Interns Anonymous

Do not use Spain-Internship

Published 04/23/2013 Debate 1 Comment
Tags: agencies, Barcelona, erasmus, grants, internship agency, internship module, Spain internships

This correspondent has highlighted a problem which is relatively new to us – agencies which set up internships for University students in foreign countries. Here is one example of how this can go wrong. Please note: we are unable to fact check the stories we receive and our correspondent takes responsibility for their version of events.

I would like to share my experience with the agency called Spain Internship

For the service of the agency I paid 490 euros. The agency was supposed to find me a marketing internship for 4 months in Barcelona. When I came to Barcelona it turned out that the website on which I was supposed to work had closed and the only tasks they had for me to do were translations of the descriptions of pet products.

After one month, after coming back from work, without any previous notice and without any formal explanation, I received an e-mail from the agency that my internship has been cancelled and I am not allowed to go to work the next day. The reason was supposed to be “the disagreement about the salary” – a few days earlier I asked my boss why I am paid less than the other interns. The agency refused to send me more explanations, writing me things like: “We will not lose more time on this” and “we will not answer you anymore”. No one talked to me personally. They also did not give me back the money which I paid for the service – even though in the contract it was stated that after arranging the internship the cancellation will not be possible. I also did not receive or sign any kind of document which would confirm the end of the internship and I was not allowed to enter the office where I worked and I could not go and ask for any explanations.

The agency also claimed that they contacted my University, however it turned out that no message to my University was sent. After I posted a formal complaint to my University and contacted my Erasmus coordinator, the University decided to remove the agency’s offers from their website and put the agency on the “black list”. Moreover, while I was trying to get back the money which I paid for arranging the internship, both the boss of the company where I worked and the agency tried to convince me that none of them is responsible for the decision about the cancellation of my internship.

Because of the whole situation I lost not only the money which I paid to the agency, but also I had to pay for my room in Barcelona in advance and I purchased a 3-month train ticket to be able to travel to work. What is more, I had to return the grant to my University in order to be able to sign a new contract for the internship. I believe that even if there were any kind of problems at the company in which I worked, a professional agency should not behave in this way and should not treat their customers like this. The agency claims that it was the second time that they cancelled someone’s internship – personally, I believe that this kind of situations should never happen.

A dangerous figure, coming soon

Published 02/26/2013 Debate Leave a Comment

Imagine all of the potential and anger of the UK young unemployed was channelled into a single powerful and dangerous figure. What would you ask it? What would it tell you?

This project enables that interaction with an online platform and installation at Somerset House. People under the age of 30 who are not in paid employment will enter their details into a facebook app and upload an image of their face. This information will be merged to form the archetypal unemployed young person, and will result in a sculptural installation in Somerset House. The non young unemployed general public are also invited to add questions to the database. The statue will then tour the UK in user-selected locations.

The more participants the figure has, the more powerful and representatives the figure becomes. So log in and talk to A Dangerous Figure!

Sneaky unpaid work trial

Published 10/04/2012 Debate 2 Comments

Our correspondent wished to name the company and we cannot verify the details of their story

I applied for a ‘creative content trainee’ position with MEC in Manchester after finishing my degree. MEC are one of the world’s ‘leading’ media agencies and are owned by a very large American company. I had two interviews – at which we discussed my experience (of which I had little, only university projects) and my creative ideas for two clients they had at the time (how to help them with SEO/ drive traffic to the website). After passing these interviews I was invited to do a three day trial at the office. During these three days I worked 9-5, barely allowed myself a lunch break, and worked my butt off to find a lot of blogs they hadn’t already found, which they could use to host guest posts. I negotiated with bloggers, worked on the project in the evenings at home and contributed a much needed alternative and fresh perspective on the project at hand. When the three days finished I was shown the door and contacted a week later to say I was ‘not experienced enough’.

OK let me dig into this.

As a poor graduate with no income, three weeks rent for the whole assessment (from interview to final decision) is a bit of an inconvenience. They knew exactly how much experience I had, as we had discussed this in not one, but TWO interviews. The very fact that they advertised the role as trainee led me to believe that little experience was required in the first place. The most annoying part of this was that they had dragged the experience out, set me up to believe I was seriously being considered for the role, took all the work I had put in for them and said cheerio without paying me. I was so furious that they had blatantly used me that I replied to the head manager to ask why they had wasted my time and money, and could they please pay me for the three days I worked. I got no response.

