Some unpaid internships are worthy of your time. Most will not get you any kind of experience of worth. Why? Because quality costs money, and if you need quality you will find a way to pay for it. That is not to say you cannot learn something valuable in an unpaid internship, but hardly any employer considers unpaid experience as experience. They typically say otherwise publicly, but in house its only experience if someone is willing to pay you to do it. Paid experience ALWAYS ranks higher than unpaid. Just like professorial experience ranks higher than postdoctoral, and postdoctoral ranks higher than graduate student experience. Likewise, you PHD trumps your MS, and your MS trumps your BS. Its a rank in file. If you have nothing else to do, you might try doing an unpaid intern. If you are not getting pay, or a pub on your CV, its probably not worth your time or effort.
On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 12:29 AM, Neahga Leonard <[email protected]> wrote: > A while back I posed a similar question to the Ecolog community and found > that many were skeptical and bothered by the prevalence of unpaid > internships, but were only willing to post their skepticism privately. > There were a voluble few who posted publicly and vehemently defending the > internship system. > > I'll be interested to see what replies you recieve, especially in light of > some of the class action suites surrounding this issue in the journalism > profession. > > > > On Thursday, August 15, 2013, Mitch Cruzan wrote: > >> Hi John, >> I'm glad you brought this up because we see a wide range of internships >> advertised on ecolog and it is difficult to tell which ones are going to be >> the most beneficial for students. For example, there are some non-profit >> organizations in the tropics and elsewhere that offer internships, but is >> unclear whether there are mentors available with adequate training and >> background to make these optimal education experiences. I share many of >> these posts with a large number of students here in the PNW via forwards to >> our "Biology Opportunities" email listservice, so It would be good if there >> were a rating system or feedback forum on these different organizations - I >> would like to know that these are actually valuable education experiences >> for students and not just a mechanism to get cheap labor. >> Mitch Cruzan >> >> On 8/15/2013 9:41 AM, John Gerlach wrote: >> >>> I've been researching opportunities to gain experience in new areas in >>> order to qualify for a wider range of jobs. A common theme is the "pay for >>> experience" "careerships" and internships and receive training and some >>> form of certification. One example is coral reef survey work and SCUBA >>> certification with stays of at least 4 to 8 weeks and PADI Advanced Open >>> Water or Dive Master certification. There are a plethora of these on Koh >>> Sdach Island adjacent to Cambodia's Botum Sakor National Park that seem to >>> be mostly British non-profits and private companies. >>> >>> I'd appreciate information and advice about these kinds of programs in >>> general as well as those on Koh Sdach and other reef areas in particular. >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> John >>> >> > > -- > 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/ -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Environmental Studies University of Illinois at Springfield Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
