Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

by Ross Perlin

Interns. They famously shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, MPs’ offices, and film sets, but they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, design high-end fashions, and build the human genome. They are of all ages, and their numbers are growing fast in an increasingly bleak economic landscape for young people. A huge and increasing number of internships are illegal under minimum wage law and this mass exploitation saves companies millions each year. Interns enjoy no workplace protections and no standing in courts of law—let alone luxuries such as a living wage.

Ross Perlin, a self-confessed intern survivor, has written the first exposé of the brave new world of unpaid work. In this witty, astonishing, and serious investigative work, Perlin takes the reader inside both boutique nonprofits and megacorporations such as Disney. He unmasks a grotesque internship industry where coveted, unpaid placements are auctioned off and universities are complicit in exploiting student labour. He profiles fellow interns, talks to historians about what unleashed this phenomenon, and explains why the intern boom is perverting workplace practices in locations all around the world.

Thought-provoking, insightful, and humorous, Intern Nation is an urgent call to overturn the latest racket in unpaid work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Labor, Economics, Business, Social Justice, Sociology

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2011

Reviews

[Jim Braly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Intern Nation" moved and angered me. It took me inside a world I knew nothing about. It taught me something. You can't ask much more of a book than that. It also made me glad I grew up in the paleolithic times when an internship was not needed to get a job. It also stoked my disgust at America's current education system. Tuition keeps soaring, and student debt follows. Universities have the gall to charge students tuition to receive credits for an unpaid internship. Imagine, students often pay thousands of dollars so they can work for nothing. Any university ripping off their students like this should be decertified.

Here's a telling passage from Ross Perlin's book:

"Due to their failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, tens of thousands of unpaid and low-paid internships each year — at the very least — are illegal under federal or state laws that are rarely enforced. Interns enjoy no workplace protections and no standing in courts of law, let alone benefits like healthcare."

Guess how many unpaid interns work for Congress . . . maybe that's why the system will never change.

Ah, but it is possible to fight back. Architectural students did, as "Intern Nation" shows in a chapter called "Nothing To Lose But Your Cubicles." And they won. If you think your work is worth something more than zero, just say no to an unpaid internship. Especially if your "job" is to make coffee, stuff envelopes, and enter data into a spreadsheet.

"Intern Nation" has an easy way to tell if your unpaid internship is illegal. These are three crucial requirements for an employer to be allowed to pay you nothing:

— The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school.

— The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation.

— The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer's operations may actually be impeded.

These sections of the law are often violated. And, yes, you can file a back wages lawsuit, even if you signed a contract.

"Intern Nation" did a nice job of gathering anecdotes, interviewing victims of the system, and quoting other sources of information. If the book has a weakness, it may be that the stories become repetitive after a while. But that's because the problem is so pervasive. It's everywhere. It's one of the many reasons that American wages are spiraling downward, and income inequality is spiraling upward.

If you are looking for an internship to burnish your résumé, this book would be a big help in alerting you to the pitfalls, as well as what to look for in a legitimate, constructive position.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since about 80% of all college students do internships before graduation (and many do them after as well) I think this is topic worthy of further discussion. However, the author's heavy-handed redundant rants on the following points soon became annoying:

1. Internships are unethical and often illegal if they are doing/replacing work that other people are paid (or used to be paid) to do. Even if they are paid, they don’t usually have the right to minimum wage or overtime pay.

2. Unpaid Interns don't have any rights to address abuse or harassment (maybe work place safety??) since they don't fall under the category of "employee".

3. Internships are not fair because only those who can afford to work without pay (supported by loans or family) can do them. Not only are most internships unpaid, but many people who do them must pay (via “tuition”) in order to get college credit for the internship.

4. Since internships are not jobs they don't have to be advertised like jobs, most are filled by having connections with people at these companies.

5. In most “glamorous” industries (politics journalism, movies/TV/radio) it’s impossible to get a job with having done at least one internship (which requires connections to get) and thus both discourages many people from entering the field and also potentially discriminatory as many of these fields are dominated by upper class whites (especially men) who tend to select those like themselves.

6. Most internships involve menial, unsupervised tasks which provide limited (if any) knowledge or experience about the industry in which one is interning.

I agree that issues #1-2 are very troubling, and laws should be put in place to help protect interns from being exploited. #3 is also troubling, but would be solved if internships were treated more like entry-level or trainee positions and provided some wages. #4-5 have been true since the start of time, and in fact it's WHO you know (and not WHAT), as most job positions are still filled by word of mouth (friends/family pass your resume to someone with an open position, etc.). I could see how companies would not want to post internships online and then wade through thousands of resumes (and dozens of interviews) to place 4-6 interns. #6 is less troubling as many of the experiences he listed DID provide valuable experiences which could be listed on a resume (e.g., editing, proof-reading and fact checking for magazine, doing marketing research for a company, answering letters and writing speeches for a politician, etc. Obviously running personal errands, getting coffee, and cleaning bathrooms would not qualify as "educational" for most people). What would have been more helpful is to discuss what companies could do to create short projects which interns could do which would be educational for the interns (without taking away jobs from full-time employees).