Aside from this I found some of their practices dodgy. For example, I was asked to create a fake alias and gmail address with which to contact bloggers and websites. I expected to use a company email address or at least, I assumed the permanent staff in the team would. I was shocked to find they all had fake names, twitter and gmail accounts. Not very ethical for such a large company?

I am certain they did this to a number of graduates as the post was advertised on their website for about 4 months. Getting unsuspecting and naive grads to undertake a three day work trial appears to be a little loophole they took advantage of – saving costs, and stealing fresh ideas they couldn’t think of themselves.

This was only three days, but I wanted to flag this company for the attention of other graduates thinking of applying to any MEC vacancies. Don’t waste your time and energy!

A two month long trial shift: fashion fails again

Published 10/01/2012 Debate 7 Comments
Tags: clothing production, design, Fashion, sweat shop, trial shift

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…we get this in the mail. Our correspondent included two tweets as screen shots, we are posting them because they asked us to.

I have recently been unfairly dismissed from the owner of a design house because I told them they were being unrealistic with the volume of garments demanded to be produced per day…

I started a ‘trial month’ that soon turned into a two month trial the day I started and later found that other graduates on trial had been there for three months or more.

I relocated because it was a requirement. I was told I had to work full time and was given no funding whatsoever. I was expected to pay for rent, bills, food and travel myself.

After the first few days it soon became apparent that there was only one full time paid member of staff. The rest were interns. I also met the owner of the company (for the first time) after 5 full days of work.

I was expected to work a minimum of 10 hours a day. We were never told what time to we would be allowed to leave in the evening until the last minute.

I was put on the production line immediately. With no training whatsoever I was making garments to be sold for profit.

Feeling concerned about the businesses set up (majority unpaid interns, looked like there were no job prospects despite being invited for a ‘trial period’) I broke down, told the design assistant that I had concerns. She asked the owner to speak to me. She saw that I had been crying… laughed at me and asked what was wrong. She then went on to say that she didn’t have time to see how everyone was feeling, she was always too busy. “I’m a cold heartless bitch, that’s just the way I am” As if I was just supposed to accept that and move on….

I decided to stick it out and hope things would get better…

They didn’t.

Last week, at the end of my third week working for the company I was asked to fill out a timetable that had been put on the wall for each intern. I explained that once I had made a certain style of dress I would know how many I could make in a day. Her response was “It’s not about how many you want to make in a day, it’s how many you HAVE to make. If you have 50 dresses to make in a day you have to make 50” I then explained that she was being unrealistic in her expectations and that it only made sense for me to put down as many as I could feasibly make in a day. She then went on to say “don’t argue with me I’ve been working in this industry for years” I started to walk away after saying that I couldn’t talk to her about this as she was being unreasonable. She then shouted at me “get your stuff together and leave, go home”

I was given no appreciation for the work I had completed. She didn’t care who I was, I was just a number. Free labour.

To add insult to injury she later put this on twitter…

Seeing this was heart wrenching. I felt embarrassed and stupid. Having such a bad experience in an industry that I had previously felt so passionately about has almost put me off entirely. The worse thing is that evidently this happened before hence ‘another intern has been asked to leave’ yet most are too ashamed to tell anyone. I’m furious. Having met so many talented interns at this placement I am concerned that their hopes and dreams will be shattered too.

Graduate Talent Pool – still unreliable, still dodgy

Published 06/25/2012 Debate Leave a Comment
Tags: Graduate Talent Pool dodgy, inconsistent adverts graduate talent pool

We have taken the original post down for the moment…

Internships and PhDs in the humanities: notes from the USA

Published 06/25/2012 Debate 1 Comment
Tags: Aliant International University, Anne Bowen, clinical psychology, combining internships and postgrad, internships for postgraduate students, Journalism, New York Sun, PhD, postgraduate, USA

This article was written by Sofia Rasmussen, who has written a lot of great stuff about PhDs, internships and jobs – this gives us an idea of what interns experience in the USA

Not all internship experiences will be great. In fact, most won’t be. Sure, it’s a line on a resume, something to bolster your academic career or add legitimacy to your online phd programme and maybe you’ll get hands-on experience in the field you hope to make permanent someday. But, with properly tempered expectations, participants can and will make it through them. Know that the average internship is underpaid, if paid at all, and those The Devil Wears Prada horror stories are based in reality. Interns are treated poorly, looked down on, stuck in mail rooms and warehouse positions with little to do with the actual industry.

