Hop on board internships

I have spent many hours during my college career working the phones, sending e-mails, firing… I have spent many hours during my college career working the phones, sending e-mails, firing off resumes and typing formal letters to employers only to face the sound of silence in return to “reward” my efforts. I could have understood such rejection if I had been demanding a full-time position with benefits, a six-figure salary and personal use of the company’s corporate jet, but in many cases I was only trying to obtain an unpaid internship.

As if college students aren’t poor enough, such merciless rejection feels like a hard kick once we are already down. How can any employer turn down a bright and enthusiastic student, looking for an internship, and willing to offer up his or her labors for free?

In my frustration and disappointment at having been flat out cast off by an employer recently, with whom I desperately wanted to work (and with whom I was qualified to do so), I asked the employer this very question: How can you turn down this opportunity to take on a willing and capable employee, for free?

With a somewhat grim and annoyed tone, she said that it costs organizations time and money to hire even unpaid interns because somebody from the company must take time away from his or her job to train the new employees. So she was basically saying to me, “It’s just not worth it for us.”

Well, I think it is! To start with, most companies will have to hire new employees at some point anyway. Current workers will retire, transfer or move into different jobs. Eventually these holes will need to be filled and what better way to do it than by accepting unpaid interns to “try potential employees on for size” before making any official hiring commitments.

Even if an organization is not in a position to hire new staff at present, the unpaid interns might make significant contributions during their service period, and all at a relatively small cost to the employer. If interns fail to meet the expectations of employers, then they can be dismissed rather easily.

“Young blood” could be just the answer for some companies. Recent grads, fed up with classrooms and exams, and just plain ready to move on, are usually excited about entering the workforce and putting their skills to the test. In some cases, the enthusiasm of these former students can be just as valuable for employers as “experience.”

Interns can be an invaluable asset to an organization because they are often willing to do the “crap work” that long-time employees hate to do (cleaning out filing cabinets and ordering pizza for the weekly Friday afternoon meeting). Interns might put up with this to try and secure a more permanent position later, while the current staff may finally get those tidy offices that they’ve been hoping for.

Many organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors do extend official internship opportunities to students. But a lot of these positions are available in cities like Washington or New York City, where living expenses are apt to break a student’s budget.

Sure, it would be great to spend a summer interning for an agency in the nation’s capital, but how am I going to eat and where can I afford to sleep? Of course there’s always the option of taking out more loans, but that only increases the pain during the payback period post-grad.

Also, some students might like to garner know-how in a sector or specific job where internships are not made readily available. In this case, internship-seekers are forced to make cold calls or send letters. This, based on my own experience, can be frustrating, disheartening and altogether futile when employers fail to respond.

I’m surprised that I wasn’t slapped with a restraining order from one organization, where I aggressively pursued an opportunity of some kind — internship, job or even a job shadow. But despite my persistent emails, letters and phone calls, these corporate fish just weren’t biting.

Agreeing to hire an intern is a win-win situation. The student garners experience in his or her field of interest and the employer probably gets some quality work out of the deal.

Not hiring the intern leaves students discouraged and employers pulling their hair out to find some worthy staff members when the time does come — and it will come.

So here is my pitch to those organizations who hear the knocking of enthusiastic and talented students looking for an internship: Open the door and let us in!

Even if the company budget looks tight in the moment, snatching up a bright employee via an internship could help to save an organization serious time and money in the long run. Really, how much is there to lose?