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have been job-hunting anytime in past years (and who hasn’t), you know that internships are viewed as a golden key to the door of employment. And in an increasingly competitive market, college and graduate students find themselves competing against seasoned job hunters for the opportunity to work for free, or even worse, to pay hefty tuition fees to work for free. Perlin examines the history and legality of these internships, looking at some very good programs, and others which seem designed to capitalize on the desperation of hopeful graduates and soon-to-be graduates.

The author begins with the Disney franchise, which has hosted thousands of interns, many of whom fill positions which would otherwise require permanent, paid employees. Perlin notes, “like other employers around the country, Disney has figured out how to rebrand ordinary jobs in the internship mold, framing them as part of a structured program — comprehensible to educators and parents, and tapping into student reserves of careerism and altruism… yet training and education are clearly afterthoughts: the kids are brought in to work” (3). He finds this across the board in all forms of internships — far more interns are used as replacements for paid labor, rather than for any training or educational purpose. And for the most part, schools know and condone this; many of them see internship credit as a way to increase their tuition flow without having to actually offer classes or much structure. Perlin also investigates the legal ramifications of internships, noting that most use the loophole of “training” to avoid paying their interns, and points out the fact that offering academic credit does not make an illegal internship legal, contrary to what many companies believe. He examines how a constant flow of free labor impacts the value of work and the job market as a whole, suggesting that instead of contributing to a well-rounded, educated entry-level work force, the abuse of internships devalues work and creates a demand for unpaid workers at the expense of wage-paying jobs. He does, however, also look at successful internship and apprenticeship programs, as well as making suggestions for action in regards to the internship culture.

As someone who is still smarting over the $2000 tuition fee paid in order to get academic credit for 150 hours of unpaid work, this issue is very personal, and I think many other struggling young adults would agree. I am glad to see that this book was published, and I hope that others in the media and in education begin to realize that they are severely hampering young adults and their entry into the workforce with these internship programs. An excellent read for educators, students, and those who are considering internship programs either as intern or supervisor.

[Laurel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given the focus of Internship at Endicott College, I was particularly interested to read Perlin's commentary. This book was very difficult to get through because of the author's tone. He was relentless in his criticism of the internship experience by virtue of the idea that, for most, it is an unpaid experience. While I clearly understood his arguments, the way he framed the internship in a negative light made me angry. He provided many, many anecdotes, but shared no successes. He placed much of the blame on higher education and failed to support these arguments with good data. I was surprised given the scope of this book, he failed to even mention Endicott College, one of the first (if not the first) school to require multiple internships in its curriculum as a requirement of graduation.

[helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh fuck i think i have a rant here.

pointed but oft-repetitive criticism of (unpaid) internships. as someone who has done multiple internships in a “glamour” industry, there does seem to be some kind of considerate internship structures for many major employers who have systematized internship hiring, however, unpaid/meagerly stipended internships r still a rampant reality in the journalism/publishing/magazine industry. the many criticisms of unpaid internships, beyond it being an exploitative extraction of labor, like the legal ambiguity of unpaid interns and by extension their labor rights, as well as the disposability of these interns who 1) must be financially privileged to take on this kind of role 2) are way less likely to receive proper training or learning experiences as companies squeeze in interns as free manpower, are all amplified by the nature of unpaid work. i would seriously warn against unpaid labor that doesn’t even remotely offer mentorship or training or support for their interns. many people in publishing seemed to have graduated from various low paying internships (mee) and sometimes i want to say i get it, bc money doesnt come around too much for litmags (which r run by volunteers mostly) and small presses, but i think as an intern, you should still feel your growing and somewhat enjoying this work

[mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to give any book one star, but saying that this book is "OK" would be to do a disservice to the important subject it addresses. There may be a truth to much of what author Ross Perlin says, and at the length of a New Yorker article, this could have been a compelling thesis. Drawn out to book length, though, one wonders if there's a "there" there, and that's a shame.

Perhaps the most serious failing of this book is its reliance on a single source, an advocacy piece from an organization called Intern Bridge. References to this piece recur throughout the book, each time in a first-reference style that seems designed to obscure its repeated citation (indeed, it is mentioned only once in the thin endnotes).