An intern at Anne Bowen, who would prefer to remain nameless, reflects on her experience, “As design assistant, I had the honor of working very closely with Anne herself. On a day to day basis, I was expected to cater to her every whim (which included dropping everything at any time to do what she deemed as more important), clean up her dog’s droppings from the carpet, and change light bulbs, all while single-handedly managing any and all production and making sure deadlines were met and dresses were beaded.” For a student planning a career in fashion, it’s hard to see what true knowledge is gained by changing light bulbs and cleaning up after a dog.

A grad student who goes only by Jane said of the internship program in clinical psychology at Alliant National University, “The APA internship match rate is a joke. You will not get a decent job after completing 5 years of doctoral training here. Plus you may never graduate because they abuse and dismiss students. Some of the programs have a 50% attrition rate too.” This is one of the biggest internship problems: despite long hours and hard training, you’re no closer to your career than you were before you stepped through the doors.

Gawker was privy to a leak from the New York Sun’s Guidelines for Interns: “Internships will be terminated for any intern who, between 6pm and the end of the press run, fails to answer calls to his or her mobile phone for more than 30 minutes. It is therefore recommended that subway rides of more than 30 minutes be avoided.”

That’s not a dramatization of the intern experience at the New York Sun; it’s an element of the internship that the magazine freely admits. The magazine also warns interns in their manual that any intern who even asks about a byline, let alone complains, will be terminated. Not really any impetus to stick with a career in publishing.

It’s no secret that a bad interning experience can break a potential career. Though some internships do turn into full time job offers, and there are dozens of companies with great internship programs that an intern would be happy to take long term, it’s important to view the average internship as a learning experience. Have hope! Even the worst internship comes with one huge plus: when you go into an interview, and you’re asked about the worst working conditions you’ve ever had, you’ll have an answer. And a solid one at that.

At an unpaid internship at a designer label

Published 06/14/2012 Fashion 11 Comments
Tags: design, designer label, exploitation, Fashion

I was…

>> forced to work over 8 hours a day – sometimes over 10 hours a day (they made me sign a contract in which I had to agree with this)

>> given no payment, no meals, no accommodation, no transport money

>> forced to be available to work on public holidays and week-ends

>> given hard physical, mindless or non-educational work(such as tidying-up)

>> not given proper training

>> advised by the supervisor not to ask any questions related to their work as it disturbs them and makes me too nosey

>> not (in the least) to expect a job offer

>> to treat my employer with great kindness and gratitude

>> not even thanked for my work after working at least 480 hours for a profit making company

>> sent on dozens of errands lasting almost all day – even when it was pouring with rain at 10 degrees – with two 20kg heavy suitcases to pull

>> given a letter of recommendation that did not mention the tasks that I HAVE done, but those that I have NOT done(the tasks that were not offered to me in the first place)

>> given a letter of recommendation that makes it look like I have refused to do tasks given to me(which is not the case, since they were just not given to me) and underlines knowledge that I lack, rather that my skills and capabilities

>> after spending hard labour and at least over £1200(money for accommodation, transport and food) on this 3 month internship, giving the company valuable material to make profit on, I was given nothing to help further my career

Generally at this company:

>> when sick, interns still come to work and take painkillers as not to attract attention

>> many interns keep quiet about bad treatment and many hours of no sleep as not to ruin their career

>> the interns have no one to legally support them when they are not even given a decent letter of recommendation

The small UK company is a high fashion label of the fashion industry that “employs” about 15 interns per year. Its owner has only one permanent employee.

This is not only about no wages, but about bad immoral treatment, modern day slavery. I was treated with no respect and it made me feel worthless, even though I know they have gained so much from the work I have done for them. Is this humane? Is this legal?

We need to put an end to this! Please monitor internships and set-up a representative that fights for or rights and black lists such companies!

Also graduates suffer – they don’t find any paid jobs because of all the free labour…

To whoever sent this email in – do get in touch (as anonymously as you like) as we’d like to help you out

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