The Value of Unpaid Internships

The Value of Unpaid Internships Photo by energepic.com from Pexels Students who had completed an unpaid internship (37%) were hired at almost the same rate for those who had not completed any internship at all (35%). On the other side of the spectrum, students who had any instance of a paid internship were found to be more likely (63%) to secure employment. This study also showed that students with unpaid internships were more likely to take lower-paying jobs than those with no internship experience whatsoever ($35,721 and $37,087, respectively) while students with paid internships rocketed past their peers with an average $51,930 salary. So then, the question becomes: what is the value of an unpaid internship? Is there any? Is there a point in doing an unpaid internship anymore? The short answer to these questions is yes. There is still value in unpaid internships. But the value of these experiences is not necessarily financially basedâ€"you will have to look deeper beneath the surface than that. An alternative study, conducted by Crain, a career consultant for the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia, showed that unpaid internships did provide students with benefits outside of financial gain. Finalizing A Career Path Something that an unpaid internship experience can help provide a college student with is a confirmation or rejection of their intended career paths. It is all very good and well to decide what you want to be once you graduate, and yet when you get there, find you do not like or enjoy the job at all. After all, how could you know? You had never experienced the industry or job before in a professional setting. Maybe you wanted to be a doctor, but you never knew until got into medical school that being around blood makes you faint. By getting to test out a job or industry in a lower pressure setting like an unpaid internship, you get to make sure that you really do like the industry you want to go in and that you like the kind of work you can do. It would be awful to go through four years of classes only to find yourself stuck in a career you do not enjoy for the rest of your life. Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels Career Goals An unpaid internship also helps you set career goals as well as attain them. Maybe you know what field you want to go into, but you do not really know what you want to do in that field. Or maybe you have a job in mind, but you are not quite sure what a person with that kind of job actually does. Or perhaps you are not sure what feasible and attainable goals are to set for the career you want and by trying it out with an unpaid internship, you will be better able to pace out what the job will really be like once you graduate and begin to work. The benefit of this is that you will make fewer mistakes and be less likely to mess up once you start the job because you have already smoothed all the kinks out and know what to expect of both you and the job. Networking An unpaid internship also allows a college student to make connections with professionals in their field who can vouch for their work and give them recommendations after they graduate and begin entering the workforce. Often, without these unpaid internships, students would not be able to make these kinds of connections to get the support they need later in order to be hired. An unpaid internship will also allow a student to make connections with other interns and have a network of peers in place to lean on and pull from in times of need.