Entitled "The Debate Over Unpaid College Internships" and written by Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, the essay is sold on InternBridge.com for $49.95 and forms the core of many of Perlin's talking points.

Gardner is first quoted as being from the College [sic] Employment Research Institute on p. 26. Later on the same page, Perlin first cites "The Debate," crediting it to Intern Bridge, following up with quotes from Gardner without mentioning that he's also the author of the cited report. For the next page, quotes from Gardner and quotes from "The Debate" are interleaved as if they were two separate sources.

I didn't realize this was going on until a bit later, when I tripped over two assertions occupying the same paragraph: that one to two million internships a year, in the U.S. alone, would be a "conservative estimate" and that "nearly a million" profiles on LinkedIn claim internship experience.

LinkedIn does target a more tech-savvy and somewhat narrow demographic, with a claimed 100 million profiles. But if there really are more than a million internships per year, wouldn't more than a bare percentage point of LinkedIn profiles claim this experience? At this point my mind reeled, and I found myself critiquing references and citations more than reading the book itself.

A little later, "a Michigan State University study" is cited as supporting background for some figures in "The Debate." If you're guessing by now that Gardner is the lead author of this study, you'd be correct. Until now none of Perlin's citations has mentioned the connection between Gardner and Michigan State; only by going to the footnote could one divine the connection without doing an internet search. And never is Gardner mentioned in connection with authorship of "The Debate."

At this point the book veers into a useful history of apprenticeship and interning, and I'll return to revisit the chapter I skipped: an exposé of Disney's internship program, based largely on the comments of a couple of axe-grinding authors and with plenty of anonymous sources for color.

Having known a Disney intern quite well, I recognize the more measured bits of what he writes, but I do not recognize the Maus Über Alles character of his narrative.

Perlin then opens a sweeping critique, slugged "A Lawsuit Waiting to Happen," with figures from a study cited as if it were first reference. "An Intern Bridge survey, involving 42,000 students at 400 universities...." Here again is "The Debate," injected as if it were a new source and uncited in the endnotes. He makes it to page 89 before bringing Gardner back for a series of quotes in the chapter "Cheerleaders on Campus."

To his credit, Perlin makes a stronger case in the remainder of the book, with a broader range of sources. Sadly, by this time, I don't trust his objectivity enough to put much credence in the many pages based on anonymous sources, given manufactured "names" in quotes to make them seem more human.

In the end, this is just another book-length advocacy essay, the likes of which choke the non-fiction shelves. A better researched, more even-handed and shorter book might have won this former intern over. As it is, I see yet another author crying wolf.

[Cira · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Well I love the premise of the book, but it simply goes on too long - it starts strong, but unravels about a third of the way in. Oddly, the most in depth discussion and analysis happens in the beginning of the book. I do agree that this is a topic that is not discussed nearly enough, especially considering the pervasiveness of internships and the near requirement of them in the interview process. Perlin acknowledges at the beginning that there are an array of internships: making coffee, photocopying, hard labor and technical skills. However, he does not explore the differences of these internships to the extent that they deserve - instead he keeps reverting to the umbrella of "internships this, internships that". I also wished that he spent some time talking about the distinction between internships/apprenticeships/temporary hires/seasonal workers/contractors, as they are important tax distinctions that people are often unaware of.

The introduction is worth it and would have worked better as an essay in the Atlantic, not a full book.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The now seemingly pervasive ‘internship’ has crept up on us in the last few decades from being something that junior doctors did as part of their medical training to become little more than free labour as more and more people (mainly but not only students) now desperately seek that elusive ‘work experience’ that is now almost essential for entry level jobs in many industries. This has gone well beyond the cultural industries where it was a taken for granted that designers, film makers and the like would spend time working in studios to soak up the aura of the master, to absorb some of the genius of the auteur, and build up a portfolio. There is now compelling evidence that ‘interns’ are replacing workers, restricting the range of people entering many professions, and devaluing work. I became increasingly aware of the problems of ‘internships’ after discussions with family members working in film, fashion and design industries who were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how they were being asked to manage ‘interns’, alarmed by the high qualifications some had (one told me an MBA graduate working as an ‘intern’ in their business), and concerned about exploitation and that in many cases the ‘intern’ was being assigned to wok with the most junior staff member(s) as mentor and ‘trainer’.

Part of the problem with any discussions of ‘interns’ is that the word is so vague – there is no commonly understood or agreed meaning. In some cases, interns (like the young doctors to whom it applied) are trainees for specific jobs – a kind of white collar version of an apprentice, while in others they are only cheap or free labour and there is no training involved (although there is often a smokescreen of the language of on-the-job learning, as if someone needs to spend six months dong data entry to understand how spreadsheets and data bases work!). In the USA – where this new notion of ‘internship’ originated – ‘interns’ have become central to many industries: Perlin opens the book with a pointed discussion of the exploited world of Disney World ‘interns’, the abuse of college credit systems, the fudging of immigration rules, and Disney Corp’s manipulation of ignorance of the world of work: distressing as this first chapter seems, it turns out that Disney’s ‘intern’ system is far from the worst.

