > There are many posts on Ecolog by people looking for work, and much good > advice given to these people (I speak from personal experience as I have > received good advice from some of you). > > One bit of advice that often comes up is to spend some time in an > internship or working for AmeriCorps. Personally, as a graduate of a very > competitive MS program and as one who has spent much time searching for > work within my field and has recently found myself unexpectedly back in the > job hunting fray, I have some issues with both the Internship and > AmeriCorps models. I realize that both are here to stay, but a discussion > concerning them and their influence on both the job market and on the > incomes of those of us looking for work that will pay an actual living > wages would be of benefit. > > In general, neither the internship nor the AmeriCorps model is of much > benefit to someone who has expenses and is looking for paid work right > now. Both of these types of "employment" are fantastic for future jobs, > but they are really geared towards recent graduates who have the economic > luxury of not having to make a full living wage. > > In my experience, that is the minority of graduates, and it imposes an > artificial limit of who is able to participate in these activities. > > Second, I and many of my colleagues feel that both internships and > AmeriCorps in particular, actually limit the available jobs. Both systems > exchange "experience" for pay and tend to have a high turn-over rate. This > is a tremendous frustration for people looking for real work who do not > have the economic security necessary to accept lower or non-pay in exchange > for the experience that these positions offer. > > Recently there have been a number of interesting articles in the news and > some moderately high profile law-suits over the non-payment aspect of > internships in other fields, particularity within journalism. The concerns > raised by these news items and suits is more far-reaching than most > realize. > > I am in no way disagreeing with the idea that internships and AmeriCorps > offer excellent experience, often do good work, and are personally > rewarding. > > I would like to hear your opinions concerning their impact on the real job > market and whether programs like this that offer non-competitive wages do > more harm than good for graduates needing paying jobs. > > Thanks from someone who thinks there needs to be more paying jobs out > there. > > Also, for those of you searching for work (or internships) I have a page > dedicated to job-hunting resources: > > http://writingfornature.wordpress.com/links-to-interesting-blogs/finding-work/ > > > Neahga Leonard > > *There is not just a whole world to explore, there is a whole universe to > explore, perhaps more than one.* > http://writingfornature.wordpress.com/ >
