Culpwrit

Increasingly, intern job descriptions are sounding more like full-time jobs. Case in point:

Job Responsibilities
• Create and organize media lists
• Media monitoring of media placements and organize clippings
• Research competitor PR activities and media coverage
• Create social media content and maintain media calendar
• Maintain monthly analytics report for all media channels
• Coordinate schedule of posts and monitor social channels
• Help fulfill media requests for materials and information
• Accept additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.

And the clincher: The internship is unpaid.

Yes, I know, many firms with unpaid internships simply are taking advantage of university programs that provide students with academic credit for intern experiences. (This policy needs to be reevaluated, too). Unfortunately, many other firms are just plain cheap. They hire interns to do work that otherwise would be performed by full-time, paid employees.

Interns should be paid if they are doing jobs that are being billed to clients or relieving workloads of others who are billable. Only nonprofits get a “pass” in my book, and even some charities are beginning to pay their interns.

While I’m on the soapbox, let me restate my firm belief that many firms need to reassess their pay scales for interns. Far too many interns are paid $10 or less an hour, while they are being billed out to clients at $35 to $90 an hour. A few enlightened firms recently have increased intern salaries to $15+ an hour.