The notion of the ‘intern’ has taken a little longer to take off outside the USA but is now becoming increasingly widespread. In the UK it is likely to become more common in the next few years as government demands that higher education institutions focus on their graduates’ employability. At the one I work at, which is merely one example of many, the response has been to begin to develop a programme of ‘expenses only’ internships, focussed mainly on the subjects in the humanities – we already have a widespread programme of ‘placements’ leading to academic credit, although they are difficult and expensive to monitor and the full time placements are paid. This response and range of ‘employability’ skills development forms is typical of mid range universities. Elsewhere in Europe we have seen ‘intern’-like developments and, in France and Italy especially, vibrant political opposition, a well developed theorisation of ‘precarity’ (the increasingly uncertain, unstable and insecure working life of especially but not only young people) and important new analyses of work and jobs.

As Perlin properly notes, however, there is very little rigorous/critical scholarly work looking at ‘internships’ across the board, although there is an enormous outpouring of booster material promising life changing experiences, based mainly in anecdotes and the ‘evidence’ provided by what he calls ‘campus cheerleaders’. What rigorous analytical work there is paints a different picture – of serial ‘internships’, of work experience being gained only by those who can ‘afford’ to work for no pay by taking out loans or relying on their families for support meaning the experience is limited to the well off, of ‘interns’ replacing paid workers (it’s not one of Perlin’s examples, but the reduction in the number of proofreaders in publishing houses seems closely linked to the rise in interns, the effects of which we often see in the outrageous errors in the books we read).

The limited amount of scholarly research exploring ‘internships’ means that Perlin is reliant on a small range of broad studies – from intern advocacy groups (such as the US-based Intern Bridge), from professional bodies (such as the UK-based Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the professional body for personnel and human resource workers) and from policy analysis agencies (such as the British government’s Cabinet Office, the UK equivalent of the West Wing of the White House). On the surface, these groups should have very different views – but there is a broad agreement between them; ‘internships’ are a real problem and many are illegal (breaching, for instance, minimum wage legislation). The CIPD and the UK Cabinet Office (admittedly under a Labour not the current Conservative-led coalition) took the view that wages must be paid, for instance. Perlin fills the gaps in much of the scholarly research by good journalism drawing on a wide range of sources, including interviews with ‘interns’, employers, university administrators, commercial ‘internship’ providers, and community agencies – his is, in his own words, a ‘convenience sample’ of people who have taken part in or have connections with ‘internships’. The case is compelling: ‘internships’ may seem to be helpful but in the big picture they are dangerous.

The book is an excellent example of interventionist and activist journalism based on a rigorous approach and a sympathetic critical view, in the tradition George Orwell (The Road to Wigan Pier), Nelson Agee (Now Let Us Praise Famous Men), and Engels’ (Condition of the Working Class in England) – all based on local studies and now classics of socially engaged critical writing. Many ‘interns’ may not recognise their experience here, and if you don’t, you’re among the lucky few, but much of the evidence tallies with reports at intern-focussed websites such Interns Anonymous - see http://internsanonymous.co.uk/. Highly recommended.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

As anyone who has worked an unpaid internship knows, they are bullshit. It is cheap labor and to undertake one is to abused in exchange for false promises. Perlin lays all this out including a wider context in which these internships tank local economies, bar the underprivileged from social mobility, and even hurt the companies that offer them by diluting their pool of applicants.

To be fair, Perlin does outline good internships and gives several examples of organizations working under this model. For an internship to be effective, it must focus on educating the intern. If the intern's work benefits the company, the intern must be paid. And so forth.

Perlin interviewed numerous interns and brings their struggles to his book. He ends with a call for action. Interns need to stand up and demand their rights. They need to demand their employers be compliant with the laws that govern working conditions and they need to do so soon.

Even if one believes their internship will give them a leg up, they should demand these rights. Without them, redress is difficult if not impossible. Not being considered an employee can bar an intern from suing for basic protections against hazardous working conditions or sexual harassment. As mentioned in Perlin's book, sexual harassment of interns is almost commonplace, especially for cushy government internships.

