prokopetz:

We often talk like corporations are being stupid and crazy when the post entry-level positions that ask for a ridiculous amount of experience, but there’s nothing stupid about it. It’s entirely calculated.

Y’see, they’ve set things up so that the only way to get the required experience for entry-level positions is through internship programs. At the same time, they’ve systematically eliminated paid internship in favour of unpaid internship. Yeah, unpaid internships are totally a thing – you’re literally working for free in order to build up “relevant experience” to apply for positions that actually pay you.

If that was all there was to it – i.e., scamming free labour out of young college graduates – it would be bad enough, but it goes further. Consider: what sort of college graduate can afford to spend a year or two working for free? Well, naturally it would have to be someone who didn’t have to take out any loans; unemployment is grounds for deferral of student loan repayments, but an unpaid internship counts as being employed, thus disqualifying you for a deferred repayment schedule, even though you’re not getting paid.

Combined with skyrocketing tuition fees that render it virtually impossible to pay for college with a part-time job, the upshot is that there’s a whole class of jobs that are effectively available only to those with financially well-off parents: they’re the only ones who can afford to take on the unpaid internships that are required to rack up the necessary “relevant experience” to apply for those jobs in the first place.

So really, it’s not just about free labour: the unpaid internship racket also serves to filter employment by economic class, ensuring that only the children of the wealthy are able to apply for jobs that permit actual career advancement. You thus have the appearance of openness in a job market that is, in reality, rotten with cronyism. And it works perfectly – it’s really a brilliant arrangement, if you’re willing to look past the fact that it’s pure evil.

(This is also the scam behind those job application forms that ask for a long list of references in good standing, but specifically exclude relatives, teachers, past employers, and just about anybody else you’re likely to know who’d qualify as “in good standing”; what they’re really saying is “put down the names of your rich Dad’s golf buddies”.)

Capitalism is evil