Summer Interns: The Real Issue

Ahhh summer. It’s a time for warmer weather, family vacations, sporting events, or a leisurely cook out on your deck. It’s also the season when we advertising agencies plow through an endless stack of resumes, searching for that college intern who shows promise and passion for our industry.

Internships are a chance for college students and recent graduates to show their stuff, and gain valuable experience to bolster their resume. It’s a chance for them to discover what the advertising world is really like, which can’t be adequately captured in a college textbook or class. An internship helps a young, eager, ambitious kid determine whether advertising is all they thought it would be, or if it makes them want to run the other way screaming, never to return.

The sluggish economy has forced many companies, especially small businesses, to eliminate their interships or turn them into unpaid positions. And that has some officials in the Labor Department raising concerns that unpaid internships violate fair labor and minimum wage laws. Investigations in Oregon, California and other states have resulted in fines for some employers. While there isn’t currently a reliable way to track the number of paid and unpaid internships out there, there is evidence that the number of unpaid internships is growing. Stanford’s employer job board this year posts 643 unpaid internships, more than triple the 174 from just two years ago.

I feel for today’s college grads. Not only are they entering one of the worst job markets in history, they must fight their way through a sea of their peers vying for the same limited pool of internships, often without earning a wage while at the same time dealing with the realities of life such as paying rent and other expenses, establishing credit, and paying off student loans.

But I don’t think the real issue is paid vs. unpaid. The real issue is how companies define the position of intern, and the responsibilities that go along with that role. Menial work such as making coffee, shipping packages, and wiping door handles to prevent swine flu (yes, an intern actually did that), are irrelevant to a budding career and not in the true spirit of what an internship is about. To be sure, many internships involve some level of drudgery, but companies need to put time and thought into building an intern program that is meaningful, rewarding and valuable. The payoff is an experience that will be mutually beneficial for the intern and the company. There is a saying that today’s top student is tomorrow’s top employee. Invest in your intern program, and you’ll be rewarded with a superstar employee in the making.

What do you think about internships? Should they be paid or unpaid? What can companies do to make them more worthwhile?