[Jordyn Haime · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already knew a lot about unpaid internships before reading Perlin’s book, but it was still a slap in the face.
Going into my third year of college, I’ve already worked two unpaid internships at news organizations. While, it’s true, these internships have given me invaluable experience and great opportunities to cover stories and get them published, I strongly believe I deserve compensation for both of them.
I spent hundreds of dollars just to be able to work for free: in gas (I wasn’t compensated for mileage yet expected to drive my car to interviews and to cover certain stories), and in credits I paid to my university, a requirement to graduate from my journalism program at the University of New Hampshire. So yes, I paid to work for free while those less privileged than me may never have an opportunity to break into the field of journalism because they can’t afford it.
Perhaps what hurts the most is the fact that this book came out in 2011 and nothing has changed, except for the fact that the Department of Labor recently made it MORE difficult for interns to get the wages they have worked for. Unpaid internships are still vastly under-researched and under-reported on.
Please read this book. If something doesn’t change, we’re barring low-income students from ever getting opportunities that are apparently reserved for the privileged.

[Walter Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book here is a list of things I learned:

1) Most Internships are actually illegal
2) There is no proof that obtaining an internship is a guarantee of future employment
3) internships are actually worse for your career growth then an apprenticeship
4) If you can’t get an internship through academic avenues,there’s always Disney University
5) You can always buy entry into an internship or bid for one
6) international interns are largely worse off then interns in the USA, because no one in Europe or Asia have a clue what an internship even is

Lastly,

7) Internships in Hollywood aren’t worth it unless you’re well off and largely willing to tolerate mistreatment

Honestly, the more I learn about the academic system the less I like it. The information in this book shocked me. And made me feel physically sick.

[Kyle Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Intern Nation’ by Ross Perlin takes a relatively small topic, the explosion of the unpaid internship, and does a masterful job of peeling back the layers to show how the unregulated free-for-all in the internship market has often brought out the worst in our companies and our country. Perlin also effectively argues that the unpaid internship is ultimately a barrier to entry that keeps many of the country’s best and brightest from successfully pursuing work in government, the arts, or the white collar world as a whole.

Perlin refers to the internship as a ‘curious blend of privilege and exploitation’ and if you either are somebody or know somebody who has been trying to enter the workforce over the past 5 years or so, you’re probably nodding your head in agreement. I know that with my previous employer, it was nearly a requirement that recent college grads had partaken in at least one internship relevant to the profession before being hired on full time. In the accounting industry (of which I’m a part), the equation is a little bit different because internships in the field are generally paid, however, I know from my college days that you often need to work connections (often parents and/or friends of parents) in order to find a role that will provide a relevant experience with which to leverage in an interview with a full time employer. Coming out of school, I was frankly lucky as the expectation of interning hadn’t yet taken hold and my college program lined us up with paid internships during our senior year. However, if I had entered a different field or grown up a little later, I would have likely found myself in a difficult position as I wasn’t particularly well connected to the white collar world and would have been fighting with the masses to secure an internship.

Then let’s say someone finds an internship. The book is expansive in its assessment that the word ‘internship’ is so loosely defined that it largely loses its meaning and has become a word that employers often hide behind when they just don’t want to pay their workers a legal wage and that schools often hide behind in the name of providing ‘real-life experience’ to students while collecting full tuition to provide minimal guidance, supervision, or instruction. One of the first chapters is about Disney, which in a lot of ways is the quintessential company to analyze when considering recent trends in the intern market: “cheap labor, pushing out full timers, complicit university, menial work.” The book later goes on to talk about unpaid internships and even internships where the intern has to pay for the privilege of the experience. The fact that a whole industry of hucksters has emerged to essentially sell free labor through internships is prima facie evidence that the economics of internships are out of whack.

The perversion of the internship economic model has two major effects. For one, it allows for companies to exploit young talent at below market costs. The lack of documentation and regulation has sprouted evidence of the kind of gender/race/class issues that the labor laws have been designed to prevent and have also pushed out the types of paying jobs that used to be around before the glut of interns. Unpaid interns also live in a legal netherworld where their rights can’t be enforced. Perlin mentioned multiple examples where interns were shockingly not allowed to file sexual harassment claims in the workplace because they were not paid, thus not considered employees, thus not covered under employee discrimination laws. The other effect is that of privilege. It’s a weird paradox that while there’s no guarantee that an internship will prepare you for full time work in a white collar industry, getting an internship is effectively a requirement to get yourself in the door. I keep coming back to an image from the HBO show ‘Girls’ as one end of the internship spectrum, which allows for an extended adolescence and deferral of adult responsibility as a twentysomething is infantilized through financial dependence on his or her parents and is deprived of the satisfaction of being paid for a hard day’s work.

