Quote: (06-14-2013 03:37 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:
This is probably gonna come off as ignorant, but if you're dumb enough to be doing actual work for free, it probably means you're low-hanging fruit and deserve to be exploited anyway.
In my life I've come to expect two things from employers: Knowledge, and money. If I'm not getting either one of those, then I bounce to another job where I can find either, hopefully both.
Remember, the concept of the unpaid intern was initially targeted at students - young people that had no experience, but were interested in getting real-world experience that they could use in the future. It was basically an extracurricular that looked good on the college applications, and if you were already in college, for the resume when you were entering the job market. They were foregoing salary for knowledge that would help them in the future. I wouldn't categorize them as low-hanging fruit that deserve exploitation. I think the corporate world perhaps expanded the potential pool to desperate adults already in the job market they could get free labor from, in exchange for a resume boost that hopefully led to a better job down the line and hopefully a reference.
"The best kind of pride is that which compels a man to do his best when no one is watching."