Public Interest Internships More Competitive Than Ever (And Unpaid, Too)
By Jamie Bence
While most public interest internships have always been unpaid, the recent downturn in the economy and budget cuts across the private sector and government have forced a growing number of students to take on unpaid summer jobs. PilotOnline explains:
Legal interns in government jobs this summer are learning a painful message: The law doesn’t always pay. Once a fallback for underemployed liberal arts majors, law school has become an expensive path to a profession with no guarantee of a high-paying job.
According to the article, even unpaid opportunities have become increasingly competitive:
Shrinking opportunities in the private sector have also made it tough for young lawyers to land lower-paying public sector jobs, industry experts said. “It’s even more competitive than it was before,” said Kevin Donovan, senior assistant dean for career services at the University of Virginia School of Law. “Even at a top school like Virginia, they have to work hard.”
The problem with the expectation that students can take on unpaid work is twofold:
(1) students are divided up into those who can afford to complete an unpaid internship through support from family or school and those who cannot, and
(2) schools are divided into those that can (or will) allot a significant amount of money to support students during their unpaid summer jobs (while conversely collecting tuitions in student loans from those students during the year).
While the internships can provide invaluable experience and may seem like a surefire way to gain experience, they are almost always limited to a select group of students from certain types of schools.
