On unpaid internship, youth unemployment, exploitation and opportunities...

A few months back, I was listening to NPR on a BBC news report about corporations pseudo-exploitation of unemployed youth, disguised as government job program.  It's exploitation since the unemployed youth would have to do it, no matter what, since it's the precondition for the continuation of government benefits that many of the unemployed have come to rely on as the last resort.

I have thought of jogging down my thoughts about it at the time, but it slips me.  And then, there's another opinion piece about some young folk's own experience of unpaid internship, with his expressed ambivalence about the ethical (and yes, exploitative) aspects of it, yet unable to deny the benefits that have come of it.

Given the state of poor economy around the world and the outrageously high youth unemployment, I really feel for the youth and their predicament.

I really do, because once upon a time, I was in their shoes, and I still remember how it felt, and the uncertainty of how and whether I would land a job that would provide me with the relevant experience to get me the foot in the door.  In IT, as much as any other field, relevant experience and technology skill sets count as much as an Ivy League resume.

The bachelor degree program in Computer Science that I was in has an internship component.  During the junior year, every student in the program would go find a paid internship, with credits counted towards the degree.  Students would then go back to the university to finish the senior year, with final year project and what-have-you.  My alma mater is quite famous for and proud with the industry connections, and in its ability to place students in relevant paid internship, allowing students to get a job in the IT field right after graduation.  This was during the good times, when everything's on the up and up, and jobs were abound.

And then, the economy in the country went south, albeit not as bad as what Europe and US are suffering right now.  Australia went down the shit hole.  Out of the few hundred of students (CS, EE, ME, etc), less than 5% were able to find any internship (paid or unpaid).  Since this internship is a mandated component for the program, students would not be able to graduate without the job experience.  With the economy going down the dump, the Engineering schools had made an extraordinary decision to allow students to proceed with the senior study/work, and switch the order of the work/study for the junior and senior years.  A year or so had passed, and all foreign students (who originally had had high hopes of landing a paid jobs in a western country) had to return to their home country, in the hope of finding some job.  But times were bad back then, and the Engineering schools then made another extraordinary decision to allow students to use any job experience (which previously have to be IT related) to satisfy the work component of the degree program.  Otherwise, those students would not be able to graduate, without any fault of their own.

I count myself as the lucky few who have been able to land on an IT position in an investment bank.  It's a regular full time, paid position, and not just an internship or some job with probationary period.  In hindsight, back then, corporations have been fairer in treating students, and unpaid internship was still quite rare.  Indeed, I've stayed on with the employer for a few years and earned valuable relevant experience that provides me with launchpad to aspire for higher positions.

It breaks my heart, to hear that the younger generations these days do not have the lucky break that have been afforded to me.

I'm also disgusted to realize how widespread the unpaid internship or forced labor (in the case of the unemployed youth in UK).  It's disgusting because corporations don't seem to care much (forget about respect) about its employees or anyone who provide work for them.

Looking back, it all seems to have started with the globalization (with cheap labor in IT from India, and even more dirt-cheap labor in manufacturing from China).  Suddenly, these low cost labor across the sectors become the benchmarks for low-cost labor around the globe.  Corporations, with their relentless push for profits, love cheap labor.  For a while, those low-cost countries love it too; afterall, how could they not, when jobs (albeit with dirt-cheap pay compared with the developed countries) that were paid a lot more than they would have got tilling the land or in agriculture, suddenly became plentiful?  No one would say no to that sudden ramp-up in quality of living, afforded by the higher take-home pay.

A decade or so later, we know now that good things (and times) don't last forever.  Those lowly paid manufacturing jobs in China, and IT jobs with graveyard shifts in India, don't seem that alluring anymore.  Suddenly, it's not just about the money, but the quality of life.  Now, the Chinese factory workers want more pay raises, and the IT rookies (some of them straight from college) in India are giving themselves "pay raises" by hopping jobs every year, with the opportunities of asking for 20-30% more in salary.

These are all happening at the same time when the pay in western countries like US has been stagnant for years now.  The great force of globalization is coming down on the cost and quality of living, with the salary/wages level to prove it.

For close to a decade (from the days when the tech bubble burst in early 2000 until property bubble burst in 2008), everyone in US and Europe are willing to overlook their stagnant salary and take-home pay, since general populace has been supplementing themselves with the rising property prices.  The music has since stopped in late 2008; and we are yet to see where the next bubble engine is going to be.

With all those forces coming to a head, it's doubtful if the trend of unpaid internship for youths is going to be reversed.

I know it first hand because I've been interviewing candidates for my new company currently.  Much as I had been back then, the graduating students are eager - you could even call it desperate - to come work on my team (IT).  They don't even ask for pay, and I know most of them are even a bit scared to ask if what the pay might be, or if it's paid at all.  For all of them, they just want a job - a job that allows them to gain relevant IT experience, much as my classmates had been back then.

However low the pay might be, I think I'll pay something to the interns and students who come work for me.  It's a decent and right thing to do.  I clearly remember how I was given that golden opportunity, and I'm forever grateful for that.  Sometimes, all we need is a lucky break.  I can only hope that I'll extend to the younger generation the same opportunity that was given to me.

I can only hope too, that others and those in power would extend that kind of basic human decency to others, because while money is nice, it's not all that matters.