The rise of the middle-aged intern

[filial_piety]

Hands on experience is WAY more valuable, imo. It's no reason why you can't intern and work a shyt gig on the off hours. Also this isn't something you want to do for YEARS.

And just as important..an internship can help you figure out what you don't want to do career wise without being heavily invested into it.

I've done about 5 internships in my life including in grad school. Once I finished them I always took something away from it.


IMO if you're a college student at a 4 year program, taking full time classes while being unemployed, you should try to do 1 internship per year..that way your resume is stacked with work experience and you'll have a decent idea of what direction you want to go once you graduate.

 

[Wild self]

Hope the workforce collapses fromthis and automation. We being reduced to serfdom.

 

[Rawtid]

I had an internship for the city of chicago when I was 18. and from ages 20-22, I had an internship with a fortune 500 while in school. both times I got paid tho, so it was cool. I was getting experience and learning. but I couldn't see myself waking up at 6am every morning to work for free.

I agree with you but at least as a college student you were doing school work that kept you relevant to your field of study. I think it's a little different for a mom re-entering the workforce after years of being a stay at home parent. I'm assuming it would have been years since she did anything related to the field if that makes sense.

 

[Virtuous_Brotha]

 

[old_timer]

You guys should read the whole article.

but READING slows them down too much
these 1000 post/month people need to keep their numbers up
post voluminously, repetitively, and dap-hungrily
contribute nothing but noise and stay ignorant as fukk

 

[Sonny Bonds]

An internship is great in your 20s, right out of college, but in your 40s?

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

I worked part time for a college a few years ago. I worked with a bunch of library science grad students. There was this one lady in her 40s applying for internships. She used to tell me how awkward the interviews were because of her age. She eventually just got a full time position with the school.

After a certain age, making a career change is extremely difficult

 

[rantanamo]

don't see a problem here

 

[EndDomination]

An internship is a great way of showing on your resume that you have experience in a field, especially if you are not yet certified to work there. I have acquintances who are nursing majors and they interened in the hospitals for free. It helped them get into great nursing programs. Three that I know got into Emory nursing school. Also some people get hired at the place they interned at. My former coworker was interning at a Dental place as a dental assistant. After his internship they hired him starting at $15/hour and great benefits. I am starting an internship in August where I'll shadow someone for ten hours a week plus I'll be working so I'm not worried about income, because those 200+ hours will look great for my career and grad school.

The medical field and the legal field are the exceptions to the rule, almost everyone in the medical field has to work unpaid hours at a hospital or clinic before they can move on to their careers.
Once you've gotten any experience in the legal field though, you should never have to go near an unpaid position again.

 

[EndDomination]

She was a housewife who was taken care of for 10 years.

One more year as an intern to get readjusted wasn't nothing to her.

Not easy for people who need a paycheck now....

Didn't read past example #1.

Not worth reading past the first example honestly, the first woman took 10 years off to "raise her kids" the second woman lost her job and went back to art school () and the third guy switched careers but in essence made the same salary he had at his first job.
None of these are good examples, and I'm fairly sure the majority of middle-aged people taking unpaid internships are doing so because they are still lost in life and tried to get a "degree" at an unaccredited university or some for-profit diploma mill
I'm 20 and I have yet to have had an unpaid internship. The lowest I accept is $10/hr

 

[Ezigbo Nwanyi]

situations like this are on a "it depends" basis. This makes sense for young people who dont have experience and working towards or completed a degree. Now to be 40+, I would question your life decisions, that led you to be doing this at an age where you should be engrained in your career and nuturing your children to send them off to the world. But to each their own, if you have a second line of income (whether that be a spouse or family) thats willing to allow you to do that, more power to you. This starts when people select the wrong major or career path to get into to and have buyers remorse years later.

 

[beenz]

I agree with you but at least as a college student you were doing school work that kept you relevant to your field of study. I think it's a little different for a mom re-entering the workforce after years of being a stay at home parent. I'm assuming it would have been years since she did anything related to the field if that makes sense.

still can't co-sign working for free. its fine being an intern and doing the shytty grunt work and paying dues. but not for free

there's too many other things I can be doing with my time rather than spend my time and money to work and not get compensated. you're already paying out the ass to go to college and that's work in itself. now ya'll are advocating working a non-paid job in my downtime????