The thing that I loved about this book is that the solution is well presented and is really simple: enforce the existing minimum wage laws we already have in place. If the government isn’t willing to do it, professional organizations should shame and blacklist companies in their industry who aren’t willing to pay interns a sustainable wage. Perlin cites an example of architecture as an industry that got it right and effectively changed the culture around the appropriateness of paying interns simply by drawing attention to the bad eggs. It has also been particularly encouraging to read this book at a time when so much progress seems to be possible through social media to bring hypocrisy to the foreground. As I’m writing this, the Lean In nonprofit organization, initiated from the book by Sheryl Sandberg of the same name, just changed it’s open intern position from unpaid to paid after a social media firestorm. Similarly, the White House has come under fire for on the one hand, pushing to increase the minimum wage, but on the other hand, “employing” approximately 300 students as unpaid interns. There will be a lot of folks who will rightly conclude that an internship at Lean In or the White House is a once in a lifetime experience and worth the investment, however, as Perlin states, “if we take for granted that enjoyable positions need not pay well or perhaps at all, these fields [will be] relegated to a mix of moral giants, mental midgets, and trust fund babies.”

[Lauren Holliday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening.

[dimwig · Rating 3 out of 5]

found it in a little free library in halifax. probably could do with just reading the bill of rights at the end but there's some other funny stuff.

[butterbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you suspected was true about internships, in cringe-worthy detail. Five stars.

[Gabrielle Trenbath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished Ross Perlin’s Intern Nation (how to learn nothing and learn little in the brave new economy) just as I was setting out for an internship in China. It was a sobering experience, considering that I am doing what Perlin would a complete waste of time and resources.

One of the problems that Ross Perlin has with internships is that society (including business, fashion, entertainment, NGOs, the education sector and governments) don’t really understand what internships are and that leaves people open to exploitation and abuse.

He gives many examples of internships that are unpaid and give the participant few opportunities for skills development or exposure to the key business of the organisation. He argues that internships are often touted as nothing more than an introduction to a shallow culture of an organisation or industry.

I found his advice for students and new grads interesting when he says ‘Figure out how to turn a job at the mall into something with a future: talking honestly about your ambition to your supervisor, interacting with customers, pressing for better work conditions and career advancement. Strike out and develop a new skill – whether it’s taking a Spanish class or learning from a friend how to fix cars – and turn it into a career opportunity.’ (2011, 205). While it is important not to devalue working in the local shopping centre or taking an evening class but I don’t see this advice working for those new grads wanting to gain employment outside the area that they used to fund their university studies.

While doing jobs to pay the rent and working on informal projects with friends are the catalyst of developing a large number of skills but in this day and age I doubt that they have much value in the job market. With so much emphasis on, not only on achievement and developing an impressive portfolio of experiences but also the charisma to make this collection sparkle like a football field of diamonds, the everyday experiences like doing a job to pay the rent, raising a family or helping out in your family’s shop doesn’t have the same level of impressiveness to potential employer.


Also, the demise of the entry level job has lead to more competition for positions further up the career ladder and therefore if you have just finished university and there a few opportunities available to learn to apply your "trade", so you soon realise that you have to do something such as internships to give you an edge.

Maybe his point that they won't give point that internships will not give you edge.

I think that this point should have discussed sooner in the book and in more detail.

[Chavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why unpaid internships are terrible:
1. They are illegal. Unless they meet 6 guidelines, one of which is that there needs to be actual training, which is rarely the case. Another one is that the intern
2. They are unethical. Free labor? How can you employ people without paying them?
3. They exacerbate inequality because who can afford to do work for no pay, except people who have parents or trust funds to support them?
4. Interns don't have any workplace rights since they don't fall under the category of employee. So no minimum wage, overtime, no recourse for sexual harassment.
5. Some students pay to work. The school gets tuition for the credits they earn making coffee.
6. Learning by experience is not the same thing as learning by osmosis.
7. Since internships are not jobs they don't have to be advertised like jobs, which therefore leads to discrimination in who knows about and is chosen for the internships.
8. Many internships, especially the highly coveted ones, are all awarded via nepotism, which further denigrates equal access to opportunity.
9. In some industries, it is virtually impossible to get a job without first doing unpaid internships, which discourages many people from entering the field to begin with.

If you're not convinced yet, what would convince you?

Of course there are many positives to internships when done properly. Exposure to new and different opportunities, on the job experience, and networking in a field of interest. The problem is that the vast majority are not done properly, and it's no secret. Schools know it, businesses exploit it, and students are forced to play along if they want to get ahead.

This makes me so angry, especially the part about how it exacerbates inequality. Students who work at Starbucks and McDonalds to support themselves or pay for college don't have a chance against students whose parents are paying for them to spend a summer in DC or NY earning nothing and learning little.

