Artemis: An internship report... a lifetime experience!

An internship report... a lifetime experience!

Hi everyone,

My name is Artemis.  I started an internship last May with Klik2learn, a start up e-learning company based in Glasgow.  The internship was advertised on the Adopt an Intern website.  After applying and having a brief discussion/interview with Joy  (CSPP, Adopt an Intern) on the phone...there I was at my interview with Klik2learn. Thankfully everything went well and my journey began.

First day at the office...

The company is based at the Strathclyde University, Incubator. The moment I walked into my office for the first time, I faced this poster quoting E.E. Cummings: 

“ To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight. Never stop fighting.” 

I had a flashback of the year that passed me by: Graduation/New possibilities/Excitement/Economic crisis facts/Numerous job applications/Unemployment/Disappointment/Economic crisis myths/Fear for the unknown future/Stress and Anxiety/Depressed feelings/Acceptance/Decision making. That moment I realised that no matter how difficult things had been or might become, if you just keep fighting, eventually something good will happen.

Now back to the internship...

The exciting part of working with a start-up company is that along the way you can mould yourself into different roles whilst the company itself changes (unavoidably). This can often be confusing because focusing only on one thing is difficult and finishing things seems impossible. But it can also be a rewarding experience since you get the opportunity to improve your skills in many different fields at the same time.

My degree is in Computer Science but my career aspiration is to become a digital designer which is the reason I attended a Master Degree in Design and Digital media.  Yet as an intern at Klik2learn I was given the IT Coordinator position. My focus was on more technical stuff. But, throughout time more creative tasks came along and I had the chance to show my design skills. That led to the point where I am at the moment, working mostly as a designer for the company.

Things get rough sometimes. Decisions need to be made and my knowledge doesn’t always apply to our issues. I can proceed comfortably with some tasks but many others are unknown to me. When I am being asked to do something and I am not sure of what I am capable of, my typical reaction is (which probably my bosses are fed up of hearing): “I don’t know but I can research this and find out”. If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt from this experience is that knowledge comes when you research and try things out. Plus my stress is less from the moment I decided to admit that IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW EVERYTHING. And that’s how I make it through the day. But in case I forget (my lack of memory can be really tricky), I turn my head to the next poster in front of my desk, this time with a quote by R.W. Emerson:

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

I will leave you with that, whether you are someone struggling to survive in a working environment as an intern or someone that is looking for an opportunity out there.

Tweet me @artemisnft and feel free to comment here.

Best wishes,

Artemis

Quality Internships Part 1: Paying a living wage

The European Youth Forum has a campaign called ‘Quality Internships’ which aims to encourage organisations to sign up to a charter demonstrating their commitment to providing quality internships to individuals.  Amongst the commitments is one to provide a wage which is in accordance with the minimum wage set by that country.  A few weeks ago I spotted an internship advertised with EuroDesk that looked interesting (my MSc is in European Public Policy, so it is an area that I am interested in working in).  Unfortunately the renumeration for the post was only around 700 Euros (approx. £600) per month so it meant I immediately couldn’t apply for it.  Although not as expensive as some other European cities, Brussels is still the headquarters of the European Union, as well as many other large organisations, and the cost of living is quite high.  This level of wage is not uncommon for European internships.  Although not officially signed up to the charter, EuroDesk had ‘liked’ the Quality Internship Charter on Facebook.  This prompted me to email EuroDesk and question why they offered such a low wage if they supported the work that the EYF carried out in promoting quality internships.  The reply I received was that EuroDesk, as a non-profit organisation established under Belgian law, followed the ‘Convention d’immersion professionelle’.

The ‘Convention d’immersion professionelle’ is used by Brussels based organisations when hiring an intern.  Unlike an employment contract, this Convention is not concerned with the provision of services by an employee and subsequent payment for these services, but instead with the training that the intern receives by being ‘immersed’ in the work of the organisation.  The level of ‘compensation’ provided to an intern is set in this Convention – for anyone over 21 (the majority of graduates) this is set at a minimum of 721.80 Euros, though there is nothing to stop organisations paying more.  For comparison the European Youth Forum pays their interns 1441 Euros per month.

The issue with this, as with all unpaid/low paid internships, is that even though it may be legal (which is in dispute in the UK, at the very least), it is not necessarily ethical to pay such a small amount.  There seems to be a disturbing growth in the number of individuals and organisations taking advantage of the high graduate unemployment rate by recruiting unpaid or low paid interns.  John Caudwell, a British billionaire businessman said recently that minimum wage should be lowered to encourage more employers to hire younger staff.  I do wonder if John Caudwell would be able to live off the current minimum wage of £6.08 an hour, never mind less than that.

Furthermore, as I pointed out to EuroDesk, it is not particularly beneficial to them, by depleting drastically the talent pool from which they can recruit.  This position had 545 applicants.  There are certainly other factors which would limit the number applying (namely language skills) but I have applied for many jobs in Scotland, with a population of approximately 5 million, which have had over 250 applicants.  EuroDesk, advertising to the whole of the European Union, with a population 100 times the size of Scotland, managed only slightly more than twice as many applicants.

EuroDesk have been mentioned here because I have had a recent experience with them, but this issue is not limited to them.  Organisations across the UK and wider into Europe, detriment individuals who cannot afford to support themselves while working as an intern, but they also negatively impact themselves by severely limiting who they can recruit from.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that those individuals who can afford to cover the costs of their internship are not the best person for the job, but until we start paying interns a fair wage, we will never know.

Is there too much hypocrisy when it comes to internships?  Organisations, politicians and charities frequently come out against internships or low paid work, but use unpaid/low paid interns themselves.  Do you have examples of where this has happened? 

Comment below or tweet me over @InternSiobhan