Grumpy

Op-Ed in the New York Times about Summer Internships

In an information economy, productivity is based on the best people finding the jobs best suited for their talents, and interns interfere with this cultural capitalism. They fly in the face of meritocracy — you must be rich enough to work without pay to get your foot in the door. And they enhance the power of social connections over ability to match people with desirable careers. A 2004 study of business graduates at a large mid-Atlantic university found that the completion of an internship helped people find jobs faster but didn't increase their confidence that those jobs were a good fit.

Just for the record, I'd like to point out that this Anya Kamenetz person is the daughter of two writers, worked as a researcher for Susan Orlean, is a columnist for the Village Voice, went to Yale, writes NY Times editorials, and went to Yale (so did her little sister) and is, yes, twenty-five. I don't want to say she's missing the point, but, well, I think she is. Her editorial was full of mainly vague economic reasons for why unpaid internships are bad, but I think the main problem is just barely hinted at in the paragraph above - or at the very least not elaborated on. Internships are incredibly unfair to anyone poorer than upper-middle class, because not only do you have to work summers for free instead of making money, but you have to pay for housing (especially if you are going for a top internship in NYC, DC, SF, etc.) and food and what have you. And a decent number of internships you only get by having connections to begin with, which you then strengthen through internships, and so those who can afford to intern have better networking resources than those who can't, PLUS they have experience on a resume that looks better than working for a family business or in a restaurant for tips all summer. The luxury of good jobs is unfortunately exactly that in many ways - a luxury. And I have this feeling that Kamenetz, with her writer parents and Yale education, might be missing that point because it doesn't apply to her - and that point seems more valid and more urgent than anything about how young people don't join labor unions.

It all makes me sort of disgruntled, partly because I have no internship experience and therefore am not marketable to employers, and partly because I am pretty sure that when I am 25 I will not be publishing a column in Village Voice, much less a book about the economic plight of our generation.