This book was written in 2011. Since then there have been some changes. There were a few cases of interns suing for backpay and winning. Overall though, the situation remains as is.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't fundamentally disagree with the writer. I, too, would like to see interns properly supervised and trained, protected by normal legal rules against workplace harassment or abuse, and paid – at least something. And yes, it is outrageous that Disney and the like run their summertime operations with overworked and underpaid college kids, or that the initiation rite of unpaid internships is taking certain professions essentially out of reach for those without the right connections or deep-pocketed parents.

But Perlin would have made much more convincing an argument by cutting out at least half of his rants and concentrating on what he call the "The Intern Bill of Rights" instead. The examples in the book highlight the extremes of internship abuses without really answering the fundamental dilemma: how do you offer interns projects that are meaningful and provide learning opportunities, but avoid asking interns to do anything that might also be done by regular employees at other times. For Perlin, challenging intern projects necessarily mean replacing legitimately paid workforce, and running office errands is always exploitation. Additionally, Perlin fails to acknowledge that the internship experience may be very different depending on the initiative the intern her- or himself shows. But the realities of office life are not so black and white – perhaps a suitable mix of challenges, independent thinking and necessary grunt work is exactly what a good internship should be all about.

I also share another reviewer's dislike for Perlin's style to reference to the same, unimpressively small number of sources over and over again. But since that's not very atypical for this kind of books, it seems like a minor complaint.

Yet, the suggestion to group pressure the white collar industries to denounce unpaid internships and start realistic budgeting for their young apprentices seems reasonable. We might need another, more balanced text though to make that actually happen.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a strange read, a book that was a lot more aggressive in its argumentation than most of the non-fiction I read, even those books that too have explicit arguments. To me, in fact, this book felt like a throw-back, the kind of book you'd expect a union boss at the AFL-CIO making in the nineties, the kind of commentary you want to shake your head at and say, "yeah, but it's not like that anymore"-- the apprenticeship model, for example, is outmoded for a reason, and that's because, at least to me, currently represent the kind of industry for which most people work.

Look, I went into this book concerned about internships and the way they seem to colonize the academic experience in ways I'm uncomfortable with. And this book did a LOT to give me details and trails of argument as to why I should be concerned-- there is a ton of information in this book, whose prose density makes it seem much longer than its 225pps. The two appendices at the end, dealing respectively with US and non-US internships are a really solid starting point for a discussion about internships that is important, and otherwise hard to figure out how to start.

But the book as a whole doesn't present anything like a balanced picture; I really found myself wondering how we got to this employment hellscape, and never quite believe Perlin when he says he just wants to talk about internships-- he really does seem set on their destruction. Reading his book, it's not hard to see why he'd fail that way, but it made it hard for me to read this without wincing a little.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent exposé on the mistreatment of interns, the lack of substantive training in "internship" programs, blatant violations of federal laws and regulations in requiring unpaid internships and the failings of academia (often requiring internships) to improve conditions for their charges while collecting massive fees for class credit (requiring the student / intern to PAY for the privilege of working for free).

this is an issue that i've cared about for some time now. i feel my internship provided me with some substantive experience, but structured training and development were completely lacking. i was paid for it and didn't receive class credit (for my graduate internship - the undergraduate one was a different situation, but provided extensive training).

federal regulation is weak, corporations are committed to extracting all the value they can, politicians use interns extensively in their campaigns / offices, not-for-profits rely on free "volunteer" labor, and academia is complicit --- who will stand up for the interns, often contributing meaningfully (or at the very least, keeping their host from hiring an entry level individual)? hopefully, this book will catch on & leaders will realize that it is their duty to change this flawed system and return to the educational promises the programs should be founded on & model the apprenticeship programs of yore.

[Bonnie Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book perfectly summarizes the major problems with internships, and, in a lot of ways, higher education. Done right, internships can be excellent ways to introduce students to a career and prepare them for entering the workforce. Unfortunately, most internships aren't done right. They're used by companies who want free labor and have no intention of bringing on any of the interns into full-time, paid positions or even offering standardized training. Or they're given away to children of elites who use their connections to get their kids into desirable, well-compensated careers while the children of those who don't have these connections don't stand a chance and often find themselves blocked from even entering a particular career field because of it. Stunningly, interns have no legal rights and therefore no recourse when they suffer abuse or discrimination. Students pay thousands of dollars for academic credit for jobs that have them fetching coffee and making copies. Or they work for no money AND no academic credit on the premise of "getting experience". It's shameful to see companies and colleges taking such gross advantage of students and their families, harming all entry-level workers in the process. It's even worse that the government allows it and actively participates in it.

[Dan Sharber · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Along with the explosion of contingent labor and much scarier trends such as the resurgence of sweatshops in our midst and a global race to the bottom around labor standards, internships are turning back the clock. they are symptomatic of a drastically unequal, hypercompetitive world in the making - one in which, as so many americans rightly fear, succeeding generations will work harder for less rewards, for a lower quality of life with fewer avenues for getting ahead."

that pretty much sums up the premise of the book. i found this book interesting and engaging and an overall easy read. anyone interested in fair labor practices would get a lot out of this book. the rise and proliferation of unpaid or low paid internships is a scary phenomenon for young workers and for anyone interested in justice. when companies decide they can staff all entry level jobs with unpaid labor everyone loses and those who lose the most are the ones who can not work for free in the first place - working class students. this allows the same inequalities to be duplicated and exacerbated in the world of internships. good book!

[Veleda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I had warring feelings about internships. On the one hand, I wasn't going to work for free; I couldn't afford that, and it was exploitative. On the other hand, I felt I was dooming myself by not having one. Intern Nation validated both these feelings. Perlin investigates a poorly understood and poorly documented subject as thoroughly as he can. He doesn't completely condemn internships, but he reveals the deep flaws in the system.

There's one very small point where the book falls flat for me, near the end when Perlin encourages alternate paths to getting entry level employment. The problem is it falls into the same cheap rah-rah optimism I've heard from endless career counselors and workshop facilitators. Learn a new skill! Network! Just be really awesome! While reading this part, I noted bitterly, that, yes, I had tried all that.

I recommend this book in general, but I particularly recommend it to young people who feel like they can't get ahead in the "brave new economy." "Lucky" for us, the system is designed that way.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my full review on PopMatters.com. Here's the start:

Can’t get a job in this economy? Seems like everyone and their brother is getting an internship, whether it’s by casting your hat into an enormous ring of candidates, or by knowing the right investment broker who happens to have been your uncle’s best man. And working for free isn’t so bad, as long as you get your foot in the door and earn some valuable experience that will mean you’re first in line for the next job opening that comes up. Right?

Originally, the concept of interning came from the field of medicine, but it has since morphed out of control into the sprawling, ill-defined idea that in order to break into a field, one needs to work for free to gain the skills and connections needed to succeed in their chosen industry.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

quick read, fairly depressing but sometimes funny as well. Documents the absurdly competitive scramble for prestigious-sounding but usually mundane work for no or little pay, with the (often vain) hope of gaining paid permanent employment later. NGO's, politicians, nonprofits, businesses of all kinds, even Disney World managers, have borrowed some of the prestige of medical education by dressing up as "internships" low-level work experiences with vanishingly little educational content. Universities get a cut by charging for the academic credits often associated with these experiences.

A fine deal all around, except for the interns.

[Laura Santoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little more doom-and-gloom than is probably accurate, but overall, this book covers an important topic and is exhaustively researched and well-written. As a current college student studying a liberal arts major, I have definitely bought into the internship hysteria and have held a couple unsatisfying unpaid internships myself (one where the company hired more interns than there were computers, for instance); I honestly hadn't even questioned the necessity of these internships until reading this book, so it was an eye-opener for me. Definitely recommended.

[Greyskylark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The extent to which entry-level jobs have disappeared is readily apparent to recent (high school and college) graduates and anyone who knows them. Perlin's book offers an incisive look at where these jobs have gone - into the hands of largely unpaid (and otherwise, generally, underpaid) interns.

Bottom line: virtually all internships are illegal according to the Fair Labor Standards Act. These arrangements have a negative impact on the ability of willing adults to find secure employment. Something needs to be done, or the recession as we know it will never go away.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually, when I give a book three stars it's because I think it's fine. I liked it well enough, but will probably never seek it out to read again. I do feel that this is a three star book, but WOW, I feel like I need to talk about it with everyone I know. Some pretty interesting claims are made (along with a lot of generalizations, which is why I only gave it three stars), and I feel that, since most of the people I know from college had an internship at one time or another, our generation has a unique view on the situation.

[Diane C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of two minds about this book: #1. The author tackles an important subject, reviewing all aspects of unpaid internships (close to slavery and destructive to worker's rights). Legal, social and economical. The history of apprentice and internships as well. #2. Wish his style had been more journalistic, the book was long and dense, too many statistics, many of which could have been footnotes or end notes.

I still think it's important to check this book out and get the info, however. Unpaid internships are a bad situation most of the time.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the horrors of the Disneyland internship in the first pages, this books gives insight into the deep problems of the intern industry. Some changes to policy have been made since publication, but the exploitation described I think largely remains intact. At times, though, as the book goes on, the writing can grow a little dense and dull, which may turn off many readers--and I'm definitely left with more unanswered questions about typical intern situations, especially in nonprofit and progressive organizations.